The ramen is probably the best in Madison. Light years ahead of Umami and its underachieving step-brother Tavernakaya. It's all down to their noodles, however. Very chewy and full if not quite a bit too short in length. Ultimately, the other components in each bowl are average. It's a salt ramen, and I really wish it were a tonkotsu broth instead. Dudes at the noodle bar were aghast that I could possibly ask if tonkotsu were an option. No, clearly the chef has made his or her mind up!
Ultimately, I think a miso ramen is great if you have 100% bang on ingredients, but those are hard to come by in Madison it seems. Perhaps if the chef took advantage of all the tasty pork and beef around it might be easier to make a coherent tonkotsu bowl. For now, it's still the go to place if I can convince myself to pay moderately exorbitant prices for above average ramen.
Lastly, props to attempting a noodle bar. It's pretty cool. But clearly you're missing the key component of having the people BEHIND the counter serve the food up. The noodle bar is for fast in, fast out. I don't want to deal with a server who comes and goes and takes forever because they effectively have TWO restaurants to deal with. I know you can figure out a better way! And if you pull it off, maybe people other than myself will want to sit there.