rev:text
| - Not impressed, so far.
Friend and I were excited to try this place as soon as we heard about it and waited until they were officially open to come here for lunch. I had to stalk their facebook to see that they were open all day starting Jan 1 (then changed to Jan 2) from 11AM-10PM. Except I walk in and they tell me they're not open until 12PM. No hours posted on the door, no information on the web. The "cash only" sticker wasn't removed though they now take credit card. The menu is still a wrinkly piece of paper. Seems to me like they really rushed their grand opening, but working out logistics is still understandable.
What I won't be able to look past is their really really mediocre but pricey food. For Pittsburgh, I wouldn't mind paying twice this for a really great bowl of ramen. That, or I love a good valued cheap homey meal. Ramen Bar was neither. My negi ramen had a pretty average shio broth and only a tiny helping of pork and what seemed like scallions cut 2 ways. Notnotnot worth $9 - and that's without some of the toppings I would consider standard (like an egg) that is extra for $1 here. My friend tried the kimchi ramen off of the "specialty" section, which included some things like garlic or curry ramen - interesting twists, but there's not much to dropping delicious store bought kimchi in soup and making it taste great - again, not worth the price. Naturally as kimchi lovers we both liked hers more than mine.
What's REALLY not worth getting, though, is the chicken karaage, at $7, for 5-6 nugget-sized pieces of blandly battered chicken, served alongside iceberg lettuce which took up more of the plate than the chicken did.
The helpings are generous (though it helps if the food were good) and the decor is great. The service was... inexperienced, it seems. At this point, I'm just going chalk many of this up to growing pains. My friend had a much worse impression of the place than I did though, so hopefully next time I'm in town I can actually convince her to see how the place is developing. The potential for a ramen shop in Pittsburgh to succeed is so high, and hopefully Ramen Bar will grow into a great little shop. For now though, they've got a lot of work to do.
|