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| - I've never really hit up the Ramen scene yet, even though it seems to be taking over everywhere. This place was brand new to town, Sakanaya has been around a while, but decided to give this place a try at a friend's request.
First of all, having no exposure to the ramen scene, I expected to walk in and find prices for food to be 4 or 5 dollars for a bowl of ramen. After all, you can get a cup ramen for 25 cents, so a reasonable upcharge on upscaling a cheap food item, I was thinking 4 or 5 dollars. So as you can imagine, walking in and seeing prices in excess of $12 or $13 dollars sort of took me by surprise. I almost decided to leave right there seeing as dinner for two was going to set me back 30 dollars with tip, and 30 dollars for ramen? Chipotle or Five Guys would be a better investment, value to deliciousness ratio.
Still, this being my first exposure to ramen, I guess it was educating to find out that everyone is upcharging this much. I don't know what the possible overhead could be on some of these items. A simple bowl of ramen in excess of 10 dollars... there had better be a side of cucumber salad, a 6 piece California maki, and some green tea included or something, alas no... it was just the ramen.
So on the merits of value, this places gets a 3/10. I don't feel as ripped off as when I go to a tapas place, or go to GT Fish and Oyster in Chicago (where I feel as though they take my money, my clothes, my dignity, and my self respect, and in return, they give me two oysters that taste like freezer burn thawed dressed up snot balls). But if this is to be a regular joint for me to visit, value's gotta be upwards of a 7 or 8 out of 10 value. And in today's economy, I'd argue it's that simple. Keep it affordable, and I'll continue to come around.
My wife got the kalbi ramen, good choice. I decided to make myself feel less ripped off and went for something simple, chicken teriyaki, to see how this place would spin a beloved classic.
My wife's ramen was actually pretty dang good. Some insider information has informed me that the cooks have been doing it for 3+ decades, and know what they are doing. Ramen noodles are of the highest quality, and the broth is not overly seasoned needlessly.
What surprised me the most was the quality of the kalbi she had. It wasn't garbage meat that you pick up in the "unknown meat" section of the super market, but it was a high quality melt in your mouth giant piece of kalbi. Really good. The additional fixings in her ramen were less than remarkable. Where I praise the quality of the kalbi, and the ramen noodles themselves, the broth though it tasted good, was extremely greasy. A flash refrigeration cycle to get the fat solidified on top, then skimmed, and reboiled wouldn't hurt in their food prep procedures.
After only a few spoonfuls of the broth, I felt like my face was oozing garlic and someone had put sesame oil on their hands, and rubbed it all over my face. So, probably some of the prep process can be improved over all there. A fat skimming refrigeration of the broth would go a long way.
The chicken teriyaki I got was unremarkable. Surprised since it cost I think $8 or $9. I was expecting a sizable portion and a bunch of fixings to balance out the chicken, but no, just salad, rice, and the chicken. Even after adding in overhead and paying people, justifying $8 or $9 for that is pretty unheard of. From a taste perspective, it was just standard. I'd go as far as to say it lacked inspiration or imagination, and more enjoyment could have been realized from baking plain chicken at home, and pouring store bought teriyaki sauce on it. Perhaps a bit harsh there.
On the merits of taste in general, the place gets a 6/10. The savior was the ramen (as expected).
From a service perspective, the people were great, polite. I did feel as though once I had paid, I was dead to the hostess, and any further dealings with me would be a waste of her time. For being someone who has no idea about the ramen scene, I was expecting her to tell me what to do, or what to expect, where I can get my food, or who will be delivering it to my table, etc. So I picked up some napkins, and some plastic utensils, not having any idea what to expect.
All of a sudden the cook yelled out a number. Having no idea what was going on, I sought the receipt that I had crumpled up into my pocket, only to realize that I'm supposed to get my own food. That's totally fine of course, except for the fact that no one told me how anything worked. So for 30 seconds, the cook continued to yell out a number and got increasingly upset. My bad, I didn't know! Merits of service. 3/10.
Final thoughts. Cost doesn't justify volume of food, and just "ok" taste. Probably a once every 4 years restaurant for me. Sakanaya will probably be no better. We'll see.
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