Don't come hungry.
We passed by Ryoji so many times and were always tempted to go in. I mean it looked great! Nice decor, classy looking, and well-located.
So we went in finally to give it a go. From previous Yelp! reviews it seemed like a reasonably priced, good quality izakaya and ramen place. But when we opened the menus and saw the prices, we were perplexed. It turned out that the owners of the restaurant had decided that same day to do two things that spell suicide for a restaurant that's not THAT popular: (1) increase the prices (2) decrease portion size.
I'm not sure what they were thinking as the restaurant at 8:30 maybe had like 12 people in there, including us. For a place that is quite large it was virtually empty.
Listen, it was date night and we were hungry so we ordered what we thought would be a decent sized meal, but when we got our plates I could only think of that scene in Demoltion Man where Sly Stallone and Sandra Bullock go to future Taco Bell, pay a fortune and get big plates with artfully plated crumbs. I couldn't resist aping Stallone's quip, "Good thing I'm hungry!"
Generally speaking the "Tapas" they served were plates smaller than the beer coasters atop which stood the only correctly portioned selections: our pints of Asahi Beer.
Food:
The Red tuna Sashimi was tiny, wrapped in a superfluous daikon tube, and flanked by a sort of yuzu pesto and a flower. Fancy pantsy but we had to get a few more things. However, at an average of $16 per dish, with the most expensive one being the kobe beef "steak" at $35 it became a game of "which plate is worth it?" The answer: None of them. I am a growing lad so I ordered a Momofuku priced bowl of Tonkotsu ramen as a staple as I daintily nibbled at our selection of the Tofu dish in "Ryoji sauce" (which I think was some sort of sugary syrup made from natto), the tuna (as above), the fried chicken, and to finish off, the walnut creme brulée.
The tuna was delicate and nice but the potion was laughable, even by izakaya standards. My companion left hungry.
The Tofu was nice but nothing to write home about.
The fried chicken was just fried chicken with some sort of sweet/umami seeping from the skin. Served with tartar sauce. Tartar sauce??
The creme brulée was cold everywhere. I didn't mind that much but my companion, who is a brulee fanatic had to wonder why they didn't heat it up in a bowl of water as many do, then torch it right before serving.
Finally the ramen. My god the ramen. At first I was satisfied as the broth was delicious, better than Momofuku's at the very least. But once I got to the ramen part, as in the noodles, it was downhill. They were overcooked, as was the chashu - in fact it was fatty and falling apart. The garnishes didn't do much to save the bowl and in general it was quite suspect. Of course I finished it, being the hungry fat bastard that I am, but that appears to have been a grave mistake. I don't know whether it was the chashu, the egg, or the soup as a whole but it didn't agree with me and I was up all night, sick and in pain, while my companion who had eaten everything I had that night, with the exception of the ramen, was fine if not a little hungry afterwards. So logical deduction would place the blame squarely on the ramen. I normally have a pretty strong stomach so this must have been something "special" to wreak such havoc on my system.
I know it's like a kiss of death to even suggest that a restaurant's food caused any kind of physical illness, but I have to call it like it is.
Service:
This review would have been a 1-star had it not been for the service. The best part of our meal was our server who was courteous, personable, informative and attentive.
Ambiance: "Hey, let's pump loud electro music in a mostly empty restaurant because, Little Italy!"
Price/value:
Way, way, WAY, overpriced for what you get. I've eaten at better places in the more affluent downtown core, and gotten better value and food. For 3 tiny dishes and ramen with two beers (which were on special for $5 per sleeve), parting with ~$80 is just not great value.
I'm not sure Ryoji understands what part of town they are located in. Perhaps in their research they see that Momofuku charges quite a lot (especially at Daisho and Shoto) and figured people are willing to open their wallets for tiny snacks and pretense. But this ain't the Shangri-La hotel, it's little Italy and a basic rule of running a successful restaurant in a mostly residential neighbourhood is to have local regulars. To do that you either need something truly unique in atmosphere and quality (i.e. La Carnita) or you need to give some great bang for the buck, as any of the numerous Italian joints can tell you.
An empty restaurant is a death knell in this case, because its telling of something that the locals seem to know from word of mouth. Perhaps the high price per plate is their way of trying to pay for the extremely nice decor?