Niji — Restaurant in Cumberland

It’s not easy to create a new restaurant, let alone to operate one. I have lots of respect for people like the Niji folks, who are doing that and trying something new in a small town. Fortunately, Cumberland attracts lots of outsiders who want to eat at attractive and interesting restaurants.

Niji definitely needs some tweaks, however. For one thing, one is assaulted by the noise of the room as soon as one sits down. It is difficult to have a dinner conversation under such circumstances, and Niji hasn’t adequately addressed its small space by softening the acoustics.

I have mixed reviews of the food. The dumplings we tried, which were a special that night, were excellent. The “Korean” wings, however, were smothered in sauce, and the sauce did not taste homemade. It tasted like it was out of a jar.

I agree with other comments regarding the mushy noodles in the soups, which are the restaurant’s main feature dishes. Since the restaurant relies so heavily on these soups as its main courses, the noodles really should stand out. They don’t. But the taste of the soup we tried was good, and with a few changes, it could really become an outstanding meal.

The house cocktails were not great, tastewise. They are anything but subtle and they need attention. Getting water at the table is also difficult, and this is made harder because the water bottles Niji uses are too small, so one has to ask for more water repeatedly. In a busy restaurant, this just makes everything more complicated.

Niji is still tweaking its formula, I’m sure, and even though I didn’t love the experience of eating there, I do see a lot of potential for the restaurant to become a really great...

My girlfriend and I dined at Niji tonight. It took 30 minutes to get our starter—six chicken wings—and about an hour to receive our two bowls of noodles. However, since it’s a newly opened restaurant on a Friday night, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. The service was reasonably good.

We ordered the Tan Tan Noodle Soup, Thai Chicken Soup, and chicken wings with spicy Korean sauce as our starter.

The chicken wings were good, with a flavorful sauce that wasn’t too spicy. Both noodle dishes were presented well. The broth for the Tan Tan Noodle was pretty tasty, but the Thai Chicken Soup was overly sweet, with the coconut flavor dominating everything else.

The biggest disappointment was the noodles. Despite using different types of noodles for the two bowls, both were overcooked and mushy, falling apart when picked up with chopsticks. I ended up eating mine with a spoon. For an Asian restaurant that specializes in noodle dishes, this is a major issue. Haiya!

I might come back to try the Korean cold noodles and the Soba, hoping...

Loved it! We will definitely be back next time we're in Cumberland.

The food was really delicious. We had the special wings which were super crispy and flavorful. I had the chicken soup. It was a very rich broth with the most beautiful (bright pink!) soft poached pickled egg, lemongrass chicken, and lots of veggies. There was clearly a lot of care and thought put into the dish. The little enoki mushrooms seemed to have been marinated before going into the soup as they had a ton of flavor. The presentation of all the dishes was very special as well.

The service also couldn't have been better. We felt so comfortable right away. Our server was so friendly and attentive and made sure we had everything we could possibly need.

Overall this is a lovely little restaurant - great addition to Cumberland's little downtown! Added bonus that it's open Mondays when the whole town seems...