Neko Ramen — Restaurant in Paris

As someone who just flew in from an Asian country filled with restaurants opened by famous Japanese chefs, this Neko Ramen serves food that is an affront to Japanese cuisine. The chefs obviously never had any Japanese food before, nor any training in Japanese cuisine.

The ramen is disgusting, the tonkotsu broth is definitely just water with seasoning with no pork or pork bone ever touching it.

The noodles are not even ramen, but cheap yellow noodles that somehow reminds me of instant noodles.

after 30 years of authentic Japanese food, this is the first time I see carrots used. What happened to daikon?

I don't even want to attempt describing the vile vegetable they use to colour the bowl. I see others around me all discreetly removing the vegetables and hiding them in napkins.

The gyoza is NOT A gyoza. It is a monstrosity made by someone who has never had gyoza, then try their best to skimp on ingredients and make it taste bad. Where is the meat? What's the gyoza sauce? Which chef would think that all black sauce are automatically shoyu? Why is there more skin than the tofu filling?

The collab burger tastes almost acceptable. The karage inside taste almost authentic, and the Japanese curry tastes just like the instant curry they sell in the Japanese supermarkets. Thank goodness for that, as I found nothing else palatable. Then again in Paris where good bread is everywhere, they managed to find poor bread, and cut it poorly for the burger.

I didn't order the fried soba/udon, but i can see the table next to me struggling to eat it. (See photos from others) it must taste disgusting. How can it look so bland? The kid whose mom ordered that for her must have done something really bad to deserve such abuse. Even then, children don't deserve such abuse.

The staff are all Filipinos, and they make off hands remarks in tagalog about customers just because they don't think anyone can understand them.

How can the French or anyone even call the food good? Even someone who lost all sense of taste from covid would be reviled by the food.

Reply to the chef and owner: When the chef can't even tell that he's using wrong noodles for a ramen, or don't even know what a tonkotsu broth is, or what a gyoza is, or what a gyoza sauce is, it is hard to imagine that the chef actually knows what authentic Japanese food is. A self respecting ramen shop takes at least 12 hours to make the broth. A bad one takes 6 to 8 hours. You start at 7am to make the broth for 10am...

A very cozy place in the middle of le Passage Verdeau. The ambiance is nice and I loved sitting outside in the corridor. We ordered the karaage, the yakisoba, a tonkotsu ramen, a shio ramen and a katsudon. For drinks, we had the yuzu highball and the neko blossom.

When we got the food, we were all impressed by the presentation. Nice and colourful, all very inviting.

The highlight was for sure the karaage. Big and juicy pieces of chicken with a nice mayo sauce with some cabbage. Plus, we loved the yuzu highball and the neko blossom, both very flavourful. Those are the three things I highly recommend!

The shio ramen was light and tasty. The chicken was also on point. The yakisoba was pretty good, but the soba felt overcooked(?) so the noodles were soggy. Not a big deal really. The katsudon had a nice taste.

Finally for the tonkotsu ramen. I came with high expectations considering the chef seems to have studied in Japan. The broth lacked the distinct sweet or umami taste that tonkotsu ramen should have. Instead, it was just salty. The noodles didn’t really feel like the ramen noodles I’m used to. Instead of chewy, it kind of just breaks down after every bite. And for the porc, I guess it’s my fault for expecting chashu because that’s what usually comes with tonkotsu ramen. Instead, I got pieces that lacked the soy sauce/mirin/sake marinade taste. On the other hand, it was well cooked. I’m sure that the menu was adapted to the french palate so I don’t want to say that it was bad, just not to my liking I guess. I’m only speaking by what I experienced in Japan and all the ramen locations we have back home in Montreal, which were also made by Japanese chefs (and were closer in taste to Japan).

Bref, very reasonable prices for the quantity that we got and quick service. We were all well satiated by the end...

I went to this restaurant twice, and was cautious both times; I was right. I will get the good out of the way: the prices are cheap. Now for the rest.

On the first time, I got karaage and the tonkotsu ramen The karaage was pretty good, not great but hood. The cabbage salad accompanying it had a very nice sauce. The soup was.. bad to be honest. Wayyy too thick and lacked meaty flavor, and had a weird flavor too. It was also kinda dark yet lacked salt and umami. I usually like tonkotsu and this was Not it. The noodles were chewy but not springy, almost doughey? The presence of parsley is questionable, I am not sure if it improves or worsens the taste (though at this point it probably shouldn't be the first of their worries) The egg is okay, I like a very good egg but this was not it, wouldn't get it if i went again. The chashu had a great charred flavor but lacked in salt, like the rest of the bowl.

The second time, I ordered the gyozas and the vegan shoyu ramen. The gyozas looked very pretty but were also way too big to eat comfortably. For the taste they were average. The soup had a pleasant mouthfeel but lacked in flavor. You could taste some good notes but it was just lacking somewhere, it felt hollow. At least this time there was enough salt and umami. The noodles had the same problems. The fried lotus roots were very good! The mint was surprising and worked well. Now why is there parsley again and.. wallnut??

In the end i cannot recommend this place. I had heard some good things about it and ended up disappointed (well at least the second time i knew what to expect). Not giving it one star because some things were good and the...