Fou Fow Ramen — Restaurant in Amsterdam

I've been to the other Fou Fow location before and had the most delicious tonkotsu ramen. This time, it turned out to be the worst experience! We ordered four tonkotsu ramen. The waitress came with 2 tonkotsu ramen and 2 tantan men ramen. After we indicated it was not our order, she shrugged her shoulders and tried to put down the bowls anyway. We insisted this was not the right order and she took away the bowls. She came back again, with the same two tantan men bowls, saying that she could change it, but it would take long before we would get the right bowls. My husband and our friend decided to try tantan men and the waitress offered a free drink. Her initial reaction was a bit strange to bring the bowls back, but ok. Then me and my other friend took a sip of our tonkotsu ramen. The broth was white, but much less creamy then usual and tasted like water. I thought it must've been a mistake, as the last time, the ramen was so delicious. We signaled the same waitress and asked her if there was maybe a mistake with the broth, as last time it was completely different. She looked at us and said she wouldn't know what to do. Instead of going back to the kitchen or proposing a solution, she just stood there, without making any effort. She proposed to put chili oil in, to resolve the broth not tasting like anything. In the end, I had to insist on asking for soy sauce three times, before she brought it. This was such a huge dissapointment and we felt ashamed towards our friends for proposing to come to Fou Fow ramen that night. The waitress could've simply gone and ask the kitchen and we would've been satisfied with whatever answer. Her reaction of proposing chili oil, was the strangest way to solve it. Maybe the kitchen was closing and had no more tonkotsu broth, but they could've just indicated they were sold out and propose another ramen instead, instead of leaving us with this sour taste in our mouth. Never Fou Fow...

Nice selection of ramen and sides dishes. Prices are very reasonable and you can ask for tap water. Location is really good, so you don’t need to deviate a lot from your itinerary. Place is small but they have many tables inside specially for 2-3people. I don’t think it can fit more than 4. Serving was very fast, also nice bc we were on a tight schedule. Toilets were very clean. Review of individual plates: Starters: Meat gyozas are 4 units and veggie gyozas are 5. Gyozas: 4/5. The filling is very tasty and generous amount. 4 starts only bc it said pan fried but only 1 of the gyozas had a toasty side. Very good anyway. Boiled veggie gyozas. 5/5. My friend really liked them. Nasu Dengaku 10/10. Eggplant with miso glace. Really good, we liked it a lot. Ramen Tonkotsu/Miso 4/5: — Stock: nice and heavy. It has flavour but not too strong like others. 5/5 — Noodles: good amount, they don’t get soggy even if you eat slowly 5/5 — Meat: there are many styles to make meat for ramen. This restaurant uses thin sliced pork meat, almost no fat at all. It is not fried (it didn’t looked like it), looked like it was slowly cooked with the stock. Texture was nice, but due to the lack of fat it doesn’t have a very marked flavour. For me 3/5. — Vegetables. Only spinach in the basic ramen, and the good ones like bamboo you need to order as extra (around 1-2€ per extra). For me 2/5. — Egg: not included in the basic format. It was very nice. 5/5 — Amount: basic,classic and special all have the same size, only change is the extra ingredients. Good for the people that is not interested in the extra ingredients or prefer to...

I actually wanted to rate this 3.5 stars, since I already gave 4 stars for Hinata Ramen. Basically, this place is decent but overrates judging from the reviews and crowd.

Arrived on Friday afternoon and was packed. Had to wait about 15 minutes on a waiting list. Service was pretty slow even as the crowd started to lessen. Had to wait almost another 30 minutes for my ramen, after ordering.

By now my expectations were pretty high and I was really hungry. I ordered the classic tonkotsu ramen with extra noodles. The noodles are amazing, really bouncy and chewy and better than Hinata.

However the pork broth was disappointing. The flavour was just alright, and not full-flavoured that one can easily slurp. I place more weight on the broth compared to noodles, so this was a negative for me. Usually pork broth have a stronger flavour than chicken broth, so it's something that I think Hinata's shoyu Ramen with chicken broth beats this. The broth was also not as warm as I'd like, and got cold halfway.

The cha Shu (roast pork) is thicker than I'd expect and required some chew to tear them. Flavour was also lacking. I'm used to Japanese cha Shu being really tender and melt-in-mouth, bursting with flavour. Toppings are standard for ramen.

Price is quite reasonable. Overall, decent ramen and I wouldn' t mind going again as I'd have worse ramen. Just have to lower myself expectations a little as this place is greatly overrated. But Hinata Ramen is better in my opinion even though they don't...