Oni — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Oni is a ramen restaurant in Old Town on Central. David Gaspar de Alba and Daniel Linver are co-owners who opened Oni as a popup in 2017 before transitioning to a food truck, then finally opening the brick-and-mortar restaurant on May 22, 2020, during which they sold out of ramen within 10 minutes of opening.

Oni’s online menu is a small one with nine appetizers and four entrees from which to choose. The entrees there are the garlic chile noodles, the pecan ramen, the shoyu ramen, and the ribs and noodles. There are nine add-ons that diners can choose to add to any dish. The menu clearly marks which dishes are vegan, vegetarian, or gluten free, which will give diners a piece of mind if they are searching for those options.

The dining-in menu is larger, has more appetizer and entree selections, and is more expensive than what is listed online. Patrons order at a counter up front and get their own water and to-go boxes.

The employee who came up to take our order didn’t ask what we wanted and just stared at us in front of her computer. We just said what we wanted before she swung the screen around to select tip options.

We split vegan shiitake and cauliflower curry dumplings, which were $9 for five extra small dumplings. The dumplings were lukewarm since they had been cooked beforehand.

I had the shoyu ramen, which consisted of smoked pork belly slices, pork bone broth, seasonal vegetables, shiitake mushrooms, a slow egg, chile oil, and leeks. I enjoyed the savory flavor and the smoked pork belly but would have enjoyed some spice to the dish. I also would have liked more of the pork belly slices included. The ramen was $15, which was a dollar more than the online menu price.

Overall, a fine restaurant with a fun ambiance that deals in a lot of pre-prepared food dropped off by bored waitstaff. You’ll be asked if you want to leave a tip for counter service and getting your own drinks. I wouldn’t care about coming back one...

We came through the back entrance because that was the side of the street we parked on. I think restaurants that require you to order from a front counter should advertise that on all of their doors like Tajima in San Diego. Luckily, someone came out and had time to explain how things worked, but I can see how it can be off-putting to guests who go in blind.

The space is cute. It looks like most ramen shops with their murals and dark palette. Seems like they have an okay selection of drinks.

Service was on point. They were patient with us first-timers and answered all of our questions with confidence. The food didn't take long to come out either. We started out with the Steak Tartare, and each ordered a different ramen soup to share. I got the one with the Pecan dashi and my boyfriend got the ramen with the Green Chile dashi. They were okay, but both dishes were missing dimension. I feel like ramen broths are generally flavorful enough that you don't NEED to add anything to liven it up. In this case, I felt like I needed to add a whopping heap of salt/soy sauce, sugar, and spice and I'm not the type of person that heavy-hands my seasoning. I've been craving ramen all week so I was a little disappointed. I think I would've also been disappointed if I had to ask for a bunch of stuff and manipulated the ramen into a completely different dish. I like to try dishes the way they're meant to be so I don't usually dress up my ramen a ton. I will admit that this was my first time having ramen with a nut broth base. I did like my pecan ramen, but I didn't love it. I was impressed however, that they were able to make a decent noodle soup in that manner even though I'm not Vegan/Vegetarian.

Shout out to wherever they get their noodles from because they were the bomb! At least my noodle craving...

I would rate ZERO STARS!!! Yesterday my friends & I went downtown to enjoy the GZA & The Phunky Nomads show. Before it started we wanted to have dinner. I walked into this establishment and received the worst customer service not just from 1 employee but 3. First I walked up to the bar the male employee was nice, he apologized he was new so he had to ask another male employee the questioned I asked. He came back began to answer my question, when all of sudden a female employee walked up interrupted him telling me "what, what do you want" in a rude tone. Then when I tried to speak she rudely cut me off. Then another female employee walked up that was asking me what I wanted in a rude manner too. The first employee interrupted again told me I cannot order a drink unless I ordered food. Then I asked if I sit at the bar order my food while waiting for my order can I order a drink, she had to think about it them rudely said " I guess that will be fine". Then she told me rudely "oh & if you want to order food you have to go over there, stand in line, we don't take any orders at the bar". The new employee looked embarrassed the way she was acting. As the male employee started to speak again she rudely interrupted him again snapping saying "we only have local tequila" quickly pointing towards the shelf, I asked if I could see the bottle closer she seemed so annoyed rolling her eyes. I felt like I was the biggest burden to her by the way she was treating me. She repeated & pointed to the front "That's where you order food'! I walked to the front counter asked for a paper menu to take to my group of friends the employee at the front told me he didn't know where any of the menus were. That's when I decided that they really do not want...