JINYA Ramen Bar - Bellevue — Restaurant in Bellevue

HmmMM spicy vegan ramen and panna cotta -

Food: 4 stars Service: 4 stars Ambiance: 3 stars Price: 3 stars Overall: 3.5 stars

We came here a bit before 6pm but there was only one group of customers. We sat down and ordered quickly. The menu looks the same as last time since they got a new owner back then (it's been a while though).

I got the spicy creamy vegan ramen ($19.8) with low sodium, and hubby got the Jinya Tonkotsu black ($19.8) with low sodium and firm noodles. I ordered the vegan ramen because it's the #1 most ordered on door dash for some reason... I need to find out why it's popular!!

Our food came after 10 minutes, and they look good. I initially thought the broth was too spicy, but the more I eat it and mix the soup, the less spicy it gets. In the end, I enjoyed the broth a lot. Though I was hoping it'd come with meat instead of tofu since I don't think tofu goes well with ramen, and I also wish my noodles were a bit more firm as well.

They took a while to redeem my dessert plate for my birthday, but they have good attitude and I really didn't mind waiting. They also made sure I got points for our food today as well.

The dessert plate was the panna cotta with a chocolate mochi ice cream (est. $9.25). I didn't really care about the mochi ice cream, but the panna cotta was good. The caramel cream sauce was a bit too sweet but not overwhelming. I enjoyed it a lot.

They started to fill up when we leave around 6:30 pm. I think this is a good dining experience and definitely sign up for their loyalty program if you haven't already. I believe their ramen is more expensive than other places, but the dessert plate was good.

Disappointing yuzu shio [Update from June 2025] -

Food: 3 stars Price: 2 stars Service: 2 stars Ambiance: 3 stars Overall: 2.5 stars

It's super strange but this side of the mall have really slow business, so it's something when this place lasted so long despite management changes several times.. their menu seems slightly different again from the last time I came here.

My husband ordered the JINYA tonkotsu black for $20 and I got the chicken yuzu shio delight for $20. The prices are higher than other places by a dollar or two. We asked low sodium for both bowls, and his was fine. Mine barely had any yuzu taste. The soup also wasn't very refreshing like the one from kizuki. The portion wasn't particularly big to reflect the $1 or $2 difference from other places either, so it was quite disappointing. I think the vegan ramen I had last time was much better, and this one just made me never want to come back again. I guess I will go elsewhere for shio ramen, such as kizuki or santouka.

Overall the dining experience was fine, we finished eating in less than 30 minutes and the ramen came out fast as they don't usually have much business before noon on weekdays. However, the waiter gave us the bill but never checked on us even though I put down my cc right in front of his face. I went to the bathroom and it's still not touched, so I had to wave him down for it. I'd say the service is also lacking as well.

I guess we will come back in a year to see how things are if they can keep...

There's a lot of competition for ramen on the east side so this is reviews hinges on on comparisons to other ramen in the area. For me to be impressed you need to be better than other locations that are close by in the bar is set pretty high.

First of all the service was excellent, our waitress was very attentive and pleasant. Ambiance is good, typical of what you might find in ramen restaurants lots of wood tables, mid lighting, and booths. There's only booths on one side of the restaurant. If the restaurant was crowded I'd be a little disappointed if I didn't get a booth. They allow for a lot more privacy than the tables on the other side.

When we visited the restaurant was rather empty right around 6:00 p.m. with just one other person in the restaurant. The menu is pretty diverse. The prices go up quick when you add on extras to your ramen. For a family of three it cost us over $100 which is about $40 above what we usually spend at comparable ramen restaurants in the region.

All that stuff aside, your here for the food. While it was good, in the grand scheme of other ramen restaurants in the area it was just 'okay.' My spicy ramen wasn't so spicy and was served lukewarm. My wife and daughter got the got the wonton ramen and they were also not very impressed. They added on Shrimp wontons and this is where the price really ballooned. Two seaweed salads and gyoza bumped bill over a cool $100. My daughter did comment that this is the best gyoza as she's ever had as it was almost like dumplings. Very juicy. Personally I like my gyoza crispy and again these were just okay.

Later the evening my stomach was really bothering me as well. I didn't really have food poisoning or anything but it was definitely unhappy for a couple hours. Overall compared to the other ramen restaurants in the region this one just doesn't quite stack up. Combined with the price we probably won't go back...

OVERALL: I would definitely visit again but when its not as cold outside!

INTERIOR: Small interior space but clean and simple. I can imagine this place getting pretty crowded and having a good wait time. We go there around 1pm and there were a few tables open so we got seated immediately.

The worse part about this experience was every time someone would open the door, which was about every 5 mins, it dropped the restaurant tempt to a toast 37F. Needless to say, we sat, we ate, and we left.

STAFF: Very minimal interaction with the staff so its hard to say they were overly friendly or helpful. When we got seated, someone brought water immediately which is great. After a few mins, a waitress came over and took our order. Other than that, we didnt get checked on until we were done and they asked if we wanted the check.

FOOD: The food was tasty and came out quick which was a huge plus since I didnt want to stay in the restaurant long due to the constant influx of cold air coming from the outside.

Spicy tuna taco: This was a back up order since they didnt have the spicy salmon taco available. Good crunch to the taco and good flavor of the poke. Chef's special: Kaarage ramen: Broth was flavorful and the kaarage wasnt completely soft from sitting in the broth. The only change would be to swap out the thin noodles it comes with to the thicker ramen noodle. Tonkatsu spicy: Broth was very good, the chashu had a good braise and good amount of fat. I wish the slice was a little bigger as this is the smallest piece of chashu i've been given in a ramen. I loved the thicker ramen noodle it came with. I am very surprise the lack of topping it automatically gets included. You can obviously add extra topping for a fee but wish it...