Momosan Ramen Boston — Restaurant in Boston

When I read a few very negative reviews on Google, I should have trusted them. But I was staying at a nearby hotel and it was just right there so I visited for lunch. As a fan of his cookbook and iron chef days, I’m sad to say it was rather disappointing.

I ordered spicy wontons, tonkotsu ramen, and dan-dan ramen, and the overall experience was a rather disappointing one. It made me wonder if Morimoto himself knows what’s going on at his restaurant..!

I am a picky eater and I care for my food a lot, but I have rarely sent my food back to the kitchen. But the tonkotsu ramen here was one that I just could not eat for more than two bites and had to send back. As one of the reviewers said, it had a thick layer of oil on top of the broth. Tonkotsu ramen can be really rich and slightly oily, but not like this. The fat has to be incorporated in the broth (and in some of the review photos, the broth looks more proper). But in the bowl I had, there was a thick layer of oil that was inedible. And the broth underneath lacked flavor. The charshu was too thin, too fat, and too sweet. (More like shaved samgyoepsal, rather than the thick and juicy slice of pork that you should get on top of any tonkotsu ramen) I didn’t like the thick, wavy noodles, either. The mustard green really didn’t go well with anything else in the bowl, and there was too much of it. When I told my server that I could not eat it because it was too oily for me, she was gracious enough to offer me another dish. I got the dan-dan ramen as it doesn’t have the broth.

In another review, someone said how the pork topping on Dan-Dan ramen was cold. Some of the ground pork topping on my bowl was indeed cold. I assume they cook a large batch and keep it in the fridge/ warm it up to serve. But this is really unacceptable even at much lesser, cheaper places. The chili oil in this dish was good, but it was the same chili oil that was poured over on the chili wonton. For $16, it was very underwhelming.

The chili oil wontons were $14. And they seemed like frozen wontons warmed up with pre-made chili oil (which is available on every table) poured over. There were some garlic flakes and green onions, but nothing else. Not even an attempt at making the sauce that should be mixed with the chili oil. Everything I had felt like a result of a very lazy way of running a restaurant with a famous chef's name attached to it. Everything tasted and felt like warmed up pre-cooked/ frozen food.

I have been to many ramen and Japanese restaurants in this country (and in big cities in Asia and Europe), and this one was definitely on a disappointing side. Not the worst food, but definitely one of the really bad ramens and underwhelming flavors in the other two dishes.

The atmosphere is nice, and it has outdoor seating with big tables. It also has a pretty long drink menu, which people might like. It serves as a good hang out spot before and after the basketball games.

It might serve a certain kind of clientele very well. If you want to try something here because you like Morimoto as a food celebrity or if you want a good bowl of ramen, I would not...

I'm sad to say that the quality has really declined here. We were condescended to when asking about the size of the bao order which already put us off, but the main disappointment was in their confused interpretation of "peking duck". Whereas peking duck should have large slices of crispy skin and some moist duck meat, we got the reverse with soggy wet skin over too much fat that didn't render out properly and meat that miraculously came out too dry despite everything else. It was odd to receive tiny Mexican tortillas (instead of the thinner and larger Chinese kind) with the dish and pico de gallo for reason. Also the duck is cut wrong for peking duck. At this point why not just lean into it and call it what it is: a mini BYO duck taco (note: they already have a duck taco dish which I can at least respect because it's not pretending to be something it's not)? Don't make the same mistake as me (and I do blame myself as a Chinese person for ordering Chinese at a Japanese place), but if you do end up getting it, please be open to giving it another try at a proper Chinese place. The second worse dish was the salmon don. If you've ever felt scammed by a grocery store poke bowl with too much rice under too small a portion of toppings, you can pay a little more to get the same experience here if you'd like. The ramen used to be better but this time when we went it just wasn't as good. Maybe too much yuzu in the broth made it go weirdly in the direction of that hot and sour soup you sometimes get for free at Chinese places. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that it was an off day, and for the price, we still can't complain. The karaage was average to above average, it came out hot, and the presentation was nice. You can, however, follow any of the first recipes you see online for it with dark meat if you're curious and end up with something a little better in my opinion; it's an easy dish to make well. The sticky ribs aren't bad either. The sauces do a lot of heavy lifting for both dishes, but thats not necessarily a bad thing, and they're at a price point that's on the high side of still reasonable. I've also had the A5 dish a few times in the past and it's always pretty fun with the hot stone. Hopefully they improve and things will have changed, but I won't be...

Preface: this encapsulates the demise of society. Hub Hall, by definition, houses a variety of businesses with an eye towards community and shared experiences. This outfit does not hold these values in the same esteem as the average Bostonian, and this, my friends, is the crux of this review. Let us proceed. First, we arrived with 6 month baby in hand and were told they would not be open for another 7 minutes. No worries. Caffe Nero, mere inches away, ate up that time, and we returned, two coffees and a solitary croissant (for baby) in hand. Our hostess to be chatted away in a corner, lazily seating us and leaving for minutes to resume what must have been a scintillating conversation. Second, the only item ordered, vegan miso ramen, was unavailable, and when one sushi order was eventually placed, two dishes miraculously arrived. The mistake clearly lay elsewhere, the hostess’s body language screamed. Third, and most importantly, our wonderful hostess, boasting a degree in hOsPiTaLiTy, informed us pointedly that “outside food is not allowed,” suggesting we remove the croissant in our 6 month old’s mouth and place it out of sight, as if the average passerby would look at our sushi and coffee and conclude, this is Caffe Nero. The hospitable hostess harping on house rules hurried to her friend, haranguing. Context: two other staff members idly...