Red 8 Kitchen — Restaurant in Columbus

I enjoyed my first visit here. We went at lunch time and there were quite a few people there, but the service was still pretty fast. The food here is maybe 3.5 overall, but taking into account the service, I would rate it at 4 stars.

My husband and I split a pork bun as an appetizer. It tasted pretty good, but I was quite surprised that it was served cold. I felt like the bread should have been warm when served. It seemed like it was just pulled out of the fridge. So I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

My husband had the karaage chicken ramen. It was very tasty. The noodles were thicker than regular ramen, but still quite good. The broth was a little unfortunate. It tasted like someone dissolved some chicken bouillon in water and was quite yellow in color. In my experience cooking, chicken broth from scratch does not naturally turn that color. Again a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I had the Tonkotsu Black Ramen. I am of the opinion that a ramen place should be judged by their Tonkotsu and while this was not exactly bad, I think it could be much improved. First of all, there were only two very thin slices of Chashu on the ramen. I felt that this was rather stingy. I expected more meat. Also, the tonkotsu ramen l came with very thin noodles that didn't taste quite right. They didn't have the right texture for ramen noodles. They seemed more like somen noodles than ramen. The broth was too salty. This is the first time I have ever had to leave the broth when eating ramen. I read a few previous reviews saying the broth was too bland, but I think that they overcorrected in the opposite direction. The black garlic oil had a really good flavor, so I liked that. The seasoned egg was also very good. Overall, I think a 2.5 out of 5 stars. Not bad, but needs improvement. I might order it again, but would request the thicker noodles instead of the thin ones and maybe a cup of hot water to thin out the broth.

I enjoyed the restaurant. The service was good, the food was decent, but as I was just told I need to work on my cholesterol, Mizu Ramen Bar will be a rare treat for me rather than a regular occasion.

2nd visit: Chicken Wonton Ramen. Bland. Very bland. 2 out of 5. I have made better wonton ramen by throwing a few frozen wonton in with a pack of Maruchan. Spicy Tan Tan Ramen. Asked for mild. It was still very spicy. My husband likes spicy and even he said that it was too much throat burn. The crispy chicken appetizer was...

I came for lunch yesterday around 2pm ish with a friend. The place was extremely busy. The hostess ask if we wanted to sit at the bar. My friend and I were hesitant then the hostess says “that’s the only seating we have right now.” Wanting to try the ramen, we take the seats.

When the hostess said bar, I thought she meant one serving like wine or something. We sat in front of the cooks but we couldn’t even see them cook like you would at Fuji’s. My and friend and I was hit by sauce coming from the cooks several times. I had on all white. She even had to tell a cook that he was slinging sriracha.

The manager took our order, I knew it was the manager because he on a dress shirt. He didn’t give me his name. I didn’t know we had a server until a nice man came behind me and asked if we’ve been helped. I told him I liked his nails then I had to ask for his name, which is Cody. We only saw him a couple times, though.

I eat plant based most times. They only had two vegan options and they charge for all add ons. I considered getting a shrimp dish but the broth is a chicken/pork broth. I don’t eat either of those and you don’t have the option to choose veggie broth. My friend got shrimp and it still had boo boo in it.

We weren’t given silverware with our food. We had to ask someone passing by for that. He only gave us chopsticks. My friend has a hard time with those so we had to ask another man for forks. We had napkins at the end of the bar but someone moved them to the other end. We had to ask for more.

When we asked for the check we received one totaling about $28. The manager then comes back about 5 minutes later with a different check totaling about $49. He apologized. We asked for togo drinks, sprite with no ice and sweet tea ice. Cody brought us a sprite with ice and an unsweetened tea with ice. We told the manager. He apologized again and said he’d replace my drink. He came back like 5 minutes later and told me they were out of togo drink cups but he could put sweet tea into a togo ramen bowl or something along the lines. I told him not to worry about it.

The ramen tasted good but it was not worth...

I will start with the pros: Gyoza was great, amazing sauce. The noodles in the ramen are great. Atmosphere is good, lighting is poor. The "bus boy" was easily the most intelligent person we interacted with.

We arrived and were seated rather quickly. The host was extremely unorganized, but it is a new restaurant so understandable. We ordered the chicken shio ramen and the spicy tonkatsu ramen(hot) as well as gyoza. The gyoza arrived in a decent time and had we only ordered that and left this might have been a 4 star review. We waited an hour from the time the gyoza came before our ramen. Tables that came in after us received their food before us. The (one and only) server literally never came back to the table until we asked for the check after giving us the gyoza. A very dishevelled man brought us the ramen. I inquired what was going on when he brought a table that came after us their food. His sad response was simply, we are understaffed and they are trying their best. We had watched a lady staffer stand around walking back and forth doing absolutely nothing the entire time we were there. We literally had nothing else to do so we watched with intensity. I believed the dishevelled man to be in charge, but cannot be sure. He should not be, the extreme disregard for customers to at least inform us of the issue means this restaurant will not be here long if he is staying and doesn't change his mannerisms.

Now, the ramen. Do not buy this. Go to walmart and buy shin ramen it is far superior. And from our experience it would be faster to drive there, buy it, bring it home, cook it, and you would be done faster. Ramen is supposed to be all about the broth. The broth was garbage for both. The shio was literally milk water. The tonkatsu was absolutely not a tonkatsu and might as well have been maruchan with half a seasoning packet added. The heat level was literally sriracha. The entire flavor became sriracha. The chasu pork was not worth consuming. The chicken that came with the shio was a thin slice of boiled chicken breast. There is no flavor to be found here. And apparently no...