Satori Ramen Bar — Restaurant in Columbus

We decided to visit the Satori Ramen kiosk located in the Downtown North Market, as our daughter was attending a National College Admissions Fair at the nearby Convention Center. We were quite excited to try the Tonkotsu Ramen, as the Satori website indicated that the chef was from Japan and worked at a high-end Michelin-rated restaurant. After ordering the Tonkotsu Ramen, both my wife and I first noticed that the ramen was undercooked. My wife then took a bite of her chashu braised pork, and immediately noticed that it was very undercooked, as well. To be fair, both my daughter’s pork and mine were cooked well. The broth which is described as creamy and rich on the website, was watery and lacked any richness and depth of flavor. To say that we were disappointed, is an understatement.

As my wife was born and raised in Osaka, Japan she is familiar with traditional Japanese Tonkotsu Ramen. Traditional Tonkotsu Ramen broth is made with pork bones which usually are simmered overnight, thus creating a rich and delicious flavor. It was apparent that the broth that was served to us at Satori Ramen was not created in this manner. In fact, the Five-Dollar pre-packaged refrigerated Tonkotsu Ramen that we occasionally purchase at Tensuke Market (a local Japanese grocery store) is infinitely better than what we experienced at Satori Ramen.

As we were in a rush to leave and did not have a great deal of time, my daughter and I who were very hungry just ate our Ramen. My wife decided not to eat her Ramen, as she did not want to risk becoming ill from the undercooked pork. As you can imagine, we will most certainly look to other food options should we choose to visit Downtown North Market in the future.

One could forgive the watery broth and lack of flavor, and just regard their dining experience as simply forgetful. However, the undercooked pork is unacceptable in any restaurant setting. Hopefully, the Chef will try to improve upon this...

I've been waiting for this place for months, checking the status of the grand opening everyday on Facebook, popping into North Market to see the progress, asking coworkers if it's open yet.

And the day finally came, today I ordered a bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen and a Chashu Bun. The stall is definitely the nicest in the North Market, lots of seating, multiple chefs and everything was very clean. I went a few days after they opened, so the line wasn't too bad.

First I tried the Chashu bun while waiting for my ramen. The bun was nice, just a typical steamed bun. But the flavor of mayonnaise overwhelms you (edited: they do use Kewpie Mayo, I incorrectly thought it was American Mayo before. My apologies!), reducing the amount of mayonnaise would be welcome.

Then the ramen arrived. I started with the broth. The best way to describe the broth is melted butter with water. There's no other taste, and my mouth still has a buttery flavor in it. Next, the noodles. They taste like they came straight out of the freezer, way too chewy to be enjoyable. Surely the pork must be good, right? The pork was a pitiful, burnt, slice of meat that no other ramen place would dare present to you. The last piece of note was the egg. The egg was cooked well, like a proper onsen tomago, but it hadn't been marinated like you would expect.

In summary, this is probably the most disappointing restaurant of recent memory, and unfortunately the worst bowl of ramen I've had out of all the ramen places I've visited in America, Japan, Taiwan and China.

I REALLY hope the owners can turn it around, having a nearby ramen place would be the best thing ever and I would love nothing more than to turn this into a positive review, but as it stands, I simply cannot recommend this place over even...

Show up and there are 3 cooks preparing food behind the counter and a sign on the register telling customers they will resume orders at 1:45. I arrived at 1:27 so who knows how long this was going on.

Middle of food rush and they are just turning customers away. At 1:45 there is a line and the cook turning customers away has now resorted to just ignoring them until they leave. Finally an employee comes to the register 10 minutes (1:55) after 1:45 to take orders.

The ramen was basic and unexciting. Watery broth, slightly undercooked noodles, pork belly braised lazily on one side (very fitting), and very few “traditional” toppings. The lack of the egg is what really got me going despite every photo they have shows it as being included.

Such a disappointment in both customer service and the food. If that wasn’t bad enough, this is one of those businesses that will charge you a credit card fee without telling you. It’s not posted anywhere on their menu or register. Honestly, it’s theft. I have cash, I will pay cash, but I use credit out of convenience. If you want to charge people for using a card, show some integrity and honesty by posting it.

Places like this are one of the worst places to spend your hard earned money. I won’t be supporting this place again….if you haven’t...