CHICAGO RAMEN Crystal Lake — Restaurant in Crystal Lake

We had the opportunity to visit Chicago Ramen's newest location in Crystal Lake for their soft open. I'm really glad to see the mall they're in getting new businesses. For some context we have been to 4 other Chicago Ramen/Sushi locations. When we walked in we were seated right away and brought water and menus, the space has counter seating, as well as a few tables in the back enough to sit probably 16 at the tables. Despite the space being relatively small they decorated it well and have enough windows to make it seem open and airy. Onto the food, we ordered the sukiyaki appetizer, takoyaki appetizer, and the shrimp wonton ramen with an egg added. All of the food was delicious and we would definitely order it again. The sukiyaki was ordered with the intention for it to be a smaller entree for one of us and it didn't disappoint, it came with thin sliced beef with onions in a brothy sauce that was savory and slightly sweet, it also came with a ramen egg, spinach, and some pickled ginger, and to our happy surprise came on top of a small square of tofu! The takoyaki was some of the best I've had, crispy on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside without being too loose, even better than another Chicago Ramen location! The shrimp wonton ramen was light and refreshing and perfect for a summer day ramen. It came with a clear broth (I believe a sort of seafood/veggie broth, as it wasn't creamy like a bone broth or hazy like a miso broth), traditional ramen noodles, fresh onion, what im assuming was fried garlic, spinach, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and shrimp wontons. The star of the show however was the staff, we were served by both Jonathon and Terumi, Jonathan was quick and always on his toes as far as making sure we had whatever we needed. Terumi chatted with us and let us know she helped open a lot of the other locations so she is at this location temporarily to help them get settled in. I really hope to meet her again in the future as she was a delight to chat with.

TLDR; We love this Chicago Ramen location and will absolutely be back! The atmosphere, staff, and food all exceed my...

This was hand downs some of the best curry ramen I’ve ever had, and the garlic edamame was also amazing however services was horrible. I went with a friend for the first time(both of us) to catch up and we were the only customers in the building, we were only greeted by what I’m assuming is an employee leaving for the day when we came in and since we’ve never been we stood waiting to be seat as we didn’t see any sign indicating it’s a seat your self (if there is that’s my bad fs) after a few moments we sat, while looking at the menu we were given waters and the employee went back to the corner to talk to a coworker (which I think is 100% fine, if it’s slow like it clearly is I think people are allowed to take a moment I don’t believe in the whole if you have time to lean you have time to clean mindset) we ordered when we realized he was just standing in front of us waiting for our order(didn’t say anything to indicate he was there) we ate they never check on us to see if we needed a refill or boxes, my friend was done so I asked for a box when they finally walked over and they seemed annoyed and instead of giving us our checks they proceeded to work on I’m assuming online orders for the next 20 minutes while we waited. When it came time to pay they came behind the counter and gave us the handheld, as soon as I signed and the Survey popped up, he then proceeded to pull the handheld back and fill it out himself, then did the same thing with my friend. I don’t believe servers need to constantly check on tables or anything but to not even be offered a refill or even check to see if there’s anything else is crazy especially since we were the only two customers. Overall they seemed greatly annoyed that we came in for a late lunch the whole time. Again tho food is amazing but they did not seem thrilled we...

I previously dined in and was very happy with my red miso ramen. However, I got takeout yesterday and had a completely opposite experience. The serving of broth for takeout was significantly less than what I had in person, and my broth had many large fat chunks in it that weren't rendered into the soup at all. The pork belly, noodles, and toppings were all in a separate container, and that pork belly still had ribbons of fat attached, so this wasn't a case of moving an item between containers. It was really unappetizing and I had to take some time to scoop them all out.

Add-ons are also really expensive. $3.50 for corn is a lot when you can buy a whole can for less than a third of that.

I'd absolutely come back in person for just the ramen. The dishes I tried from my friends' bowls (shrimp wonton ramen, beef curry ramen) were delicious. I'd skip takeout and most of the...