Nosu Ramen — Restaurant in Golden

The owner, Brandon, was very nasty, rude, and aggressive in loudly barking at my friend and I to step outside when we attempted to order drinks from the bar while waiting for our table. When we were finally seated and quietly attempting to order from a different server, he re-approached our table to loudly and nastily inform us without any initiated interaction towards him if we don’t like his policy regarding orders from the open standing bar tables we can leave. We understand customers not being allowed to order drinks while waiting (though there were multiple available standing bar tables). It is being literally screamed at by the owner with no posted signs or prior communication of this policy that took us both off guard. It is literally the most aggressive and rude encounter I have ever had with a server (let alone an owner) in more than two decades of dining in Golden. We will never be coming back.

Edit: Brandon, there was no disappointment in your policy customers cannot order drinks from the standing bar tables. There was alarm in literally being screamed at without cause. After screaming at us for attempting to order drinks, you then approached our table to literally scream at us again. We put our heads down repeatedly apologizing for our unknown error waiting for you to leave our table. Our alarm regards a volatile owner who screams at customers without provocation. My friend and I both give our deepest sympathies to your staff member who lost her grandmother leading you to have to...

This was our favorite ramen place, but after tonight, we may not be back. We were sat and ordered the soup dumplings and our meal and waited about twenty five minutes only to receive nothing but water. While waiting , we watched FOUR other tables (All of whom arrived after we did ) receive their meals. When our service came back from outside - delivering to a table who also arrived after us , we made eye contact and she knew we were not happy. She said, “It’s coming” and went over to the tablet they use to put in orders. We watched as she puts in our order and she tells the backroom this. We waited five more minutes and still nothing. Just the glasses of water we were given and everyone else in the restaurant who arrived after we did are enjoying their meals. I wished the server would have owned up to the mistake that she forgot to key in our order instead of lying. The situation could have been finessed a bit better. So at this point we just leave and I told the worker at the front why we were leaving and she said oh your food is coming and I said It makes me upset that everyone else got their meals and we couldn’t get an appetizer after 30 minutes. I am appalled at this service because every single time we have ate here, the service was amazing. Don’t get me wrong , the food here is delicious and one of my favorites , but they really let us down tonight. We may or may not eat here again....

I love Abeja's, so I was really hoping Nosu (which has a common owner) would be of similar quality. Alas, no. The service and speed was excellent but the food was sort of a disaster. The bao were not bao, so much as street tacos (with a mayo based sauce that was just wrong). The yaki-udon had undercooked Chinese broccoli, way too much dark sesame oil, and no katsuobushi. A bit like playing what was supposed to be a symphony on just the cello. You really have to love the cello (dark sesame oil) for that to work. And the pork belly ramen was just sad. Corn that had to have come from a bag, green onions that were wilted and beleaguered, and chasu that didn't have enough garlic or ginger in the braise. And the broth was not what one would expect with tonkotsu ramen; it's not what one with expect with any ramen. It was more like a weak sweet-and-sour sauce or something. I hope Nosu survives and thrives but it's gonna need a major retooling of the recipes to ever be worthy of my business again. I'd love to have a really good ramen place in the area but, at the moment, Nosu isn't it.

Edit: I'd hoped that the owner of Nosu might take these criticisms as a basis for corrective action. His reply, below, sort of dashed those expectations. So, for good ramen, it's worth the drive to...