Muteki Ramen & Izakaya — Restaurant in Gresham

My husband and I went to this new restaurant in Gresham. The family that owns this restaurant has several others in central Oregon. I have been waiting for this restaurant to open for 8 months.

The street view of the restaurant offers a warm welcome with its traditional paper-style lanterns hanging from the outside of the building. Inside, the meticulous antique Japanese art prints on the upholstery on the chairs, the feeling of a gate on the walls of some of the booths, the upside-down parasols hanging from ceiling along with silk cherry blossoms, bamboo dividing walls for each booth, and a unique display of what I think are anime figurines, provides a lot of eye candy without being garish.

The staff members, each one of them, are gentle and kind, and well aware of what is in the the dishes that are offered. A conversation with the owner confirmed that other than the noodles, all of the sauces, broths, meats, etc are scratch made inhouse. I had the Black Garlic Ramen and my husband had the miso ramen.

I loved my chestnut cake, a wonderful mousse. There were many dessert choices besides mochi.

They also have unique fruit teas. I ordered a mango lemonade tea. There were fresh mango bits and sliced limes in the chilled green tea. Very refreshing.

The dishes offered reminded us of ramen from one of the the upscale ramen restaurants in our hometown of Round Rock Texas. And, we do not need to go to Portland for an equivalent experience and meal.

Ease of finding a parking place was a plus. There are plenty of street parking spots and two free parking lots within half a block of the restaurant. The restaurant was full by 7 pm, amazing on a sleety night. The restaurant had been open for only 9 days.

I hope the success of this restaurant will encourage other sit down restaurant.owners to discover Gresham, especially when parking is readily available and less than a half block away. And free.

We will...

I have been anxious to try this restaurant since it had opened recently, and was excited that it is only a few minutes away from me. Normally you would have to drive out 25-30 minutes to get good ramen. I honestly did not have any high hopes for this place based off of their menu online. Chinese dim sum items on the menu (also misspelled) and very uncommon ramen flavors like beef and Korean jjajangmyeon screamed red flag and inauthenticity. I had the Tantanmen and my friend had the "Gyukatsu." The noodles in our ramen were clearly from instant dried noodle packages. They were very overcooked and gummy as well. Broths in both ramen had a very strange flavor; no signs of complexity or anything being house made, almost as if the soup is from powdered bullion. Chashu pork in the soup was so thick and tough. Very disappointing at almost $20 a bowl. I'm sure they try to disguise their low quality gross ramen with huge portions. We always take our leftovers, but not after that meal. There was no actual pork ramen (tonkatsu) on the menu, which is typically the number 1 ramen at a ramen restaurant. We also ordered takoyaki, which was surprisingly good, but it's not a takoyaki restaurant. If you've ever actually had good, authentic ramen, you will not like this place. Save your money.

I would much rather drive the 30 minutes and suffer the terrible parking than...

Staff is friendly enough, but not outgoing. Food comes out quickly Checked on once shortly after all food came out but later didnt check in or offer refills, it got a little busy.

Ordered gyoza (3/10) karaage chicken (5/10) Chicken yakisoba (5/10) and the house Ramen #10 (8/10) Appetizers came out fast, gyoza was cooked okay, very bland, the dipping sauce saved it a little. Karaage chicken had a wonderful flavor, little sweet, very unique. The pieces of chicken were either soft and juicy or hard to chew, tough pieces of meat. They were cooked very good though nice crispy and hot. Chicken Yakisoba was just too oily. Everything tasted fresh but towards the end of the bowl it was really oily noodles and veg so I didn’t finish. House Ramen, husband said was very good and just what he needed. His only critiques were the meat could be cut thinner to have a better mouth feel, and he would have asked for more fish cake if he knew he’d only have 1 piece in his whole bowl (pictured) but the ramen was cooked perfectly and the broth was rich and flavorful. I regret not...