Miya Ramen Bistro — Restaurant in Houston

This dining experience was literally throwing money into the trash. I adore ramen. Some of my fondest memories before I moved to this area were going to a local ramen shop.

The food was flavorless, the menu/toppings bland, the venue lifeless and stale, and the restaurant was completely empty. I was the only person seated at lunch time aside from employees taking their break. Completely lacks ramen shop vibes.

I took 3 bites and was craving packaged ramen from my cabinet with some custom additions. I sent back an almost complete order. Their chashu was tough, the broth tasted like lightly salted water, the noodles were overcooked and soft, and they had corn in every menu item. The waiters didn't even accurately describe their services. They had "beef chuck" on their toppings list for some ungodly reason, so i decided to try it and the waitress told me it would come separately. Not only did it arrive in my bowl, it was as abhorrent a ramen ingredient as I anticipated it would be (and $6 for a topping!). I even ordered extra broth to support the beef chuck and they just brought me a bowl of broth despite the beef being in my dish. Not to mention that there were none of the crispy onion topping I ordered to be seen.

This place is not at all worthy of being called a ramen shop. Even as I waited for my ramen I watched as someone came in to order fried rice, and I got to witness the staff discuss how to make this customer's order work in their system and give them a basic Chinese takeout order despite not being the purpose of their establishment. When I raised issue with my food, I waited as the entire staff huddled in a circle on the phone with their manager (not present, and also completely visible to me) to discuss my complaints. I have never seen such an unprofessional display of customer feedback in my life, and I am not some typical Yelper who posts reviews everywhere they go. I decided to just pay my full bill immediately and leave.

This place is an atrocious ripoff of what is an amazing cultural cuisine. I was excited to try a local place rather than drive half an hour for a better experience, but this was a failed attempt. Just go to...

I’m honest with my opinion and will give credit when the credit is due. I’m not hating on this restaurant, but when you’re highly-rated on Google, you really can’t help but expect highly. I should’ve lowered my expectations or read the comments of those who gave this restaurant fewer than 3 stars. Anyhow, I’m giving this restaurant 4 stars because of their service, but 2 when it comes to the quality of food they serve.

Service 4/5: when we went there, we saw a bunch of young ones taking over the services part of the restaurant. It’s probably a summer job, but I really like seeing the young ones learning how to work and giving importance of hard work and the value of money. When we were there, one of kids messed up the orders and the owner/manager was kind enough to fix the problem. It gave me the impression that she’s a good boss/leader. Kudos to that.

Food 2/5: you go to a restaurant to eat and to enjoy your meal. Unfortunately, it failed to deliver. I felt and tasted like the Katsu was straight from the freezer. It was dry and didn’t taste like Katsu at all. We ordered Spicy Misu and the Korean seafood for our ramen. Both didn’t taste like ramen at all. The broth tasted like water with a pinch of salt in my opinion, and they just added ingredients to make it like a ‘ramen’, but it failed miserably. Instant ramen from a grocery store tasted better in my opinion. I have been to Japan and had ramen there, and this by far, the worst ramen I have had in my life (no offense meant, just my opinion). The saving grace for me was the Takoyaki. It was well presented and I thought it was delicious.

I only had a few items in their menu, but I felt like there are far more better Ramen/Japanese restaurants in the area than this, but if convenience matters to you, and my opinion don’t, then you should give this restaurant a chance like we did and decide for yourself whether to come back or not.

PS: I would like to apologize if I offended anyone by my comment (no intentions to do so) but I’m just stating my opinion and...

Ordered the Curry Chicken and Tonkatsu ramen. This place is not very traditional toward the Japanese flavor. You can tell based on the side that come with the dinner special. Zucchini, squash, carrots and broccolis. I ate at Ginger near Northpark and for my Pork Katsu, they served it on top of the rice (rice which was plentiful) in a good size bowl and topped it with curry that has carrots, onion and potatoes. This one has a small bowl of curry dipping sauce with nothing inside. You're dipping your katsu in the sauce like soy sauce. The sauce was ok not bad though. The salad dressing was good, I like the flavor and they were generous with it. It tasted like honey mustard mixed with something else. For the ramen the pork slices were not soft enough to nearly melt in your mouth, which is a sign that it has not been soaking in long enough in the broth. The noodles itself was ok, the broth wasn't bad I thought the flavor was good. Fair warning don't order the Curry Ramen. I ordered it a while back (yes this is my second time here), it was not thick like I thought, the best way to describe it was they just threw in curry powder in a chicken broth and called it a day. The services were not bad nor good. The staff weren't rude per se, but I worked in the food industry before and know enough to come and checkup on the customers after serving and during the dinner experience. None of this happened, which was strange because it wasn't busy when we came and there were quite a few staff hanging around. Nothing eyebrows raising though, they were cordial and not rude. Overall I wouldn't recommend this place if you're used to eating good Japanese food. The price is too high for ok tasting food. If you want good Japanese food for a good price I highly suggest Ginger. Unfortunately they dont serve...