Yujo - Indianapolis Ramen & Boba Tea — Restaurant in Indianapolis

Let me start by saying I usually don’t eat out at restaurants unless the reviews are great or a friend recommends it. Yujo was recommended by Google (I’d like to think we’re friends but it was the reviews, not the Google recommendation that got me through the door).

I’m picky about quite a few things: authenticity, ingredients, flavor, and cleanliness or aesthetics, at the very least.

I’m a great cook (yup, tootin’ my own horn) and I love Asian food, which I’m really good at cooking. Believe you me, I can make a killer bowl of authentic ramen because that’s my intention — authenticity.

That’s the first thing Yujo got right. The taste was so clean & pure that I was transported (in my mind, to my version of a romanticized Japan). I wasn’t wondering what I was eating, I could simply see it and then taste it. Yum!

Which takes us to flavor & ingredients. I don’t eat pork so I had looked ahead at their menu and knew I was gonna get Vegetable Sapporo because all the other bowls have chashu, which is pork, in them. Or at the very least, pork broth (which is traditional for authentic ramen).

The Vegetable Sapporo did not disappoint at all. The star of the show was the Shoyu broth, so much depth of flavor. Lip smacking good. I would’ve been happy with just the broth, that’s how good it was. I added an egg (they’re cooked soft and soaked in soy sauce, probably), it was a nice protein pop of flavor. Standard, it comes with fried tofu, mushrooms, cabbage, red onion, bean sprouts, and green onion. Oh, and a strip of nori and noodles (duh).

My two favorite ramen toppings are bean sprouts and green onion, so it was love at first bite, except... it wasn’t salty enough for my taste. What can I say, I’m a salt person!

The broth, perfectly seasoned by itself but once I actually ate everything together, I wanted more salt, like fish sauce or even a little soy sauce. But like I said, I’m a salt person so I say that’s on me, not the Sapporo.

The noodles were cooked to my liking, plus they sat for a minute while I ate everything else first. Tehe!

I also had a Chicken Bowl. Mmm mmm mmm. Someone said the chicken’s like McDonald’s nuggets. That’s funny but it’s also inaccurate. Yujo’s chicken batter has a nice flavor, there’s something special happening there. It’s subtle but it’s there and better than Mickey D’s for sure. And the crunch of the batter is a nice texture contrast to the lovely short-grain rice that sits below it. I love short-grain rice and it’s hard to find someone who cooks it right. I enjoyed it, the chicken, the rice, green onion, and that orange drizzle of sauce. Right balance of ingredients.

I also ordered vegetable gyoza and let me say, I never order gyoza because I’ve had subpar experiences but Yujo has brought me back into the pan-fried potsticker population (say that five times fast). Turned out to be my favorite thing (although dipping sauce was too salty, yeah yeah, I know self-proclaimed salt person complaining about salt).

Last but certainly not least, I also got the Roasted Oolong Boba tea, without sugar and it was amazing. I may try it with varying amounts of sugar in the future because I will definitely be coming back again and again.

Also, very clean and minimalist design, my favorite design concept. Nice staff, too.

If Yujo is in the business of granting wishes, here’s my list:

1. Have another meat based broth option like chicken or beef because I’d love to try the other ramen bowls, they sound awesome
2. Well, that’s all I could think of actually

Overall, great experience all the way around and I look forward to bringing friends and...

It was a nice day today, well the sun was shining, it was however quite nippy, even still my honey and I decided to venture out. We ran a few errands and hunger kicked in, ramen sounded delightful and we had just crossed 82nd and Meridian when I looked up ”ramen” here on Yelp. Yelp said "girlfriend I got you, turn back around, it's a spot right on 94th and Meridian that has just what ya need." I did a quick check of the menu and photos of course, 3 minutes later we were there. We had for appetizers, fried Chicken which came with a dipping sauce along with gyoza, now unfortunately you can only get pork or veggie Gyoza nothing in between. I don't eat pork but chicken or shrimp would have been spot on, not an option. I enjoyed the fried chicken bites, they were tasty with the dipping sauce. The gyoza was a little flimsy, few were even torn. Definitely needed to crisp up a little more. I had spicy ramen, either I had to settle for the chicken and pork broth or just vegetable, again I don't eat pork so I had to go with vegetable, you also can only have pork or tofu in that spicy ramen you can remove the two and have no protein but you certainly can't add anything else to it. I received a big bowl of ramen which was good, not great. Truthfully a Top Ramen seasoning packet would have helped, or a little chicken bouillon cube. The spice level wasn't intimidating at all. There was plenty of noodles in there, the bowl was deep, I'm sure I took half home. My baby love ordered a chicken bowl, pretty sure the chicken in it was the same as chicken from the appetizer, with a little spicy drizzle. It came with corn, purple onion, green onions and nori over rice, with some type of a spicy sauce. Served cold, I think it's supposed to be that way though. Of course 3/4 of the bowl was filled with rice but my honey enjoyed it nonetheless. A nice quick hot date. Staff was helpful with my questions which is always lovely. No reason for me to rush back, today...

I have never been to Japan but love ramen and have had a lot of it and until I actually go to Japan to try out real ramen and Japanese food, take my review with a grain of salt.

I had the Hokkaido miso ramen, matcha smoothie, fried chicken and 8 piece potsticker.

I really liked the ramen and they give you 3 halves of the soft-boiled egg and it's extremely well prepared, perfect consistency, not too runny or overcooked, it was lovely. This is probably also the ramen shop with the biggest amount of noodles and broth. The taste and texture of both the ramen and broth were amazing. All of the ingredients tasted fresh and well made with a nice balance and shows the chefs are dedicated to their craft. Apparently the owner Paul Yu always wanted to cook ramen ever since he was young and went to study ramen cooking in Japan at Tokyo Ramen Academy! That is dedication. I will definitely return for more ramen. Currently in March 2024, they are also featuring a Jiro style ramen: An iconic ramen style from Japan known for a rich creamy broth, special thick chewy noodles, and an abundance of stir-fried vegetables topped with minced garlic and fatty pork bits.

Potstickers were good and solid but didn't wow me.

Fried chicken were underwhelming. It felt cold and soggy and definitely was not like most other ramen places I have tried. Felt they were more like leftovers from a previous batch.

The smoothie had a bit too much ice and it tasted a bit bland, it was also more expensive than just the flavored tea. Note to self, get a milk tea in the future especially since they don't use real milk and use a milk alternative which is a huge plus for me since I am lactose intolerant. My friend had a taro milk tea and really liked it. They have plenty of...