Modu Ramen — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Hyped-up, but not quite hitting the mark.

Modu Ramen is set up with a visually interesting concept—a fusion of Japanese and Korean décor with semi-private booths, bold signage, and a self-service ramen bar in front. However, the layout doesn’t seem fully functional. Despite having the cooking station upfront, there’s no way to order directly there, so diners carry their ramen from the booth to cook and back again—likely for the novelty, but it feels inefficient and confusing.

Seating is tight—the booths are laid out with narrow walkways and oddly placed chairs that are perpendicular to the booths. We even saw a cart carrying food bump into a chair, causing a chicken wing to fall off. Unclear if it was replaced, but it wasn’t reassuring.

Food:

Appetizer: Korean Chicken Wings – A letdown. Not double-fried, just basic wings with gochujang spooned on and garnished with green onions. Honestly, you could recreate this with Publix wings. Wouldn’t recommend.

Tsukemen (Spicy Level 10/10) – The broth was flavor-packed, umami-rich, and had a real spicy kick. Easily the highlight. But the noodles were stuck together from sitting out too long, and the soup had developed a skin layer, with the nori flopped over. It felt like the dish had been prepared too early and left out while the rest of the order was completed. A shame, because flavor-wise it was excellent.

Tonkotsu Ramen – More standard but also had solid broth. Freshly made and much better in presentation and temperature than the tsukemen.

Mango Cheesecake Bingsoo – Visually underwhelming. Expected a bowl like the promotional photos, but was served in a boba-style plastic cup. Thankfully, they used actual shaved milk ice, not crushed ice, so the taste and texture were on point—but the portion and presentation didn’t justify the price.

Environment & Cleanliness:

Uncomfortably warm inside—no or weak AC made it stuffy, especially while eating hot soup.

Restrooms were disappointing: dirty, no soap, barely any hand sanitizer in the women’s room, and none in the men’s. This raises food safety concerns.

Staff:

The staff was fantastic—friendly, responsive, and helpful throughout the visit. No complaints there.

Overall:

There’s a lot of potential here with the creative concept and flavorful broths, but the execution, cleanliness, and ambiance really drag down the experience. With a few key changes, this place could live up to its hype—but as of now, I left...

The first time I went it was okay. It was during the day. I never used the bathroom or anything. The service was really good and we came back with our family which has two young kids and one teenager on a Saturday night I should have left right when our server got. Had the reaction of getting another table but they sat. He didn't seem thrilled to be working at all. My daughter said she had to go to the bathroom. The women's bathroom was disgusting and there was no toilet paper. There was no soap the food which we mainly just got the wings. They weren't very crispy like they usually are so it was definitely a different cook or everybody was just having an off day. But what got me the most was I felt like the server took advantage of me having my kids that I was trying to deal with and Duca to-go boxes. I did not even get an entry for myself, one of the adults so really there was only two entries but looking at the receipt I did not want to give a tip but I'm not a no tipper because I used to work in the industry so I gave a tip based on the total which underneath had another receipt that I looked at the next day and they had already put an 18% tip on it. So this person that did a really crappy job that did not want to be seated got a $40 tip that they did not deserve and at the bottom it says that parties of five. I've just never counted children under the age of of seven or 10 for that matter as a part of the party for them to put on the bottom of the receipt that parties of five or more people will already have a tip included and to speak to a manager if you have a problem with it I did not know to look because I've never had one of my kids count count as a person so I know they're going to say that I should have read the receipt but he also gave it to me while I was dealing with young kids and trying to get stuff boxed up. So I feel like this place took advantage of me and it was dirty so of your bathroom and everything else looks the way it is no toilet paper, no soap. I don't want to know what the kitchen looks like. We will not be coming back and I was planning on doing a gathering for a brunch with my girlfriends. I wanted to try it because we saw it on Facebook but after this experience...

As we were passing through Jacksonville heading south I jumped on Yelp and Google to see what ramen shops were around since we were craving some good ramen. I found a couple different choices but ended up picking the one further south of the city since we didn't want to get stuck in traffic and I'm happy to say that I was very satisfied with my decision. Modu Ramen is a mom and pop place where the chef himself handmade all the furniture but most importantly homemakes all the ingredients that go into the ramen. The menu is simple yet has something for everybody (substitution are available). I figured we would try a little appetizer first so we got some Veggie gyoza (my wife choice), they were crunchy and delectable with their little dipping sauce. We went on to order a bowl of spicy shoyu and a bowl of tonkotsu with a side of homemade spicy sauce. The tonkotsu broth was mild and the pork was very tender and salty which balanced the ramen deliciously. The nori was a nice touch for decoration and flavor. The spicy shoyu had the perfect amount of spice. She opted out of the chashu (marinated pork) and only had the vegetables. The bamboo, mushrooms and shaved scallions complemented the spice nicely. My wife added a little of the spicy sauce to it for an extra kick. The chicken wing was bursting with flavor. Juicing on the inside, crunchy on the outside with a spicy honey glaze. Devon was our server and she was great. She was very attentive and friendly. I definitely recommend this restaurant for locals and ones just passing through. They do not take...