Ani Ramen House — Restaurant in Jersey City

Genuinely the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had. Really surprised at the good reviews, but also not surprised at seeing reviews that describe an experience similar to mine.

Live in the neighborhood and have been wanting to try this place for a while. From beginning to end, the experience was not great. It feels like they try so hard to be cool with dim lighting, neon lights, and super loud hip hop and pop music blaring, yet they don’t place the same attention and effort towards their customers.

We had to wait for a table, which is no big deal, fine. We are given a buzzer thing which is supposed to let us know when our table is ready and we are supposed to be texted. The buzzer starts randomly beeping and then it keeps beeping annoyingly without stopping. Think fire alarm cadence. When we ask the host about it she just says that it’ll buzz when ready. No effort to take away or replace the annoying buzzer. I resort to sitting on it to muffle the sound. 25 min roll by and I still haven’t felt a buzz. Check my phone to realize our table was ready 6 min ago. No buzz, btw.

We’re seated, fine. Place our order and patiently wait. Super hungry at this point. Ordered shrimp bao buns and ramen for each of us.

30 min go by, no appetizer. 40 min go by, nothing. And at this point we had asked our waiter for a status update 3x. It’s clear they messed up our order. It’s not until 45 min from the time we placed our order that the manager comes by to give an update. 50 min in we finally get our appetizer. 55-60 min in we finally get our ramen.

While the shrimp bao buns were tasty, the ramen was mediocre at best. Really not worth the time and money.

After realizing how unhappy we were about our experience they were very attentive with supplying napkins that we didn’t even need, lol. There was a stack of 8 unused napkins by the end of it. This is their idea of good customer service.

The best they could do to make things right was offer a coupon for a free bao bun the next time we come. Unfortunately, that’s completely useless because we will not...

Attentive service but lackluster Ramen

Upon seeing the menu, I saw that it was focused, mainly ramen and a few side dishes so the star of the show must be good. The waitress was attentive and considerate, did an excellent job.

Unfortunately the food fell short. The karage was poorly breaded and salty. Dipping it into the sauce made it even more salty. Salt on top of salt, there was no balance.

I ordered the chefs special. A bowl of ramen compromises of 3 components, the broth, noodle, and topping with the broth being the most important. My first sip of the broth brought about confusion, the flavors were nothing like a ramen. There was broth, but it didn’t contain any complexity or richness that makes ramen, ramen. The toppings were scant with some small pieces of chasu so that it can call itself ramen. The noodles were reasonable. Overall nothing came together and it was a big disappointment.

I can buy some packaged ramen and make it at home and it’ll be better.

To make matters worse? They pass on a 3% convenience fee which is basically their credit card fee to the customer. First restaurant in jersey city where I’ve seen this and a poor practice.

It pains me to write this review and it doesn’t make me feel good. Quite sad actually. I think I’ll go...

The izakaya pork gyoza and Wagyu Rice Bowl were absolutely delicious, showcasing great flavor and care in preparation. That said, I have a few observations that could improve the experience even further.

While the gyoza is beautifully seared on one side, a technique I appreciate, the excess thin dough(?) left on the bottom makes it a bit impractical to eat. I found myself having to break off the extra dough to properly dip the gyoza into the sauce. As someone who prefers not to 'fight' with their food, this was a minor but noticeable inconvenience.

The Wagyu Rice Bowl was visually stunning, with the Wagyu elegantly placed over the rice. While this presentation works well for fork users, it posed a slight challenge for me as a chopstick user. When the sticky Japanese rice absorbs moisture from the Wagyu, it becomes harder to handle with chopsticks, losing its ideal texture for easy picking.

This isn’t a complaint but rather a constructive critique. I hope the restaurant might consider offering the rice separately for chopstick users in the future, or perhaps adjusting the plating to maintain the rice’s texture. These small tweaks could make an already excellent dish even more enjoyable for everyone.

Overall, the meal was delightful, and I look forward...