Kinya Ramen · Sushi · Bubble Tea — Restaurant in Linden

Brought my sister here for a surprise birthday lunch on Saturday, 8/23 at 4pm. This was our first time here (Sister, mom, and myself). The food was great but unfortunately I have to knock off 2 stars for the HORRID service from our waitress. The young lady never formally introduced herself or greeted us after the front of house person sat us down at Table M7, and in hindsight that was a big red flag. (She had dark curly hair in a bun and I believe a facing piercing somewhere and appeared of Hispanic decent) I had to kindly ask her like "will you be our waitress for today" since she was staring at us and not saying anything initially. Then I asked before we fully sat down or touched the menu if we could move to a booth since we were celebrating with a bottle of wine since it's BYOB. But she had a snappy response "as you can SEE we have no more tables available" instead of being reassuring and kindly letting us know an ETA for the next available booth if possible. What really annoyed me is that there was a private booth that was empty the entire time we were there. The whole reason I choose Kinya over the other local Asian cuisine options was for that booth and we wouldn't have mind the wait. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it there because we were celebrating my sister's birthday and I did not want to make her upset even though she could sense the tension and aloofness of the waitress.

Another issue which I now see others have mentioned is not getting water. I asked our waitress 3 times and asked another staff member an additional time. We got our appetizers and ramen entrees before we got our water which is insane to for regular tap water. The manager end up coming over with our waters and apologized but it was so ridiculous how 3 glasses of water was such a long wait as we were halfway done with our food (spicy dishes), sitting there parched. The waitress also never apologized for the wait for water or addressed the reason for delay. As we were close to finish eating, I got up and discreetly approached the waitress and ask if they do birthday desserts to surprise my sister but once again was met with cold objection. This is sometime after 4:40 or 4:45ish and her exact response was "Yes we do but I'm leaving at 5pm. Uhh I'll see what I can do and let you know." She never followed up with me and left without letting us know who would be taking over our table. Something was very off with this young lady, she wasn't flat out rude or disrespectful, her demeanor the entire time was distant, unfriendly, didn't want to be there and uninterested with serving us. Another kicker is she didn't even leave exactly at 5pm... more like 5:20ish and even then she NEVER came back to our table since I requested the birthday dessert. So now it's 5:30 and there was a very awkward wait for service as we sat there for an additional 20 minutes without knowing who was taking over our table even though we were pretty much done with dining at 5pm wanted to-go containers.

I flagged down another server and he was quick to check for us, then shortly Javier comes over and greets us. I tell him we just need to-go containers and had to quickly whisper for a birthday dessert and based on his reaction, our initial waitress never communicated to anyone about the birthday celebration dessert because Javier brought it out in less than 5mins and the staff did a fun cheer for my sister. When the final receipt came, it didn't have the young lady's name on it, just Javier even though he was our waiter for 10-15min AFTER we were done with our food. I still tipped because his attentiveness was NIGHT and DAY vs the other waitress. That fact that we were ready to leave at 5pm and didn't leave close to 6pm is just plain poor service. (my receipt says we ordered at 4:08pm and card payment made at 5:48pm)

While the food was good, I am unsure if I'd come back. My sister who has been in the corporate hospitality industry for 20+ years said she'd be embarrassed to recommended this location to her network in fear they might receive the same...

UPDATE: 4/26/25 We came back a 3rd time and Devyn was awesome! He took care of us really well and was super personable! Thank you Devyn! I had the beef ramen and my wife had the chin tan ramen. No complaints. Cam here to have ramen as my pre race meal for the Brooklyn half marathon.

Kinya is probably the best culinary experience I've had in NJ since I moved here from NYC 6 years ago. I randomly saw a tiktok about Kinya, so I went with my wife for our anniversary date night on Sunday. We were both super impressed! The whole experience was wonderful. The atmosphere is so chic and cute, the music was so good too! Our waiter was so nice, attentive, and gave us great menu recommendations.

The food, WOW! Not only is it visually beautiful but it tasted incredible. We got the Kinya nachos. DELICIOUS! The nacho chips are crispy wontons, and every piece had a perfect ratio of tuna, avocado, jalapeno, cilantro, and sauce toppings. We also ordered the spicy wings, as part of my ramen combo. Let me tell you, I was really pleasantly surprised with the depth of flavor these wings had. They weren't as spicy as I expected, but it had a rich smoky umami flavor with a good kick at the end. Soooo good! For ramen, I got the spicy ramen with chicken. The broth was so beautiful! A chicken based broth with spice in it. It was almost creamy. My wife got the beef ramen and I had some of it and that beef based broth was even better than mine! That says a lot because mine was amazing! Wow. At some point the owner came over to ask how everything was. We told him how happy we were and how we thought the ramen broth was delicious! He explained to us how the broth is cooked down for 8 hours, filtered and cooked down again! We really appreciated that little fact, and the fact that the owner was working the front of house, even bussing tables and pouring water.

Overall, Kinya is amazing and we will definitely be going back! It's actually dangerous that we live in the same neighborhood knowing how good it is now. The prices are totally reasonable and affordable, especially considering the quality and amount of food you get! We took home what we couldn't finish and had it for breakfast!

We are total foodies spoiled by NYC fine dining (and great cheap eats) experiences and Kinya is up there on my list now! I highly...

I was excited to try Kinya Ramen because of the 4.9-star reviews, but my experience was incredibly disappointing. I ordered the Pork Kinya Ramen and pork buns. While the broth had good flavor, the pork in both the ramen and buns was bland and lacked any seasoning.

What made things worse was the poor service. It was 3:30p on a Saturday. Before the dinner rush so there wasnt many people there yet. When we were seated, there were no utensils on the table. We asked for water and didn't receive it until I asked a second time. We ordered two ramen dishes (chicken and pork) and a pork bun. The pork bun and chicken ramen came out, but my pork ramen was missing. I told my friend to start eating so her food wouldn't get cold, only to realize we still didn't have any utensils. Our server was nowhere to be found, so I had to flag down another staff member just to get a fork and chopsticks.

After some time, our waitress returned and asked how everything was. I told her I still hadn't received my ramen. She said she'd check on it and disappeared. A different server came by and asked what I ordered, told him again the Pork Kinya Ramen. He went to the kitchen (which was just a few steps away), then came back asking if I ordered chicken. I said no, pork. He returned to the kitchen, and eventually, my ramen arrived just as my friend was finishing hers.

By the time we were ready to leave we had to track down our server again just to get to-go containers. Without asking if we wanted anything else, she simply dropped off the check and left again. I had to track her down again to pay the bill. When I finally paid, she asked how everything was, I said it was disappointing. Her response? "Well, not everyone likes this type of ramen" I told her I regularly go to NY for ramen and know what good ramen should taste like.

Overall, this was a frustrating and underwhelming experience. There are far better options in nearby towns like Cranford. I won't...