Ramen Station — Restaurant in Madison

This review is in the dead center of eating. Worth pausing the meal over.

This place is fantastic at exactly what it does. It's not some 9 put of 5 star Steakhouse or world famous for it's $7k charcuterie board the size of a postage stamp.

It's a ramen place. And it's the epitome of what I want in one.

Atmosphere is fantastic. All the right colors and scents, and not only is the perquisite anime playing, but a Sports one, and what seems like a GOOD one, to boot. Something about Eagle avatars and Soccer?

Service is spot on. He's been by multiple times, quiet, says "excuse me" leaving me feeling like an American barbarian for not being that polite when /I/ was in food service.

Condiments are on point. Introduced here to "Shichimi Togarashi", which is basically Japanese All Spice and is a bizzarly good match for Tonkotsu, or Pork Broth.

Food is sublime. I know. Ramen is Japanese McDonald's, pump the brakes. But sublime is the word. So much going on, yet nothing overpowers anything else. An honest to God astonishing degree of balance.

Location? Fantastic. Parking? Above average. No where near enough space if the lobby is at capacity, but I came on a slump and the parking is OFF South Park street, and feels safe. Watch the parking blocks, though. Feel a bit high and scraped my Prius V, which almost never has clearance issues in urban areas.

And pleasantly warm. Just under 20F outside, and rather than sweltering it's just quite comfortable.

Anyway. You're done reading. It's appreciated.

Hit this place up. Like Ramen? Gyoza? Don bowls? Below average pricing for above average time?

Glad I gave it a chance.

Well done, Ramen Station.

You may have just gotten your...

Living in walking distance, I’ve been wanting to try it and I want to save anyone considering it the trouble. First of all, when you walk in they clearly don’t want the business- I felt like I was bothering the staff by being there. Second, we were sat with waters, and it took more than 15 minutes for anyone to come over. The same person that took our order, mind you, I can see on her phone, and addressing every other customer in the place. Third, when she did eventually come over to take our order, with pen and pad in hand, she just stood there. No hello, no nothing- just stood at the table staring at us. I can understand cultural differences, but hello maybe? Four- I ordered the spicy pork tonkatsu, thinking I had a slam dunk. While it was flavorful, it was NOT the flavor I was going for. It was so fishy, and I love fish! But I didn’t order fish, and it tasted like… old fish. And finally, five- after sloppily dropping our food, no once came to check on us, see if we liked the food, offer us refills- nothing. We had to walk up to The desk to pay, because they never even came around to give us the check. I didn’t even eat a 1/4th of my ramen, it was foul. I personally am well traveled around the world, and I’ve gotten better service in foreign countries. The service showed they didn’t care that we came in, and the food reflected it as well. Majorly dissatisfied and disappointed, I wanted to like this place because it’s so close but I couldn’t be...

Food is AMAZING here whereas service and atmosphere is less than desirable. My fiancé and I (used to) come here regularly and it’s ALWAYS the same waiter. The last time we were there, there were two other tables of 2 and one bigger table where the entire party had not shown up yet. We knew exactly what we wanted without looking at the menu and intended to order right when he brought us water as he knows we usually do. Instead he set down the water without making any eye contact or saying anything and then raced off. Shortly after, more people came in to join the bigger table that was there and he goes right over and takes their order even though we were there first and he knew we’d been ready to order. I’m guessing he wanted the nice tip that likely came from that table but he also lost us as customers and we were otherwise going there 1-2 times per month. We got up and left without ordering and will not be returning. Also I gave atmosphere a low score because there is zero privacy if others are...