Zen Ramen — Restaurant in Maplewood

Hey all. Just wanted to share my experience with the new ramen restaurant that just opened up in Maplewood called Zen Ramen.

Very well designed interior with plenty of subtle details throughout. You can tell they focused a lot on the atmosphere and experience.

The food was excellent:

CharSiu Pork was more thinly sliced than expected but was flavorful and well seasoned.

Tokoyaki Octopus balls were delicious! Crispy on the outside and contained a burst of juicy and chewy octopus meat on the inside.

The fried tofu had a thick crunchy exterior and a thin and light consistency on the inside. Obviously the flavors were kinda muted but that's to be expected for tofu but I really enjoyed the texture and mouth feels. We dipped these into our broths to soak up some goodness and it did not disappoint. Stayed crunchy the whole time.

The spicy cucumber was a delightful surprise. Served cold and crispy with a light chili oil. Enough kick to discourage most Americans of the anglo influence but enough for my wife and I to enjoy.

The CharSiu Ramen was absolutely delicious! Nice thick tonkatsu broth with plenty of umami. The noodles were cooked just slightly past aldente (just the way I like them) and held onto the broth the way people were holding onto toilet paper during the first part of the pandemic.

My wife ordered the kimchi ramen, which the very attentive waitress asked if she was familiar with kimchi as a follow up, which was very flavorful according to my wife. I didn't give it a shot because if my chopsticks would have entered her bowl I'm sure I would have been eating utensil-less for the remainder of our stay. It looked good, is all I can say

They provided you plenty of Sriracha and crushed peppers on the side to season your dish as so desired. I applied the crushed peppers liberally into my ramen as I normally do. Would have been nice to have some chili oil present but I digress.

Needless to say I was blown away and look forward to our next visit. I'm usually not shy about cleaning my plate and even after ordering a considerable amount (your mileage may vary) I am happy to report that I adhered to those habits without pause. Strangely enough my wife and I were discussing the possibility of fitting some of their mochi ice cream dessert when the waitress brought us our check. We promptly paid and left to absolve ourselves of any possible further embarrassment due to public displays of gluttony. Our waitress must have assumed, "There can't possibly be anymore room for them to fit more food."

Next time I'll be sure to order dessert before handing...

We enjoyed our ramen, they also have a boba tea store front “Moshi Tea” which revolves around boba drinks with cheese foam. Not pictured were the drinks but we got the tigress and the grapefruit tea. Which were great and right amount of sweet. Although we quite enjoyed the food and drinks, the service was not the best and left us feeling quite unsatisfied with the whole experience. The servers (unsure if they were the owners) but as soon as we sat down it felt like they were rushing us to order, we didn’t even get a second to look over what we wanted to get when the man kinda pressured us to order. Not even 5min later me and my friend got up to go to the bathroom and they were already dropping off the ramen and calamari appetizer we ordered, which would’ve been great in any other circumstance but also kind of confused how they just put our food out that fast. Our drinks also came out another AFTER the food. The ramen and food were enjoyable nonetheless, nothing to say about it, kimchi ramen does indeed have a spice level higher than expected but it does have a spice level indicator on the menu. As I was nearing the end of my ramen, my friend was still eating her ramen and the last remaining calamari’s the server ended up taking my bowl and the sharing plate with the sauce she was dipping her appetizer without even asking if she was done and it just kind of felt like they were kicking us out when we were just trying to enjoy our meal and my friend was still eating. After leaving with the plates he right away came back to drop off the check, we were there less than a half hour and the place only had two other tables and 5people that came to pick up boba throughout the time we were there. So I didn’t understand why they were trying to turn the table over just as fast we had gotten there. Not to mention me and my friend were splitting the drinks and food but it felt like a slap in the face when the server purposefully circled the tipping section in the check as if he expected we weren’t going to tip, which just felt even more petty to us. We had enjoyed the food and drinks but the service alone will have us not wanting to ever counter that interaction ever again. We won’t...

It’s a great place if you want ok ramen and rude service!!! That older man is so rude!! This place has gone way downhill! The food is not that good anymore. I have been going there for over a year whether it was delivery, takeout or dining in, once a week. The last straw was yesterday when this man was so blatantly rude. My mom had questions about the menu he barely answered her questions and rushed us to order. Luckily my mom liked her ramen but my ramen was way too salty. Way more salty than normal.

The old man who runs the front needs to be in the back. He is so rude. I asked for a cup to take my chili to go and he said they don’t have them when I know they do because I’ve ordered take out many times. I pushed back and said that I know you do have the little cups and sure enough, he brought me one! 🙄 I have brought a few people here but I don’t think I will be going back anymore.

Other times I can think of that he was rude was once when I ordered to go one time and I tried to use my punch card for boba and the 5or10% discount for takeout orders at the same time. Other employees have let me do that but he didn’t let me for some reason.

Another time I came in and ordered and was talking to another man that worked there that was super nice (and cute lol) and he was making small talk with me, asking if I was having a good day and the older man interrupted our conversation and told me to go sit down at a table to wait for my order. So rude.

I reallllly don’t think he likes people that aren’t Japanese or Asian. if you know what I mean. Based on alllll of the other bad reviews talking about this rude man. Maybe he needs customer training or something because obviously A LOT of people are turned off by eating there because they are treated so horribly. Maybe he owns the place so that’s why he’s able to get away with everything he does but he has a restaurant in America it’s obvious that all kinds of people live in America and eat at restaurants. He can’t just scare away all the customers and be surprised when people...