Trio Ramen — Restaurant in Middleton

I'm convinced that all the 4-5 stars are from people that have never actually had good ramen. With hopes to keep at least one Midwesterner from being led astray, I'm here to set the record straight.

Ramen: The broth is extremely two dimensional and bland. Tonkatsu broth should have a very distinct umami taste with a heavy velvet texture. It should coat your mouth when you drink it due to the high fat content. Pork broth for ramen is not like your moms chicken noodles soup. It should taste like a magician has somehow extracted the essence from a full course meal and was able to alchemically inject that essence into a golden elixir. It should feel and taste very three dimensional. It's hard to explain, but once you've had the real thing you will understand what I mean. What we got tasted like if they made ramen for 1 person but watered it down to serve 10 people. The noodles were subpar. Im also convinced those noodles are dehydrated like you get in the maruchan packages or something.The pork belly was lacking in every way. The veg was decent and mushrooms were decently snappy. I can excuse some average ingredients if the broth is good but it just wasn't. If you have to get noodles, just get the yakisoba, it was better.

Appetizers: The pork buns were amazing. It set my expectations when we had those first and they are the only reason why I didn't give it a complete one star review. UNFORTUNATELY, everything else was pretty average or poor. The gyoza was okay but the gyoza dipping sauce was way too acidic and tart due to excessive vinegar.. again, I probably would excuse the tartness of the dipping sauce but with everything else I'm not really cutting any slack.

Cost: Way too expensive for what you are getting. If it was under 8-10 for a bowl, I probably still wouldnt return back, but I could excuse the quality. In all honesty, you could dress up cheap instant ramen and have a similar product. I'm not kidding.

All in all, if you want ramen in the midwest, your best bet is to learn to make it yourself or go to Strings on Frances St. Strings is a real ramen shop with real broth. I could bath in the broth at Strings is how good it is I promise you, take my advice. The only saving grace for trio is that the staff are really friendly and the atmosphere is pretty nice and it's in a decent location. If you want ramen, this...

Pros: friendly waitstaff Con: Literally everything else Price, I am not one to complain on price when it comes to food, but this was definitely way over price for what it was. I had the tonkatsu, my GF had the miso base Ramen. I'm shocked that the broth looked great but tasted like nothing, how did you manage that? I have legit not figured this out this paradox. I had thought I caught covid agian, but after we all tried our Ramen it was just ... bad. Thier was no flavor at all, it was just creamy water basicly, when we read the reviews they said the broth was amazing, but it wasn't. The only nice thing was the pork belly which was quite good but it couldn't save the dish, the broth was just terrible. I had to ask for salt from the kitchen, the other 2 people at our table used the gyzoa sauce to even make the ramen have any flavor at all. Cold eggs, the eggs were not even room temperature, it was like straight out of fridge, now I know what your saying "the eggs are supposed to be cold and the ramen heats it up" the ramen wasn't hot enough to even reheat the eggs it was all just luke warm. Cold gyoza, 2 orders to our tables they were cold, not like it was cooked and died in the window, like it wasnt even seared and tossed on a plate with out cooking. Also got charged for 3 orders when we had 2 but that's whatever the server fixed it the second time. (And took off the 3rd charge) Takoyaki very blah, it's ok not good not bad. Not fresh made but it it's without a doubt just frozen. 6 fast services speed, now speed in restaurants is great, but not when it comes to cutting every corner. That is the base line issue here, they do everything fast but poorly execute on anything at all.

TLDR: a 39 cent pack of instant ramen is way better, if you have friends who have never eaten any ethnic foods and they are scared of "flavor" this is a great place. Not angry, just disappointed.

Notes: yes I ate my food, I'm not one to waste food for my own preferences. Yes I paid and tipped as well. Yes I took my GF to Culver's across the street because she didn't want to waste the calories on something she...

UPDATE: I've eaten here a TON since writing this review. A few things I'll say before the main review;

Broccoli app has no business being as good as it is The Chefs genuinely appreciate when you order the special so please try it and tell your server if you liked it Fried chicken is A LOT less fatty than all the pork so good option if you don't want to go super heavy Order your kae dama when they ask you if you need anything, hot noodles are happy noodles Items like Don Buri and Curry are good options for your friend who doesn't like ramen

Store opens for dinner at 4pm. When I walked in at 4:04pm there were already 3 tables seated. By the time I left at 4:38pm there was a small line. Very busy, but I can see why.

Menu has various drinks including milk tea, appetizers like gyoza and tokoyaki, and the Ramen is a build as you go with a daily chef's special.

I ordered Takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and a Tonkotsu ramen with lots of extras. The takoyaki are definitely frozen nothing special but I thought the presentation was top notch. I was very impressed with the ramen I did finish my broth. The chashu was very tender and had a nice flavor, I think this was the second best part of the bowl. The noodles were really good texture and quality, they were a bit more light and glassy than I would like but this is really a personal thing. I would love to know how they make them. I was a little surprised all the stuff I had to order extra like menma and egg, but with food supply issues I guess it's unavoidable.

This is hands down the most expensive ramen in Madison but I think it is absolutely worth it. The location is right off the belt line with a large parking lot so much more accessible than just about every other shop downtown. I will bring friends here in the future and look forward to more quick lunches on...