Gorō Ramen — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

I recently visited a ramen restaurant that, unfortunately, left much to be desired. While I had high hopes for a delightful meal, the overall experience was just okay—nothing special.

Noodle Quality

To start, the ramen noodles themselves were clumped together, which was unexpected and rather unappealing. A good bowl of ramen should have noodles that are perfectly cooked and separate, allowing for a better texture and mouthfeel. Unfortunately, this was not the case here.

Appetizers and Dumplings

The appetizers were disappointingly small, leaving us wanting more. The dumplings, while edible, tasted commercial and lacked any unique flavor that would make them memorable. They felt like something you could easily find in a frozen food aisle rather than a freshly made dish from a ramen restaurant.

Fried Chicken

On a positive note, the fried chicken was pretty good. It had a nice crunch and flavor, but it was missing a sauce that could have elevated it further. A good dipping sauce can make all the difference, and its absence was felt.

Ramen Dish

As for the ramen itself, it was decent but nothing out of this world. While it was flavorful, it didn't stand out among the myriad of ramen options available elsewhere. I was hoping for a more unique or robust flavor profile.

Atmosphere and Comfort

The atmosphere left much to be desired. The seating was tight, making it uncomfortable as we were either sitting very close to other patrons or perched on bar stools that lacked any real comfort. To make matters worse, the air conditioning was blowing strongly, causing our food to cool down quickly, which detracted from the overall enjoyment of the meal.

Service Quality

Service was average at best. The waitstaff seemed disinterested and not particularly enthusiastic about their roles. They were unwilling to answer questions, which came off as dry and uninviting. Additionally, it took a while for them to refill our drinks, and I noticed them standing together joking around instead of attending to customers.

Overall, my experience at this ramen restaurant was underwhelming. While there were a few redeeming qualities, such as the fried chicken, the clumped noodles, small appetizers, and lackluster service overshadowed any positives. If you're looking for an exceptional ramen experience, I would recommend exploring other options.

*For those wondering, we spent about ~$60 dollars for 2...

I was really excited about this place because I read about it online and people were raving and saying that it was the best ramen in OKC including best vegan ramen, which is what I had (I eat vegetarian so I added an egg). It was also my first time having "real" not instant ramen so I was excited but tbh a bit of a let down for me and I'm a little worried about my ramen future if this is as good as it gets.

The vegan broth was decent enough but I had to ask after I got it for the chili garlic bomb and that helped. The egg was probably the best part. The noodles were actually really good too (my sister said they seemed homemade). I liked that it had a lot of stuff like mushrooms, green onions, friend onions, and some fried tofu, but it wasn't really enough to add a ton of flavor in my opinion. The tofu especially was so flavorless, which I guess tofu is but it really had nothing going on besides texture. To me, tofu is something that can really be a great base for so many flavors and you can do so much with it so to have it simply fried and flavorless was a let down. The portion size was great, I ate too much though! I mean, it was good enough that I did eat it all I guess, but it just wasn't the amazingness that people had claimed that I had been hoping for.

Otherwise, the vibe was definitely hopping and it was fun to dine in even though the wait was crazy and they don't take reservations. It would be nice if there was some kind of online line you could get in? I've seen something like this on Yelp where you can add yourself to a wait-list. Idk if they have anything like that because no one mentioned it. Anyway, I felt cool being in there when we finally did get a seat.

My sister had regular (non-vegan) ramen with pork belly and she LOVED the pork but the broth was "ehhh alright". She liked adding a bit of the chili garlic bomb to hers too. Once the pork was gone she said it...

My husband and I have always wanted to try Goro but we always end up going to Tamashii because it’s tried and true. He was really craving ramen last night and Tamashii is closed Sunday nights so we figured perfect time to try Goro! The wait was long, which was fine, but when we finally got seated it was SO LOUD literally everyone around us was yelling their conversations. We had already looked at the menu before we sat down so we ordered everything at once. We got the karaage, which probably ended up being the best thing we had. It was fried nicely, the batter to chicken ratio was good, and the sauce they served with it was nice. We got the pork belly nikuman, and that ended up being disappointing. It wasn’t really nikuman, those are actually steam BUNS and this was more of the Chinese style buns that wrap around and you hold it like a sandwich. The fried pork belly was quite chewy and SUPER salty. These also had a sweet sauce on it. The flavours were all too extreme, and it felt like there was something missing to balance it. We both got spicy miso ramen. It wasn’t anything special. We were already so so on it because ramen is traditionally made more with a pork based broth, not chicken. The spiciness didn’t compliment the soup. It was basically just chili paste thrown in. The pork meatballs didn’t compliment the soup, either. The meatballs themselves were good, but they tasted like Italian meatballs, like they should be in a spaghetti dish or something similar. I had a few bites and was done. We finished off with the black sesame ice cream. I enjoyed it, my husband didn’t. He thought it was very chalky (it was, but that didn’t bother me). Overall, it was just really disappointing and not worth the hour wait. Two stars because our server was nice and the...