Wooden Ladle — Restaurant in Oldsmar

I really wanted to like this place, I really did. There is no good ramen in this part of town. I was in the mood and noted all the high-praise reviews. How bad can it be? Sadly, I believe most of the reviews are indicating the state of ramen in west Tampa more than the quality of the Wooden Ladle.

I started with the Karaage, which are billed as "deep fried ginger seasoned chicken bites, served with spicy aioli". The description is pretty traditional, and what was delivered would have been OK, but... Most of the pieces were tiny, making the coating to chicken ratio insanely high. Top that with a dusting of some odd spices, a complete lack of any other flavor - including ginger, and a side of mundane mayo-based hot sauce, and you have a poor beginning to the meal. Don't even get me started on calling anything other than aioli aioli. On the positive side, what they lacked in quality was more than made up for in volume. Small plates indeed.

But I didn’t come for karaage, I came for ramen. Up next was my bowl of Tonkotsu Shoyu with an extra ajitama (soft-boiled egg). I really wish I could say something better about this bowl of sadness. The first thing that struck me was that there were three half-ajitama floating on the broth. Three... where was the fourth? Oh - it had been sunken under one of the others. And one of the three left floating had been covered with the shoyu (soy). Thus there were two lovely about-right soft-boiledish unctuous delicious egg-halves with broth-highlighted whites, one soy-bomb, and one totally over-cooked completely broth-flavored mess.

I dug in to the chashu (braised pork belly roll), and here the real sadness began. The outside was, by some process I cannot fathom, burned to a crisp - around the full circumference. Not so burned as to be inedible, but burned enough to really take all of the enjoyment out of it. The flavor had also permeated the broth. Not in an overbearing “send it back to the kitchen” sort of way, oh no, it was much more subtle than that. Just enough to turn a pure delight into.. a bowl of meh. Once past the burned outer layers, the rest was just horribly overcooked. So they had that going for them. When the star of the show is that bad...

At this point I went looking for a proper ramen spoon. Nope - the only option was the - yeah, it's right there in the name - wooden ladle served with the ramen. There was no avoiding it if I wanted any broth. The ladle is quite thick, and if you are bearded, you will end up with about a 20/80 broth in beard to mouth ratio. The Japanese have spent the past 160 years perfecting ramen and the associated appliances. What fresh hell is this? I pressed on with the ladle and a few score napkins.

What to say about the broth? If it hadn't had the burned chashu in it, it might have been good. But it did, and it wasn't. It was quite hearty, as one would expect, with an unctuous mouthfeel and pleasant oiliness one expects of tonkotsu. I did not realize until fairly deep into the bowl, but the broth had a pretty solid grey cast to it. I am not sure if that was a product of the char from the chashu, or whether it is just the color of their tonkotsu. It is virtually impossible to make a clear pork broth, and you expect clouding, but it should be a golden-brown clouding, not grey.

The noodles themselves were unremarkable, but well enough cooked. I slurped down a few bites, but was filling up fast. The were, perhaps, the best part of the entire meal. While the noodles should always be a solid supporting cast member in a bowl of ramen, and bad noodles can certainly ruin a bowl, you can't make up for bad everything else with noodles. That's just not how ramen works.

So I walked in with high hopes and out with an understanding that there is still no good ramen in western Tampa. If I need a noodle fix, I will have to sate it with one of the many good Pho places in the area. One does not replace the other, obviously, but I will take the wrong excellence over...

I recently tried Wooden Ladle Noodle Shop to-go a few times after seeing a family member's take-out from this restaurant on a different location - it looked so good I had to try it.

I tried the poke chips with tuna tartare both times. The first time I got it as listed on the menu and found it to be delicious, but way too spicy for my taste. So much so that I went through 2-3 large glasses of water while I was eating it because it was so spicy. The chips it comes with are really good. They are thinner than normal tortilla chips, and taste like they are fried wonton wrappers. Unfortunately, the chips are too thin to scoop up the poke like you would a salsa, so you'll have to use a utensil to place the poke onto the chip - but they taste great. The order comes with way more chips than you'll need but don't worry, they are addictive so you'll have no problem finishing them.

For my second order, I tried to see if I asked for the sauce on the side to try to limit the spiciness. This worked and let me dip the tuna into the sauce, which was still very spicy. I wish they offered a second sauce option that was not as spicy, but until then I'll keep ordering the sauce on the side for dipping.

Although I didn't dine-in on these two occasions, I have eaten in the restaurant in the past and found the service to be quick and friendly. The restaurant itself was clean and decorated simply but cute. Customers order their food from screens by the entryway. This lets you make sure the food is ordered exactly as you want it. However, if you're someone who wants to sit down and browse a menu for a while, you may want to check the menu out...

This restaraunt is a great little place to go get your ramen craving satisfied. They serve pho as well but Ive only had the ramen. Its quaint, quiet, and clean with prices that even a college student could afford a date night at.

The only reason I give this place 4 stars is because (1) its partially self serve. You have to input your order into a touchscreen kiosk upon arrival which doesnt grab high points from germaphobes like myself. When you order fountain drinks they just hand you your cup and you get up and fill it yourself. If you need a to go container your also getting that yourself. Im not knocking this system im sure its wonderful to a lot of people. Its just not for me. (2) the plastic chairs at the small tables arent the sturdiest things and the large ones are kind of one size fits all as they are relatively heavy and difficult to move in and out.

These things may sound nit picky and to a point they probably are. But these reviews are based off personal preference arent they?

I still love the wooden ladle and it is my top ramen place in my local area. I highly...