JINYA Ramen Bar - Pearland — Restaurant in Pearland

My family LOVES Jinya and make trips to the Clear Lake location often, so we were excited to see one opening up closer to us. The experience at this location was bad and weird and we will not be returning.

We always order the Brussels sprout appetizer, and certain locations automatically serve them with a side spicy mayo. If they don't serve it with it on the side, we kindly ask, and they bring us a side with no issue.

Our waitress made us feel like we committed a crime asking for it, said that "no we can't give you a side" and then changed her mind and said she would ask a manager. Our waitress did bring us a side but went on to make us feel dumb for asking by making remarks as to why they don't like giving it out. Now, we never fought back once on getting a side of it. We probably visually looked perplexed as to what the issue was, but we never argued with her on it or even asked why. So this whole interaction was very strange.

My husband usually gets the spicy chicken ramen, and pays extra for the crispy chicken , and asks them to just to leave out the regular chicken. We understand this is not a substitution, but don't want to waste chicken we aren't going to eat which is why we ask them not to include the regular chicken.

The waitress said this was not possible and they would have to include both. Again, we did not argue and said "okay". She then changed her mind again and obliged with our request or maybe went to ask a manager.

We don't think we were asking for too much, and the waitress made our entire experience bad. We will drive to other locations, but we don't see ourselves going back to...

The 4.9 star reviews are overhyped. Jinya makes it a practice to tell their employees to come to your table at the end of the meal to leave a Google Review. The servers tell you it’s for some contest they are doing. The more reviews they get with their name on it, the higher they have a chance of winning. How about allowing patrons to genuinely write a review when they want to?

My main issue is with this one location, the server and management. When we initially arrived here, the server was hunched over at the host stand telling us to “go sit somewhere.” He wasn’t polite or even trying. The server’s only interaction was to bring the ramen to our table and that was it. We were never checked on. The appetizer and ramen were lacking and not the Jinya standard.

When addressed to management, the manager felt offended and even defended his server as providing the utmost stellar service. Yes he provided service, but at the level of Burger King. If you’re charging between $18 - $20 for a bowl of ramen, it shouldn’t taste like Maruchan.

The cleanliness of this location is also horrid. Why is it the sauce containers can’t be wiped down? Why are there gnats swarming around these containers? Why do the walls and tables have signs of oil stains?

With Houston being the 4th largest city in the US, you have plenty of other ramen places to go to and at a reasonable price.

Please stop paying for Google Reviews, your restaurant shouldn’t be...

I may be the odd one out here or maybe it was just my personal experience. I was super excited to try this place came in with an open mind. My server seemed very educated on the menu etc. Food was very temperature hot and tasted pretty good. Drink was fun and fresh! The pork gyoza was not great tho. First con, please don’t put your fingers in peoples drinks, food bowl area. I caught the servers holding the bowls and plates where you would actually eat and drink… and I understand they are learning so I tried to remain open minded. Second con, was about spice level. I asked for extra spice level and he said it would be too hot for me. I’m Hispanic with other European ancestry. I understand he’d be confused with that. Third con, I was minding my business enjoying my food and cutting my noodle with the chopstick as it’s too big for me to eat such huge bites (I’m nearly finished with my food) I notice the server watching me, since we were by the food station, he laughed and asked if I needed training chopsticks 😳😆. Game over. I instantly wanted to leave and tbh that’s super rude and embarrassing. Not even my child eats with the trainers. Hopefully it’s a one off experience. Good luck and hope yall do well! Giving 4...