Shokudo — Restaurant in Piscataway Township

I'll admit, Shokudo took me by surprise. I expected mediocre ramen in a manner commonly experienced: decently priced and "clearly run by Chinese" or hipstery with a design/ambient bent and overpriced for what it is with a lack of payoff. And ramen at both styles are often too salty and/or without layer or depth.

Instead here is a clean, spacious space with bright lights, classic Japanese film posters along the walls (Akira, Godzilla, Totoro, Spirited Away--conventionally great taste, might I say), a semi-open cash register and kitchen in the back and some sparse but cute details. There's a tv too playing anime like Sword Art Online and Little Witch Academia, just without subtitles or sound and likely streamed from Netflix. But let's get to the most important part...

Shokudo serves Japanese food with a Korean touch. Examples: AGEDASHI TOFU with bits of honey citron tea (Personally didn't enjoy due to the tofu itself as its not soft tofu and more firm. I'm not sure if potato starch was used or applied correctly) Their offering of oyster and kimchi ramen 2 complimentary spicy but yummy pickled ban chan (side dishes) Ramen served on a metal tray, canteen-style Playing of K-Pop music, though I guess that doesn't really count these days... I ordered SHIO RAMEN with salt on the side to season myself. Reminded me of some Korean dishes where seasoning/condiments are provided, allowing one to control an aspect of a dish to their liking. In this case, I'm reminded of samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) as salt is given with it. Also, the menma (bamboo shoots) were also distinctly lightly pickled with none of that characteristically funky smell or taste. Also comes with S&B chili pepper if you like a little bit of heat.

As the owners are Korean, this all makes sense and it's this Korean touch that creates a different and interesting dining experience not found anywhere else in the area.

There are some misses and some solid offerings. The KARAAGE is pretty good. Crispy and juicy but the accompanying sauce needs some citrus. GYOZA was a bit oily but okay. Their ramen is light and not salty. It's not amazing ramen but Shokudo is still better than the average with average pricing, especially if you get the SHOYU RAMEN which I found to be the best against shio and TONKOTSU in terms of flavor and depth. Also, that $2 egg may be expensive but it was great.

3.5 stars food-wise but 3.75 stars when compared to other ramen joints in the area and for the unique, actually fusion experience. However, come more than once as the quality can be...

Based on all the good Yelp reviews we decided to try Shokudo. A friend and a family member both tried the restaurant separately and gave me completely different reviews on this place so I knew I'd have to go see for myself.

We arrived to the restaurant about 7:30 and it was pretty quiet - only two other small tables were seated. We were given water in a bottle and some menus. We decided on tonkotsu ramen (egg is an extra charge $1.95), tempura udon, donburi bowl, and chicken karage.

Chicken karage was good, it's the only thing I truly enjoyed fully (it needed to be served with a lemon but it only came with a sauce).

Pork donburi bowl was okay, probably the next best thing I had but I didn't love it.

The "24 hour" tonkotsu ramen came out and it looked like the right color but upon further inspection the broth was thin and not as thick as other good tonkotsu broths. The flavor definitely lacked depth and thickness that true pork bone broths typically have. I was disappointed but it was certainly edible just not amazing.

The udon was really quite disappointing. The tempura was absolutely by far the worst shrimp tempura I have ever had in my entire life. I've been to buffets that serve mass tempura better then this. I'm sad to say that this should not have been served. The batter was bouncey and soft and the outside had NO crispness to it. The inside was still kind of wet like the inside of an uncooked pancake. My husband felt that the waitress was avoiding us a bit because I wanted to report it but she did not check on us until the end of the meal and at that point she said she would let the chef know about my concern. I really wanted an explanation for this tempura that had absolutely no tempura flakes. It was dipped in unsweetened pancake batter at best.

I won't be coming back based on this experience but I hope they continue to make improvements in the things that...

First time here. The place was empty the whole time I was there. This was around 16:30 - 17:15. Is it always that empty? Anyway, got the Pork Gyoza which was delicious. No complaints there. They serve you water in a large glass bottle which is great if you don’t like calling them over multiple times for refills.

Also got the Tonkotsu Ramen which was pretty good. I’ve had better. They didn’t have an egg that day so I had to do without it which is okay because I don’t normally get egg with my ramen. Only complaint about the Ramen was that the pork was dry and not very tender at all. Very tough to eat.

With that being said though, I would return here no problem. Just fix the pork issue and I would’ve given five stars. I love the anime posters and everything anime related playing on the TV. Had no idea it was Korean owned. I started complimenting them in...