Fujiya Ramen — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Walking in, the restaurant looked aesthetically pleasing. Loved the local restaurant on your street vibe! We were seated and given water and menus right away. Our waiter was super friendly and came with our food 3-5 mins after our order. They came with the next dish after every five minutes so we could eat, which, I thought was nice! We got the pork buns first and the bun part was SO FLUFFY!🥰 There was like a sauce in it and it was creamy and tasted a little sweet. The pork was salty and chewy and it paired well with creamy, sweet sauce and the fluffy bun! The next appetizer we had was the fried chicken katsu. The breading was SO CRISPY, but the actual chicken had no seasoning. Though, I feel Japanese cuisine is all about natural flavors being combined with one another. That's why we got a sauce with the dish and once again, it was an amazing pair! Lastly, we got our pork & chive gyoza. The gyoza itself had a nice, chewy skin and had a crispy bottom. The filling was savory, but wasn't so flavorful. Not in a bad way, but rather in a binge/comfort food way. The sauce, though, seemed to consist of chili oil. The sauce had a little kick and I could see the clumps of the chili oil. The gyoza and the sauce accompanied each other for a flavor worthy of being gobbled up! After all our appetizers, I got the spicy miso ramen. It consisted of the broth, noodles, chashu, bean sprouts, spinach, corn and scallions. Spinach and corn are not traditional toppings on ramen and I didn't see how or why it would pair well with the ramen and it definitely didn't. Miso is a fermented bean paste and can be mixed in with water to make miso soup. The broth tasted peanut-y and bean-y which made it creamy and paired well with the spice. The curious flavors (curious to those not native to Japan) surprisingly paired well with each other and made for a satisfactory dish! The noodles were cooked perfectly and absorbed the broth nicely. The scallions and bean sprouts added a crunchy texture which was much needed. The staff was very friendly and quick! Overall, this restaurant was amazing and I give them a 9/10! One point taken of because it was pretty expensive.😅 If you ever visit Pennsylvania you should...

Happy Hour 4:30-6:30PM daily.

There is a waiting list on the wall across from the bar. They don't take reservations (supposedly. I'll get to that...) You can write your name down and walk away for a bit if you have time. We were 5th in line with a group of 3, and waited approximately 35 minutes (although I'm pretty sure we got skipped over for a group that didn't put their name down at all and were welcomed by the staff...). Note that if your whole party is over 21, you can elect to sit at the bar (which has about 9-10 seats) and they will ID you. Seating is pretty limited otherwise - I counted three tables near the front (capacity 3 each) and eight in the back (3 capacity 2, 5 capacity 4). Occasionally they'll also have capacity for two since there are benches, so they'll skip over the larger groups.

Overall, the food was good but expensive. I got the tonkatsu (made spicy), my partner got the same, and my friend got the Katsu Don. The tonkatsu had a light broth that was pretty flavorful, but quite salty. The quantity was very small - I think I ate all of the noodles in four or five spoons. My friend's Katsu Don looked like a better quantity for sure. We got the takoyaki to share, which came out hot but wasn't otherwise noteworthy compared to other takoyaki. The prices are rather high for the quantity of food received.

Edit: I am lowering my review to a 2/5 as my partner got food poisoning that evening from her tonkatsu. This was the only thing she ate that day outside of homemade fresh food, so we couldn't find any other culprit.

Edit 2: 3 days after my review, I am lowering the score to 1/5 as we have several reported food poisoning incidents from the same night of eating at Fujiya (second week of January 2023). Between long waits, high prices, and the aftereffects, I would not recommend this place.

Food: 4/5 Value: 3/5 Service: 3/5 Acceptable, but the wait was not worth it Atmosphere: Cozy/casual

Overall 3.5/5, probably better if you only have two people and don't have to...

I want to give it a 4.5 and not a four, but Google doesn’t allow that. We made a plan to eat Ramen and super late, and we reached close to their closing time. The apparently closed the main dining room at 9 PM, so we had to sit at the bar. Our hostess for the night was extremely welcoming, and she made us feel very comfortable. We started with the karage which is the fried chicken and the takoyaki which is sort of a fritter with octopus. Both were amazing. Hands down of the best takoyaki I’ve had. The chicken was tender and we for togorashi which went extremely well with the Chicken. For our andres, we all got Ramen. I had the spicy miso, which is supposed to be one of their signature ramens. My friend got the tonkotsu and another friend got that Chicken ramen. The miso Ramen was extremely favourable and very tasty. I also tried my friends, tonkotsu ramen and honestly, it was a let down. I have had this multiple times, and the broth is supposed to be white from all the collagen from the pork bones and very fatty and luxurious. This broth honestly did not feel like a good tonkotsu and I’m not sure why. The chicken one again was okay, but then again, I don’t know how much flavour you can bring with a chicken Ramen, and it was actually quite average. We ended the meal with a Macha cheesecake which was pretty good. Honestly, the appetizer were much better here and we loved them, but the Ramen themselves were a little...