Ramen Bar — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Man, so disappointed. For years San Francisco has, surprisingly, had the worst ramen I've had, but I'm sad to say Pittsburgh may have just taken that title (I'm kinda in denial). Please do yourself a favor, especially if you're visiting and only have so much time in Pittsburgh to sample the best foods - if you've found yourself at ramen bar, leave now, and go across the street to everyday noodles which has the best soup dumplings I've found in the country. Every time I've been there I've looked out the window and thought, "I've gotta actually try that ramen place some time, see how Pittsburgh rates in that department." Mistake, I should have lived in ignorance lol.

Where to start? The broth, of course! It was really weak, not rich at all. At all! The only good thing I can say about it is that at least they didn't artificially flavor it. The eggs next: the colleague I brought literally said, "wow, I wish I could make such a perfect hard boiled egg!" It was his first time having ramen, so he was blissfully unaware of how terribly the ramen was lacking a proper SOFT boiled egg. I did give this place an extra star though because my uninitiated colleagues thought it was good, so I'm really glad for that at least! They've got no where to go but up in the ramen world, and I'm super happy I didn't ruin it for them by bringing them somewhere they didn't like! Anyway, back to the egg - pure white, no marinade at all. I've literally made better ramen at home by hastily marinating a softish boiled egg and dropping it in a $0.25 pack of ramen noodles. An okay egg makes packaged ramen decent, how does anywhere screw that up?! So I didn't even eat 3 of my 4 eggs at ramen bar cause it was just not good :( On to the shoyu pork: admittedly not normally my favorite part except for my top two ramen places in the country, but ramen bar was just awful. Think boiled meat. Pale, stiff, way too thick, flavorless - I'm pretty sure it was sucking out what little flavor was in the broth rather than adding to it... It was bizarre. I don't usually love the pork, but it's supposed to at least lend some flavour and texture maybe. Nope. The noodles, I think, were fine - I don't have any notable complaints about them, but honestly without the rest they don't stand out enough to love or hate, I just didn't really think of them.

If you're weird like me and part of trying the local food scene means trying the ramen in a city - either try somewhere else, or just accept that ramen is perhaps not where Pittsburgh shines, and pass. I lived here 5 years and really really wanted to like our ramen, but no go this time at least, and it's gonna be super hard to try again when I know there's a TON of great places to eat...

I don't know how fair it is to review a place based on one visit, after ordering one menu item. That being said, I was expecting a place called Ramen bar to hopefully look like an actual ramen bar, and give me a yummy bowl that would warm me up and leave me sated. Unfortunately I was disappointed:-/

I ordered the spicy miso chashu ramen + eggs, and shared an order of pork gyoza with a friend. Firstly, the ramen. The broth was very watery without much flavor besides a slight hint of miso and the spice. It's almost as if they tried to make miso soup, which tends to have quite a different taste from miso ramen. The pork sliced were quite thick, which is great, but tough and not with much flavor. The eggs were slightly overdone for my liking. I tend to want a bit of liquidity in the yolk, but they were mostly solid, albeit still with an orange color. Much like everything else about the ramen though, there wasn't a whole lot of taste to them.

The gyoza were alright, nothing amazing, but reasonable. However there was no vinegar or chili oil provided, which is something I expect to see in a ramen place.

Service and atmosphere! The service was good! Our waitress came to check on us regularly and was polite and engaging, so no problems there. There weren't any condiments on the table that you might usually see in a ramen shop - no sesame, garlic, etc., though perhaps that was just our table.

When I mentioned looking forward to the place being an actual ramen bar, part of that includes there being a long wooden counter, booths, and everything you would need to aid in the consumption of ramen. The way it's presented though is more like a typical pan Asian restaurant. It's as if they just decided to throw Ramen into the name just to bait people in, which probably works super well. The only other thing in the restaurant that connects to the idea of it being a ramen place is the large print of Shibuya crossing on the wall.

I fully admit that there may be some things on the menu that may be decent. The tantanmen looked tasty, as did some of the other thicker soups. But I'm kind of over the pan-Asian cuisine places that can't decide on their identity, so they bloat up a menu and hope to rope in as many people as possible. In the end though, if you're going to name your place Ramen bar, I better have some damn good ramen, no matter which...

I've been here 3 times now. Once pre-Covid and twice since March after the regulations went into effect. Ive not had a great last two experiences. The first was so/so. I order strictly takeout and the first time we went the people were standoffish. I keep giving chances because I'm that kinda gal, I guess. I want to support businesses but not if they can't provide adequate service. Last time I went I ordered through eat-street for simplicity. I waited 30 minutes before picking up my food. I show up probably 10 minutes AFTER my food said it was supposed to be done and there's a gentleman eating food at the window when I go in. I went inside they told me it was going to be another 10 minutes and I had to continue to wait. So i went back out to my car. This was 20 minutes after the time I was estimated. The portions for what I payed was okay. I was generally displeased but the food was good. Today I ordered the same way, through eat-street show up 10 minutes after the quoted 20 minutes HOPING it would be done. It wasnt. They sent my fiance back out to the car to wait another 5-10 minutes. They weren't busy either time from what I can tell. So I get home with my food. The portions of each extra ingredient for how much I payed is kinda laughable. 4 pieces of broccoli for 1.50? There were items that came with the ramen I ordered not included for either soup. I wasn't even notified of this. If you're out that's fine but let someone know. I payed about 23 dollars PER soup and there's barely anything. There were 4 tiny egg rolls for 4 dollars. I can't fathom what exactly I payed 50 some odd dollars for. This combined with the poor service I am not gonna spend my money here again. I'll take that money and spend...