Zen Ramen & Poke — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

For Pittsburgh, the ramen is outrageously good. I'd say it's definitely one of the top though IMO the quality has slightly dropped since opening.

I got the black garlic ramen. The broth is oily and slightly creamy. There's also an oil layer at the top, reminiscent of some of the popular tonkotsu ramen places in other parts of the USA. You're given a choice of 2 noodles, so I picked the wavy noodles. Unsure if they make the noodles themselves or not, but the noodles are up to par, cooked perfectly al dente. There are popular places I've tried in other parts of the USA, and this is fairly competitive to them.

Other pluses: Service was fast and the owner is quite personable.

From the time I ordered the food, the ramen came back to me in about 8-12 minutes. I was done 30 minutes from sitting down.

I asked how exactly they got the tonkotsu broth right, and it turns out they 24 hour cook the broth, which is standard practice in the industry.

The other ingredients were also good. They only give half an egg with the standard order, but the egg is perfectly cooked... non-runny but liquidy inside perfectly marinated in soy sauce which passes the ramen restaurant benchmark with flying colors. The chashu pork is definitely above average and may be the best in Pittsburgh.

I also wanted to call out a review or two claiming the ramen wasn't authentic. I'm sorry, you guys need to really try the famous ramen places in the USA/Japan before dismissing the this place. Just because they're Chinese owned doesn't mean it's not legitimate. You'll be surprised to see the ingredient list of some the older Pittsburgh ramen places. And yes, the tonkotsu broth is legitimate.

This place should be popular, and I expect it to be very soon. The only minus is that this is in Fox Chapel where the 28 and Highland Park Bridge are a nightmare. I just feel the location doesn't truly tap into the Pittsburgh market as well as it should. I feel that if they opened a spot in the city as opposed to the suburbs, people will literally line out the door, especially if they figure out a city location with a late opening time. Regardless, we are extremely lucky to finally have a legitimate ramen restaurant in the Pittsburgh area. I'll definitely go back and try the other ramen....

So conflicted on this one because I had some of the best and some of the worst.

Let's start with the good The drinks they have are really good and taste super good. They are steep at $5 a pop but they do have a wonderful taste.

The appetizers we got were excellent

The poke bowl was loaded up and the tuna and crab I got was good. The avocado was fresh and you can customize the poke any way you like. For $15 it's a decent price.

Ok so the bad now. 1.) The Ramen certainly looks the part but a lot was missing and the taste was off-putting to me. I got the NY Steak one and not only was the steak super chewy but it had zero flavor. Like they grilled it with zero spices and just cut it up and dumped it in. The noodles were felt like spaghetti noodles and we're very sticky, was not easy to not get a giant blob every time I went for some making slurping them up a change. Finally the broth had a used baby diaper sort of smell and the taste of the broth was pretty nasty. Something with the broth base was off and it was the worst I have had in the area by a lot. I ended up eating only about 10% of the bowl and could not stomach the rest. The 10% I did eat left my body shortly after in a very explosive manor.

2.) The service was pretty bad, the language barrier was really high and some of the stuff we ordered never came and some of the stuff we ordered was wrong. They seemed very eager to get as many people through as possible as we were not even half way through our meal before they dropped off the check. I would have ordered at least another drink but as they closed the check I was unable to do so.

The total bill for my family with dinner and drinks was 140 before tax and tip and for that I feel like I didn't even get half that in value.

I think this place has potential as it's in a good spot with easy parking and is basically brand new but they need to work on their ramen and...

Don’t come here if you’re looking for flavorful ramen or good service. It’s been a year since I was in Japan, and if you’ve ever been, you know the ramen there is incredible—often found in the most unexpected little shops. So when I saw “authentic Japanese ramen,” I was excited. Unfortunately, this was neither authentic nor good.

We ordered the tonkotsu ramen (which should be a rich pork broth) and the spicy seafood ramen. Both bowls came out quickly, and the portions were generous. Instead of proper ramen spoons, though, they gave us oversized ladles that were awkward to use, along with chopsticks.

The spicy seafood ramen was bland and completely lacked heat—even by Japanese standards. It had raw shrimp, crab sticks, and fish cakes, but no real flavor. The togarashi (chili powder) on the table was in an open container and added no spice, no matter how much we used. The same went for the garlic.

The tonkotsu ramen was the biggest disappointment. In Japan, this broth is rich, thick, and full of depth. Here, it had zero flavor. The noodles were clumped together and buried in the broth instead of being prepared with care. Many of the toppings seemed prepackaged: canned corn, bamboo shoots, cold fish cakes. The ramen egg was flavored with Chinese five spice, which was very off-putting.

We were only a few bites into our bowls when our check arrived—already including a credit card service fee. Our server never checked on us, and the whole experience felt rushed, especially since we didn’t order the bubble tea they were pushing before we ordered our ramen. We left still hungry and...