Iso Iso Ramen & Bar — Restaurant in Raleigh

i ordered from here off of uber eats tonight, because i had some uber eats credits to use up, and my nearest noodle shop was not on uber eats, so i gave this place a shot. pretty good! got the iso iso ramen (subbed the beef out for pork belly), shrimp tempura and strawberry fruit tea with boba. first off, the ramen was pretty decent. broth was flavorful and had a nice spice that built up quickly after a few bites, but it wasn’t too much. noodles were thinner than some noodles you might see at some other popular noodle spots in the triangle but still good, the thing that took the ramen from being great to decent was the pork belly. it was pretty salty, nothing too bad but definitely salty enough to remind me of eating spam. i happen to love spam, so that was fine, but definitely not the best pork belly i’ve ever had. if your go to ramen order is tonkatsu or any dish where pork belly is the star, places like noodle boulevard or ton noodles are definitely better. for the shrimp tempura, it was almost perfect, nice and crunchy but was just a little oilier than i’m used to. still good and paired well with the ramen. lastly, for the strawberry fruit tea, it was pretty good too. i’ve for sure had better fruit tea elsewhere but for the convenience of being able to get pretty good ramen and boba tea at the same place, i’d definitely return. i don’t know many sit-down restaurants that actually have GOOD boba tea, so this definitely stood out even if all of the food wasn’t necessarily exceptional. i think i should also point out that other noodle shops like noodle boulevard and ton noodles are a bit cheaper on average and have similar quality noodle dishes if not maybe a bit better, but menu options vary between these restaurants so really it all comes to your palette...

Tonight was my first experience in this restaurant. We arrived a little prior to close (I know I’m so sorry). Our server spoiler alert was so incredible beginning to end. My table actually found it comical at the way our server apologized when I dropped one of my chopsticks and asked for a new set it was so wholesome. The server also constantly bowed at several points during our night especially as we left and I am not certain whether this is restaurant training or his just own character but the respect and appreciation was abundant and clear. Now the food. I had the chicken bowl. I consider myself baby spicy. I enjoy some spice but I can’t handle very much. The chicken was my perfect ideal spicy it’s like they made it for me. This won’t be helpful for anyone that does not have my spice preference and I’m sure they can provide spicier options for those interested but I found the serendipity of my perfect spice level being accidentally perfectly found at this restaurant to be special. They don’t know my spice level they did not attune it perfectly for me so this doesn’t exactly speak to their quality and skill I was just personally astonished and affected by being so satisfied by my meal. Special moment of spice aside my meal was delicious and it seemed everyone else at the table with their meals agreed. We were the last to leave the restaurant but never rushed. Nearly forgot we all also ordered a variety of teas which were delicious. A full bar. Delicious teas. Incredible food that somehow exactly knows what I want. Respect and amazing customer service. I can not recommend this restaurant enough and I cannot...

Stopped by for lunch and loved the ambience and vibe of the place. Service was very good, although they messed up my bubble tea order twice, they were very polite about it and tried to fix it. The food overall was good, but the ramen was a bit of a disappointment for me because I thought it was catered to more of an American palette, and lacked the umami flavors that I look for in Japanese ramen. I started with a Karaage chicken appetizer, and that was very good. Based on the quality of the appetizer, I was expecting the ramen to be amazing, I’ve seen how good it looked in social media and I really hyped it up mentally. Their signature spicy ground beef ramen did not taste the way I imagined. The creamy ramen broth lacked the depth of flavor and richness I was hoping for because it didn’t have that meatiness from a nicely aged stewed broth. The spicy ground beef lost its flavor as soon as it was submerged in the broth, and the corn didn’t go well with the dish because combined with the ground beef, you ended up with a sort of corn beef soup once you finished your noodles, which tasted like an American soup more than a ramen. I also tried the vegetarian ramen, and it had better broth, but the tofu was sweet and threw off the balance of flavors. The sushi was great though and beautifully prepared. But for a ramen place to not have a killer broth, I couldn’t rate it higher. Hopefully next time I try a different ramen and it’ll change my mind. Definitely worth a visit and a great place to meet up with friends for...