Ramen Nara — Restaurant in Rogers

I've been to JeJu Noodle in NYC, and I've had ramen in Oahu's amazing shops, so I can say that this is the real deal! Don't come here expecting your college days' version of ramen, because you'll be disappointed. I liken it to someone eating Twinkies all their life and then having a made-from-scratch creme roll. They don't like it because all their life they've been accustomed to the inferior quality of their "first". Well, welcome to Adulting! The noodles are handmade on-site, as are the broth - vegetarian options as well, and gluten free noodles that are sourced from a supplier. Both hubby and I ordered the GF noodles and were at first skeptical that they were GF. We thought maybe they didn't get our order correctly, but the owner, Inggit, came over and asked how we liked them. He explained how they wanted celiac and GF diners to be able to eat with their family and friends, so they made the decision to find someone who could give them quality GF noodles. Boy, did they! The noodles were amazingly tasty, still very noodle-y and held up better than the shiratake (Pasta Zero) noodles we were used to making at home. I ordered the #5 Vegetable Ramen with an egg, which arrived whole, in its own bowl and was just slightly under medium boiled. The broth was creamy with the corn, scallions, bamboo shoots and wood-ear mushrooms and I actually almost finished the entire bowl! All that was left was one broccoli floret. Hubby had the #2 Shoyu Tonkkotsu Ramen with egg halves and fish cake slices in chicken/pork broth. The ramen is prepared assembly-line style with each kitchen staffer preparing their part of the ramen bowl, resulting in a perfectly presented ramen. We decided to order ramen to-go for the kid at home, and indulged in the mango mochi and red bean ice cream for dessert. The menu is varied and has something for everyone. Inggit mentioned how he appreciates diners' feedback and expanding the menu with more seafood. We told him the menu was fine as it was and agreed that we'd rather he be excellent at a few things than mediocre in many things. Give them a try, don't expect store bought ramen, and appreciate the slow cooked broths and hand made noodles. We'll be back soon, you...

Considering the great reviews for this place, I genuinely can't tell if my experience here was the result of an extremely off night or if people in Arkansas have no idea what good ramen is.

On a positive note, the decor and atmosphere of this place was quite nice in our opinions.

After waiting about 20 minutes to be seated at our table (which is understandable considering they were somewhat busy), it took the waitress about 15 minutes to arrive at our table where we ordered our drinks and food at the same time. We both ordered the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen, which we then waited about 40 minutes for and, unfortunately, it was not even remotely worth the wait.

I wanted to start off with some positive aspects of the dish. The noodles were cooked well as well as the mushrooms. Also, the egg was properly soft boiled.

As for the negatives, the ramen broth was watery and bland with a very mild porky taste and little to no seasoning. The soft boiled egg, which is usually supposed to be marinated in soy and gives it a nice brown color, was white and bland looking and was ice cold, like it was just pulled from the fridge and plopped into my bowl. The bamboo shoots were also ice cold. Finally, the chashu or pork belly was genuinely the worst I've ever had. Chashu is supposed to be a fairly thick piece with a soft, melt in your mouth texture and seared after cooking to give it a browned exterior. This chashu was pale white, practically as thin as a cold cut, and yet it was so tough that I had to tear at it to even get my teeth through it. It had no flavor whatsoever except for a very off-putting flavor that I can only describe as uncooked vegetable oil.

As for the service, I understand that it was a bit busy, but the waitress (who, at least, was nice and polite) only came to our table to take our order, give us our drinks, give us our food, and give us the check. We didn't get any refills on our water and we had to ask for chopsticks after our food arrived without them.

Overall, as much as I want to believe that some of their food is better, I don't want to take a chance considering we ordered their most basic ramen dish and almost every part of it turned...

There's equal parts good and bad in this review. I really struggled with this one, being between 3 star and 4 stars, and here are the reasons for it -

Example A: The 'Takoyaki' platter. It's currently priced at $6, comes out in portions of 6 total, and the size is smaller than a meatball per each. They were really good, but the price-to-portion size left me disappointed.

Edit: We started off with the order of Takoyaki to our meal, but the couple that was seated right after us received their order before we got our own, even though our order was placed before them... Wasn't sure how to feel about that, but I remained patient because I was excited to get my own order.

Example B: First dinner item on the menu is their #1 HAKATA TONKOTSU. The bowl it comes in is smaller then your normal bowl of Pho from other local restaurants, and it's priced at $12. Average portion of noodles, maybe two whole slices of chashu pork, small amount of bamboo shoots(5-7), small amount of wood ear mushrooms, and it only comes with half a soft boil egg. Again, the food was delicious. The noodles in the dish however, were sticking together at certain bits instead of separating during the cooking period. Didn't really bother me, as I said it was all delicious... but I was very much hoping to be more 'wow'ed.

Example C: Guest with me ordered the #7 SEAFOOD SHIO. On the description of the bowl, it says 'scallop'. They were right. 1 Scallop in the bowl. Shrimp was there, 3-4 clams, shallots ... and again, not a whole 'soft-boiled egg'. There was only half of one. This dish item was priced at $14, and again we were left with a feeling of 'That's it?' for the price point.

Totaled up with our drinks, the meal came out to around $40 (averaged with tip).

Kinda disappointing, was expecting way more from the experience. Guessing it's not a place for lower income individuals coming up from Springdale... Which is fine. There's still Lin's Garden, and my favorite restaurant in town: Mandarin Bistro. For budget's sake, I don't think we would return unless it was a...