Miso Good Ramen — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

I was really torn between 3 stars and 4. Our visit tonight was at the very top of the 3 range. The mediocre service is going to keep it in the 3 range for me for now.

I think Miso Good needs to figure out if it wants to be a nice dinner spot, or a street food ramen joint. The decor is nice, but dinner was served with paper napkins. The service was adequate but not special. The beverage menu quite anemic. A few sodas in cans, a few beers and Sakes, and a grand total of four wines.

We had the Tokyo Shoyu Chasu Pork Ramen $12 and the Chicken Paitan Shoyu Ramen $14. The Chicken was the tastier of the two broths. Both had decent flavor but lacked any complexity. Both were thin broths with no mouth feel and no depth of Umami. The Chasu Pork was tender and just barely dry. Both bowls had limited additions besides noodles. They did have very well treated bok choy. But no other noticible vegetables or mushrooms. Both had a dissapointing half of a six minute egg that had not been marinated and no apparent option for additional egg.

I am going to also say that I'm disappointed they do not have a tonkatsu broth. Whether that is an intentional choice or beyond the capability of the kitchen I'm not sure.

I think they may benefit from a slightly expanded menu. Something brave like takoyaki or gyudon...

The ramen here is consistently good, I've been several times over the past year. The broth is creamy, full of flavor, and the eggs are really soft and a little runny. I love getting the Kimchi Ramen and my friend usually loves the Paitan. I also love the spicy edamame, it's in like a garlic chili sauce. They also do a good job with takeout orders and package the food well.

My only cons with this place are:

1. they always take forever to bring out your ramen, no matter how busy or not busy this place is, the ramen takes forever.
2. its very expensive in my opinion, especially for certain sides and they skimp on some ingredients. For instance, although I love the Kimchi Ramen, the actual amount of kimchi they put in it is not much. I was really disappointed this most recent time because there was a lot more raw cabbage than kimchi, and when I expressed my disappointment and asked for more, they gave me a super tiny side of kimchi and charged me $3 for it.
3. Green tea is pricey for what you get - they gave it to me in like an 6oz cup that wasn't insulated so my hands burned trying to hold it, and the cup still had the sticker on the side from wherever they bought it. Kinda tacky.

Overall I do enjoy this spot! But I hope they improve on these things to make their...

Place seems short handed. Stood waiting without greeting for what seemed a long time. When eventually offered a place at the bar, waited there for a long time. Server eventually said they were the only server downstairs. Ok. Eventually were able to place order. The beer I asked for, from their menu, they were out of. Substituted a hop shovel from Bear Republic. Delicious. The steamed veggie Gyoza were also delicious. The sauce was wonderfully fiery. Now just had to wait for the ramen. I ordered the Tokyo shoyu chasu Ramen. My wife ordered the vegan miso. My ramen reminded me of an onion soup, there was so much onion in it. The pork was good, but not as flavorful as some places. The quantity of noodles was somewhat underwhelming. My wife felt her ramen suffered from a super abundance of cabbage. All in all, good, but really, there are better options available...