JaRamen — Restaurant in Sarasota

Quick update, Came back to give them another try since they officially opened up. While they have fixed the outside, and some of the inside. My opinions on the food have not changed unfortunately. It was still rushed out within minutes, and was not flavorful or tasteful. This time I had the tonkotsu and takoyaki, to ensure I was trying something different.

I can't help but also notice when I came to edit my review. It seems like a lot of bot accounts are leaving reviews here. Not a good look in my opinion.

Original review: Upon driving up to the restaurant the first appearance from the outside is awful. No exterior signs and wires are hanging from the top of the building. I could barely tell if I was even at the right place. Walked in and saw a bunch of staff eating their food while there were no customers. No style or atmosphere to indicate this is a ramen place, and just lacking any design or tvs or anything to make you want to stay there or even enjoy your time there.

I felt overwhelmed by the amount of food options on the menu, sometimes having less options is better.

After sitting down my food was brought out in 3 mins! Incredible I don't think I've ever been to a place that had my food out that fast, which honestly made me a bit worried, as for ramen and takoyaki you would certainly think it takes longer then a couple minutes to make fresh.

The presentation looked appetizing. However, after taking one bite of the takoyaki you can clearly tell that it wasn't microwaved thoroughly because the outside was hot but inside still cold/frozen. Never finished.

Upon seeing my ramen it didn't look like any traditional ramen I've had before. As it was lacking an egg, it contained bok choy, and bean sprouts which is something I've never seen in any shoyu ramen. The worst thing was the chashu and the broth, the chashu was stiff as rock and not tender one bit, while the broth had no flavor to it and made me not want to drink the broth as I normally would. I also cannot express how the bok choi and bean sprouts do not fit this ramen and ruin the taste and the respect one should for Japanese ramen. I could hardly finish it.

For the price they are asking, this should be a proper restaurant and not a fast food joint where currently the quality is very low and the food comes out faster than McDonald's. For a chain ramen place you would expect at least decent quality, but this was far from it.

Won't be back for sure there are so much better ramen joints in Bradenton/Sarasota...

I've been anticipating the opening of this local ramen place ever since learning that the Vietnamese place in the same location was closing. I feel like there's something left to be desired in the veggie ramen bowl, like some level of complexity and depth in the broth itself was lacking. I think the mix of veggies could be improved, as the cabbage shreds in my bowl were still raw, and there were no mushrooms of any kind (other than the wood ear fungus, which seemed like they were not soaked long enough in water because of how crunchy the strands were), which makes me believe it needs an umami boost. The small strips of ginger in it are unpleasant to bite into. Personally I would prefer less seaweed and more of a nutritious veggie like bok choy, which could be easily incorporated into other dishes. Today there was no tofu available, 2 hours after opening, which I understand could happen occasionally but was unfortunate that occurred during a vegetarian's visit. I did enjoy the noodles and appreciate the extra amount of overall veggies given to offset not having tofu, plus how the egg was included when it's normally not for this bowl. I think my food came out very quickly - typically that's good, but the ingredients mentioned above needed more time to soften, so in this case slowing down a little would not be detrimental at all. I'm very glad they have several veggie options for the other entree types they serve, and I was pleasantly surprised to see taiyaki (fish shaped filled pastry) on the menu and will try that next time. In a while, I'll come back to try the...

Ramen is a food that holds a large place in my heart. I’ve experienced it coast to coast in all of its uniqueness and make it personally at home. 18+ hour pork broth, homemade tare, etc.

Unfortunately, JaRamen falls short in every category.

My order: Tonkotsu Ramen and a chashu pork bun

The ramen… The ramen was flavorless. The broth was mostly just hot greasy water. The food had absolutely no flavor. Nothing. It wasn’t salted or savory. It was just .. bland. The chashu pork was tough and tasted like what you’d imagine boiled pork to taste like. Like it had been boiled in hot unsalted water. Left a nice film on the soft pallet.

The pork bun… loaded with an unholy sum of mayo, a slimy, fleshy, tough shave of pork, and more mayonnaise-y slaw which absolutely doesn’t belong. Would also absolutely not recommend.

This is an overpriced college students establishment. Kids who’ve never left their town, much less state or country, but have enough money to skip McDonalds. This is ramen you choose after you slam a copious amount of alcohol. The Taco Bell of ramen restaurants.

Would not recommend. There are several other ramen houses between Bradenton and Sarasota that are phenomenal. Don’t...