Speakeasy Ramen — Restaurant in Springfield

I really don’t know what to say about this place except that the service was one of the most horrendous experiences. We arrived after traveling from Colorado Springs, and picking up our daughter for a dinner and first time visit for myself. Needless to say when we arrived it’s a Friday evening, however not that busy. We were greeted by the bar tender where she explained that the available table would get cleaned right away. We waited 15 min for the table to get clean sitting on the bench. We were able to go through some of the beautiful art work for entertainment. Not thinking much of it the bar tender apologized for the wait after cleaning the table, we sat down. A waitress took our drink orders and said the menu was available online. We took a look and within 5 minutes knew what we wanted. She came back after delivering the first set of drinks and we place our order. We had a ramen and order for two tacos which we thought were a complete meal, not single tacos. Three measly entrees. That she couldn’t “remember.” After about thirty minutes three refills rand a bustling crowd, we were more than frustrated that a patron kept acting like we weren’t sitting at the table next to the kitchen. She was acting like she was going to sit in the spare seat next to our daughter, kept placing her drink on the table, and tapping the table. Four grown adults including herself were blocking the waitress from coming in and out of the kitchen. My husband was clearly frustrated. So being the reasonable one I approached the waitress who at this time was behind the bar at the kiosk. I politely asked if she could ask the patrons to step way from our table into an open area near the bar where there was some standing room. At that time she also mentioned that our ticket was the only one not placed for order and asked what we ordered. I recited our order, and she said thank you. She went over to the patrons after I had approached them and asked them to politely step away from our table. Explained to them it would be better for us and the waitress entering in and out of the kitchen. The two women of the group were clearly sloshed and bothered about my request. They did move totally out of our way after then waitress asked them too, but not without snarling, and piercing glares at my husband. After about another 15 minutes the waitress comes out with two measly single tacos that were $9.00 each. I mean the meat was good, but not that good. We were already hungry from the long trip and this was recommended by our daughter who had been here more than once with other family members. She was so full off of her boboa drink that we had to pack her ramen soup entree up to take home. After profusely apologizing the waitress ended giving taking 10% off, but we clearly should have received a free taco or meal. For being out of towners, I would only recommend coming to this restaurant during less business hours or possibly being the correct demographic for the area. We weren’t humored by the rude entitled patrons or the lack of speedy service and casual...

Since I needed to try a few items in order to give a proper review, I started with the Rangoon. Typically, when I have had Rangoon, it has crab in it with cream cheese. That was not the case with these. These were labeled as having shrimp, hot sauce, scallions, and cream cheese and were served with a house made chili sauce. The sauce had a spicy kick to it, but the Rangoon had a spicy kick all their own. I cannot say for sure that I tasted shrimp, the same as I cannot say I ever tasted crab in a crab Rangoon. The consistency in the inside was reminiscent of a buffalo chicken dip and I have to say this Rangoon was quite tasty, the best I have had thus far. Friend one was hesitant, but came back for seconds on the Rangoon. Friend two enjoyed them from the first bite and considered trying to duplicate them at home. Next, because I am a carnivore, I had to go with the ribs. These seemed to be flash fried and were served with an Asian glaze. They were tender and crispy and delicious. They were thoroughly enjoyed by all. Friend one had to slather on some more sauce. Friend two was trying to figure out what the coating was on the outside of the ribs that made them crispy. We settled on perhaps cornstarch (?) We all went with a ramen noodle dish. Friends one and two ordered the Szechuan Ramen and this was labeled as spicy, due to the Szechuan oil. It was a nice size bowl of Tonkotsu ramen broth and also had a soft boiled egg in it w/ scallions and aonori which is a green seaweed. You could add a protein to it. Friend one added pork belly and Friend two added pork belly and grilled shrimp. Friend one enjoyed the pork belly immensely, and finished off the broth with a quickness. The spice level was no problem for Friend one. Friend two enjoyed their Ramen as well and thought the combination of the pork belly and shrimp was great despite beginning to feel numbness in their tongue. This did not hold Friend two back from continuing to eat. My only experience with ramen had been the cup of ramen noodle soup you buy at the grocery store for next to nothing. I gotta say, there is absolutely no comparison when you have the real thing. I went with the milder Tonkotsu Ramen (see attached photo). It contained a bone marrow and miso broth, pork belly, soft boiled egg, mushroom, corn, scallion, and bok choy. I am not a fan of a runny egg, but it worked well mixed in with everything else. The pork belly was tender, crispy and oh so flavorful. The broth…….the broth……I think I finally experienced an umami flavor. The broth was so rich and complex and the dish was so filling. There was such a wonderful balance of flavors in that one bowl of soup the right adjectives don’t come to mind. It is something you would have to experience for yourself. So in case you can’t tell, Speakeasy Ramen is a must try and I will...

Saw a friend post on fb that they ate here and they were raving about how good it is. Well me and the gf drove and hour and made a day trip to the Dayton/Springfield area. Hit a couple shops then have some Ramen for dinner.

We arrived and was a little confused. There was a sign on the corner of the patio fence that said closed. After a couple minutes we figured it was the patio that was closed. Ok, no big deal. It's in the 90s and we didn't feel like eating hot soup outside in that weather. Walk up to the door and felt like i was going to fall through the deck from the several loose boards. Get inside and sat at a table and noticed the inside could use some TLC but wasn't overly concerned about it. My issue with the interior was the lack of AC. It was so hot in there. We were both sweating before we got our drinks. The server was nice and took good care of us so not knocking her one bit. She always made sure we had our drinks refilled. We looked at the menu on our phones and decided what we wanted, placed our order and the food arrived rather quick. My gf got the Szechuan Ramen with fried chicken and I got the Tonkotsu Ramen with a side of the szechuan oil. We both like really spicy foods. This is where our experience dropped sharply. When our food came out we were warned it would be really spicy. No disrespect towards our server because she was good, but it was not spicy at all. I felt bad for my gf because of her food. It was just the noodles, an egg, and another plate of fried chicken. The chicken was over cooked and so stringy it was practically inedible. Mine wasn't bad but there was no point in the szechuan oil, no heat at all. My Ramen wasn't horrible. I liked the broth and the corn seemed really fresh. My biggest complaint was the way they did the pork. It was like they took the lazy way and grabbed cheap boneless pork ribs from the grocery store, soaked them in a brine and scorched them with the cooking torch. They were mostly fat and had little to no flavor. Maybe one or two bites of pork. Another issue I had was egg. It was good and flavorful but take the extra 2 seconds and cut it in half to make it easier for the customers to eat it. After we finished eating we paid and went outside to cool off in the 90...