JINYA Ramen Bar - Buford — Restaurant in Sugar Hill

Take out Review: So just to give this place credit, the atmosphere looked nice but you can tell it's super packed. Jinya tends to draw a crowd. So I understand if things were busy and caused the bad experience but overall this was our first experience with this location. To add to the experience I was about 10 min late to picking up my order. This location is in Buford. Next to Mall of Georgia it's always going to be packed here. I kept that in mind when I wanted to try this location.

We ordered 2 Ramen orders, a kids meal for our daughter, an ice cream, and chicken and salad. When I brought the food home our chicken was cold. Our daughter received her chicken and fries kids meal and her fries were stale and limp. Not a good look. Even after reheating the food, it was still unappetizing. She just wanted her ice cream. The mochi ice cream was left with the soup and was melted by the time I brought it home. This prompted non-stop crying on my daughter's part (she's three btw). When I tried the chicken, the chicken was chewy and didn't have that crunch we were expected like when we normally order from Jinya in other locations. The soup also needed to be reheated as well. It was lukewarm. All in all to spend about $80 for all this was definitely not worth it. I think in the future we will order at a different location. This location seems too busy to dine in and it's To Go service leaves much to be desired.

What could have helped? If the mochi's were kept separated from the soup until the pickup person arrives would be helpful. The fries were limp but also there was barely any in our order. If I'm paying $13 for a kids meal there better be bigger portions than just 2 pieces of small chicken and some limp fries. Even the soda wasn't good. It wasn't even cold and it tasted watered down. At least our soup was fine. (At the very least for $20 a soup). Although my wife kept complaining that we never have these problems with our usual Jinya and the quality of the food didn't taste as good. So lesson learned. ($80 lesson painfully). We will stick to our original location. But to all those looking into this location, maybe it will be better to dine in person. I'm not comfortable to dining in with how busy it looks. If you are lucky enough to find parking and an available table best of luck. Parking lot is horrible...

The food was not good. This review is based on a pick-up order, not dine-in.

The review: Small plate: Takoyaki (Octopus Balls) were pleasant in flavour, but mushy in texture. Takoyaki is supposed to be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The octopus itself was the size of my pinky nail. The tentacles should be cut larger and less flour added. This dish was essentially a soft flour ball weighed down with sauces. The presentation & flavour combination in the Takoyaki did not go unnoticed. While the flavour was good, it was not good in texture. For the price of $12 dollars, you get little to nil octopus. Food for thought: it's comparable in price to calamari or octopus ceviche, but far less in quantity. It's considerably less octopus than other Takoyaki dishes as well.

Ramen: Both the Wonton Chicken Ramen and the JINYA Chicken Ramen were too salty for our taste buds. The broth was too rich/thick. Here's why— it's filled with fat! You are supposed to remove most of the fat when making chicken broth. (Separate and save for later use). As you can see in the photos, there is a heavy top layer of chicken fat. Of course a little fat adds flavour, but this is a ridiculous amount of fat to be serving the customers without them knowing. We could not finish our soups, not due to us being full, but because it was so oily that it became foul to eat. Mind over matter didn't help here. Once we saw the physical evidence in the fridge the next morning, we were disgusted. I'm a hardcore carnivore who loves a good ribeye or fatty white/dark piece of chicken, but I have to say, this grossed me out beyond measure. It reminded me of a yellow chunk of human fat. No one wants to drink chicken fat!!

Half of all three orders were thrown out. These three dishes are the only dishes we have tried. While I'm not vegan, perhaps the vegan ramen dishes are more tolerable at Jinya Ramen Bar. We will not be back due to the food preparation/recipe. A picture is worth a thousand words without my long drawn out explanation, but here are...

Edit: I'm updating my review because the manager reached out to me and has gone out of her way to make sure I was satisfied. Even with that, I've been to the restaurant a few other times and food seems to have gotten much better. I went a few nights ago and the ramen I had was some of the best I've had from Jinya in a while, so it seems like things are getting better and most importantly (to me) is they seem to be committed to making sure their customers are satisfied. We had a few issues with our drinks, but it was taken care of. And again, the ramen was great! Thank you, guys! My previous review is below -

I was really looking forward to a location only 20 minutes from my house vs. the 45 min - 1 hr time frame of the other locations.The store opened on the 1st, and I've already been 3 times. That's how much I love Jinya. Unfortunately, this location is just not up to par. The first night we went, my boyfriend (who got what he's been getting for the last 3 years) hated his ramen. He couldn't figure out why, just that it wasn't good. My food (creamy vegan ramen) was okay. It tasted like one of the more "off" days at either the Sandy Springs or Roswell location. I let it pass because it was the second day of the restaurant opening. Servers were very friendly but not super attentive. They were definitely packed so I just didn't think about it, aside from the female server working in the bar area, who couldn't seem to pay any attention to anyone aside from the guy she was flirting with. The second two times, I went it alone and just went it for pickup, and every time I go to Jinya, I order the same thing: Spicy Creamy Vegan and the Impossible Tacos, so why is it that each of these two times, I felt like I was eating a completely different ramen?? Each time, my actual ramen was completely different-tasting/different toppings that I didn't ask for and something was missing from the order (my fault for not checking...). Safe to say I'll just be making the hour drive to go to one of the other...