Sam Ramen — Restaurant in The Woodlands

My wife and I have been waiting for Sam Ramen to open for a long time. Our first visit did not disappoint. We strickly came in for ramen although we do love sushi and well pretty much every other option on the menu. We both ended up choosing the same ramen this visit, the Garlic Black Bean Ramen. It was very tasty, I know people are very picky about their ramen as we are too. We do have our favorites and definite not favorites. That being said this is up there with our favorites! Great flavor, not a one note broth. The chashu was fall apart and smoky. If one suggestion, the soy egg needs more marinating and less of a boil but remember the restaurant is a day old they are still growing.

Since that visit we have gone back today. I always have my wife choose the sushi and rolls and she keeps track of the ones we have at different locations to remember which we love and do not love. So tonight we had appetizers, sushi, rolls, and I had a different bowl of ramen. I'll say mine first which was the Tonkotsu. Great buttery flavor in the broth along with even more smoky chashu the egg is improving (Not as hard of a boil) I do wish it were a whole soft boil egg, I love that opening that and the creamy yolk mixing with the broth.

Appetizers we had were the egg rolls and Yakitori which OMG! Yes 2 dozen of both please!

My wife ordered the sushi for both of us. Nagiri was Hamachi and Unagi both were very fresh and large. We both would like a little more sauce on our Unagi but it still tasted great.

As for rolls we had Philladelphia, Pasadena, and Snow White. I won't go into great detail about them but all were very good, both of our favorite of those would be the Snow White. I'm sorry we didn't take pics of all, we dug in because they looked delicious and forgot to take a pic... next time.

I know some love to complain about this and that when a new place opens but they don't think there is a learning/growing curve and give them a chance oh yeah and don't be ignorant... a little understanding goes a long way. Trust me we showed up a little after 8pm opening night and were turned away because they ran out of a lot of items and instead of saying sorry all we have is this or that they would rather you come back and enjoy the full menu. We came back the next night which was our first visit detailed above. Give them a shot because they will...

Absolute worst ramen I’ve ever had. I didn’t think it was possible for me to like packaged ramen more than something from a restaurant, and Sam Ramen took that as a challenge, apparently. I love restaurant ramen, I can’t eat anything pre packaged anymore because of how much I love it. My favorite ramen spot in town is a bit of a drive from me, and was closed at the time of ordering, so I decided to try this place out since it’s a lot closer and was open. Possible worst culinary mistake of my life. I ordered the original tonkotsu (which is a whopping $3 more expensive than the place I normally order from). The presentation was nice, I had high hopes for the actual taste. I don’t think there are words for how flabbergasted I was upon pouring the soup base in and tasting just how horribly bland it was. Please believe me when I say it has absolutely 0 flavor, i was essentially drinking oily lukewarm water. Not even the faintest hint of salt. The noodles don’t absorb the soup base at all and taste pre packaged. The chashu was tough to chew and burnt. I only got half of an egg (which was also the highlight of the meal, but for $15 I want the whole egg).

really wish I could get my money back but it seems like “this was the worst thing I’ve ever eaten” isn’t a good enough excuse for uber. Oh well. At least it was a learning experience. If I sit and shake salt onto this thing for 10 minutes and microwave it maybe it...

We were watching the construction with great anticipation and were not disappointed at all!

First time we tried to go was the night they opened but we got there late and they were out of everything. I respect that they said they couldn't seat us verses us being disappointed with no choices.

So we tried again the next day. We started with goyza and the filling was tasty with a nice crisp on the outside. Both of us had the garlic black bean ramen. I`ve had a lot of ramen and this is up there. The broth had balance and flavor, the noodles had great texture. The chashu had a smoky hint which was unique and lovely. Service was fast and friendly. My only ding would be the egg - it was overdone and could use a bit more marinating time. But I slurped my bowl and I don't do that everywhere.

We went again tonight. This time the appetizer was egg rolls and yakitori. I could go and just have mounds of those! The yakitori was just the right sweet and char. He had the tonkotsu and it was buttery. I ordered yellowtail and eel nigiri and both were fresh. Also got 3 rolls - Philadelphia (I was feeling nostalgic), Pasadena, and Snow White. Quality ingredients all around and perfect balance of flavors and textures. I'd get everything again over and over. But a lot more to try so already looking forward to our next visit - maybe tomorrow :)

Definitely...