Underground Ramen — Restaurant in Town of Ramapo

We were excited to try this new restaurant, given the catchy name reminiscent of a cool NYC noodle house. Upon arrival to the location the decor and outdoor setup was very inviting. But to our disappointment the ambitious and seemingly creative menu failed in execution. If you know how real ramen tastes like and are expecting food with traditionally bold Asian flavors, this is NOT the place for you. You will be paying for an overpriced bland meal, when the prepackaged $4 Tonkatsu microwaveable soup from Costco tastes more authentic than the ramen here. First of all, the name of the restaurant is Underground Ramen- but the menu only has 2 types of ramen. Taking the name aside, the ramen and izakaya-(Japanese bar food) inspired dishes were mostly bland and lacked robust flavor. We started with the scallion pancake appetizer, which was nothing but a tasteless, dense oily disc of pan fried dough (read: not crispy) of rice flour with meager slivers of scallion that was accompanied by overly sweet hoisin sauce on the side. Considering how cheap scallions and rice flour are, there could have been a little more scallion and salt mixed in to make it more edible. My husband ordered the chicken ramen, which was nothing but watery bland broth with chicken strips and frozen popcorn shrimp. The crispy plantain looked fancy on top, but was a soggy mush within a second of serving and provided no flavor to the dish. I had the drunken noodles, which to my disappointment consisted of mushy overcooked bland sheets of rice noodles that stuck together in one blob, topped with (the same dipping sauce) overly sweet hoisin sauce, with obviously frozen ground turkey mixed in. It tasted like the noodles and turkey were boiled together, placed in a bowl and served that way, drizzled with hoisin sauce. Bland, bland, bland! I don’t think I’ve ever had drunken noodles with ground turkey or hoisin ; the chef should have opted for well seasoned ground chicken and steamed bok choy. Even just sea salt and a drizzle of sesame oil would have tasted better than that awful hoisin sauce. I had one bite of each of our orders and could not be bear to take another. The waitstaff was polite enough, but considering an empty restaurant and only 3 parties at the outdoor dining tables , service was still slow and the waitress even forgot to give us utensils when our food came. At the end of our meal, the waitress came and asked if I wanted the leftover food to go, we had to politely decline. The chef/owner needs to revisit the menu, and perhaps visit a real ramen or izakaya like Ippudo. For more flavorful Asian comfort soups and bites in Rockland, save your money and go to Little Vietnam in Nyack or Cho Cho...

I read about this new ramen restaurant in the newspaper so thought I'd give it a try. The food was edible but pricey. However, my experience was disappointing. We couldn't find a website so I drove over to order. I explained that the ramen was for a vegetarian, and I was told it could be made without meat products. I was also told that this would take 20 to 25 minutes. After waiting 20 minutes, I returned to the counter and was told "our mistake - the ramen can't be prepared vegetarian ". I left, then immediately called to see about some different vegetarian dish to bring home. The person on the phone recommend a noodle dish. I said I didn't want to wait another 20 minutes and I was assured this would be ready in 5 to 10 minutes "as long as it takes to heat up noodles and vegetables " I was told. After 10 minutes, I went to the counter. The same young lady greeted me and offered to take my order. I explained that I had already ordered and had been told 5 to 10 minutes. She walked away, and I waited. And waited. I tried to get the attention of either young women working there but both ignored me. I almost followed them into the kitchen. Finally, I rang their phone to try to get someone to come out. At almost 20 minutes, the food finally was brought to me. I commented that I'd been told 5 to 10 additional minutes and the reply I got was "we're busy". I explained that, as I'd originally stated, I didn't plan to wait an additional 20 minutes to get the food to being home. Her reply? "You can cancel the order". I paid and left. There was no real apology offered and my son, who wanted ramen, didn't even like the noodles and didn't try the peppers. Very...

They are off to a good start, but found certain menu items to be hit or miss. The scallion pancakes, and pho que tacos are absolutely fantastic. I wish I could say the same for the Oxtail Spring Roll which was so soggy the entire thing fell apart when I went to pick it up. We also tried the tempura cod taco which has a lot of potential but missed the mark. Fish fried well, but sauce on the bottom with soggy lettuce and clumpy rice on top made it hard to eat and gave a displeasing texture. I am hoping to try them again once they have time to make improvements. On a final note, the pineapple fried rice and wings looked...