Oishii Ramen オイシイラーメン — Restaurant in Wausau

I never left a review until now due to me hearing about this place, I then decided to try it and this is my honest review. Please do not be offended nor triggered, this is just how my personal experience was, it won’t be like this for everybody, but this is how it was for me. Took a while to be seated The ramen broth tasted awful, same with the ramen noodles, the noodles tasted store bought as if it was left in plastic for a long time. The chicken kastu, was okay, there was too much rice compared to meat to most likely cover up the rest of the cost, for what it’s worth, it isn’t worth it. The short ribs were, okay, not too bad, not too good, could be seasoned better, and over all made better. And the mochi ice cream, isn’t the best, it taste and looks the exact same at the store bought $6 for 6 pieces, but they charge $4.50 for 2 pieces, I understand restaurants, but the mochi ice cream wasn’t that good, I’d rather spend the extra $1.50 to get 6 instead of just 2. The service was nice however, the lady was attentive and very nice. The building is quite beautiful, reminds me of lemon grass. The menu reminds you of Lemon grass, Phozone, and Brokogi. Over all, this place is nice, it’s just a restaurant I’d try once and never again. The atmosphere and service doesn’t cover up for how bad the food truly was, my entire table was not satisfied. I’d rather take a 2hr drive to go to Chicago for ramen, than here. And you had to pay for side of rice for $2.50 which is crazy to me, for that much rice shluld at least be a $1 or $1.50 max. And I also dislike how there isn’t an option to not tip, and it feels like it’s very demanding to tip. They asked 3 times for tipping which made it uncomfortable to be honest, and when I declined nicely? They handed a receipt that gave an option to tip. I know it’s their job, but, future advice, just say “you could tip if you would want, but you don’t really need too” instead of “would you like to tip?” But, yeah, wouldn’t come here again over all, nice place, just pretty bland food. And everyone’s experience is entirely different, this...

Wausau finally gets Ramen! And it's actually decent?! The overall atmosphere in this place was a mixed bag though. Perhaps the owners are a little wary of Wausau's openness, but to me, it felt a little off. It was half modern contempo American, half Japanese/Asian themed. Country music in the background really sealed that feel. I get Wisconsin Bar feel, not authentic Japanese cuisine, but I guess that's fine.

Food: B+ We tried 4 different Ramen dishes. Woulda been more, but I'll be back to try more. I will also leave next time to try the appetizers as well as the other non-Ramen dishes. Since I am judging for Ramen alone, I'd give it a solid B. Two of the dishes were amazing (A)! The other two? If I didn't already try the previous two, these would've been fine on their own; Bs.

Service: C Waited for quite some time to get seated even though we were the only ones in line? I mean, not 30 mins nor anything like that, but for being the only people there, other than the current patrons, it was about 20 mins to be seated. We got served in a good amount of time. Refills & a request for napkins; I never was able to get a refill & had to ask twice for Napkins. Twice isn't much, but it was 30 mins between requests...& she forgot the 2nd time also. Perhaps they aren't fully staffed, yet, but this area could use a slight improvement. The hospitality of the staff is GREAT though.

Atmosphere: B Again, this is where I got a mix bag. At times, I felt I was having American fare. Then I'd turn my head & feel I was in an Asian Restaurant. And it kept going back & forth like this. And then I realized...I'm in Wausau (I'm not even sure what that last comment means); still diversifying/growing? I was able to block this out...

I'll be honest, I was actually interested in trying their stir fry and their Donburi, but considering it's my first time at the ramen restaurant in Wausau versus the other ramen I've had in Chicago and internationally, I figured I should probably get ramen. 😁

Food - the ramen, I got the Char Sui Ramen, shumai for appetizer and a Pepsi.

The shumai wasn't great, but not bad. Honestly, it tasted like a packaged version that was steamed. Not very flavorful. The ramen on the other hand, was very good. My only two issues: I would of like the bamboo shoots cut a little more narrow and the pork belly was hard to handle. There were 3 mid to large sized pork belly in the broth, so a good amount of meat. My only issue was picking it up with my chopsticks if they had been cut in half versus the more ovular form. Also, I thought they were a little chewy.

Overall the flavor was good. The ramen noodles tasted very similar to other ramen noodles I've had and Milwaukee, Chicago and in the Philippines. So very authentic.

Atmosphere - I love the pictures of the ramen bowls, the authentic ramen lanterns, and the other knick-knacks.

Service - they need to have at least one more person who is just in charge of the bar/hosting. You could watch as people walked in and no one was there to greet them or they waited for a bit to be seated. I ate at the bar and I actually had to wave someone down to get a refill of my Pepsi. The only time I was checked on was when they brought me food. Definitely need to hire one or two...