Zoë B.
Yelp
My original plan was to try co-op one additional time before writing this review. I understand that with a new restaurant come numerous problems and hiccups that early customers have to tolerate. So, I wanted to wait a few weeks and come back, and then write a thoughtful review. However, I don't think I will ever return, leaving me to write this review now.
The three main areas that were negative in my experience were the overall process, the service, and the food.
When I first arrived to the restaurant, I thought it was super cool looking! Although there is not extensive seating, there are several small booths, several bar style seating accommodations, and one large table that could accommodate a larger group. That being said, if you have a larger party than approximately four people I would recommend going elsewhere.
The restaurant is well decorated, with the majority being raw plywood. When you first walk in, you follow the signs that say "place your order this way", and unfortunately they weave you through a tight hallway past numerous diners and booths. It makes it kind of uncomfortable because while you're trying to walk through to find the counter to order, every single person dining turns to look at you.
Once you make it to the line, and wait through it, you end up at a cash register. However, this is the drink line only, and after ordering drinks you're pushed to another cash register for food ordering. You're also assigned a table, so there's no choosing where you want to sit, and once you sit your food it brought out to you.
My experience varied from the standard process that was explained to us, as they were on an order hold when we arrived, which meant we were not able to place an order until the kitchen got caught up. So, we ordered our drinks, and were assigned a specific table. After about a 45 minute wait, someone actually came to the table to take our order. Our orders were simple and didn't stray from the menu at all, but shortly after placing them we were told that the kitchen was out of two of the items we ordered. So, we had to scramble to decide what to order, and once we finally did, we assumed the confusion was behind us. Instead, we ended up having five bowls of ramen delivered to us when we only ordered three.
The wait staff that delivered us the food was incredibly confused, and frustrated. Attitude was emanating from them as we expressed our confusion and tried to figure out which dish was what. They wanted to bring us our food and move on, but it was uncomfortable for us all.
As we were all just getting our food and starting to eat, a woman came up to us (I think a manager) and said "I'm here for money". It caught us off guard, and although I'm sure she was trying to be funny, we had plans to order further beer and soda which we were unable to do. We also weren't able to see an itemized list of what we ordered, so we just had to blindly pay.
The food wasn't good either. I'm not a ramen snob at all, but I have had some legit ramen in nyc, and this paled in comparison. In fact, I was incredibly sick the entire evening after dinner! One bite of the "pork belly", which looked more like a dead cat's tongue, and my stomach turned. The flavor of the broth was good, but my ramen was cold and the pork belly seemed raw and unsafe to eat. It had no caramelized edges like pork belly ramen should. Another person in my group ordered their spiciest dish, and even I couldn't detect any spice.
Overall, we were really disappointed. We were at Co-op for over two hours, received nothing but negative and frustrating service, had sub par cold ramen, and no one was the least bit apologetic.
I understand that opening a new restaurant is hard, but you've got to do some apologizing when things go wrong if you want people like me to even consider coming back. I would recommend every single other restaurant at the 8th street market over Co-op. I hope things improve for future diners, but unfortunately I will not be returning.
