Pearl Lee
Google
Koro leaves much to be desired, food and service wise. We eat a lot of ramen and were excited to see a Japanese spot open in Eastie; I signed up for the weekly specials newsletter as a reminder to go. Won’t hold to Tokyo standard, but will hold it to other ramen that we’ve had in Boston (e.g., Santouka (our go-to), Yume Wo Katare, and the place in Chinatown across from Asana Sushi that rebranded recently)
Service/Ordering :
• No wait to order and seat 4 around 7:30pm, though seating quickly ran out after. Would recommend for parties of 4 or less
• Several of us had questions on type of wavy/straight noodles used. Descriptions or photos would be helpful, because the wavy noodles turned out to be a non-conventional recipe.
• When I ordered miso ramen with wavy noodles, I was met with “oh I think they already come with wavy…nevermind it doesn’t say on the menu.” Staff should be more knowledgeable; I expect this from a student pop-up, less so from a restaurant that’s been open for more than a month. I’m just following the 1-2-3-4 ordering steps, it was choose your broth and then your noodles.
• I doubt many folks know what kukirage mushrooms are. Might be clearer to say “wood ear”, if you ever do a display revamp
• During ordering, it is unclear whether you still get a third free topping if you opt for a paid topping. Partner got the bok choy, mushrooms, and $1.50 egg, but should’ve been able to add a fourth.
• Kitchen was out of pork chashu two hours before closing, not a great look.
• Please offer your guests cups and/or a setup for free tap water
• Lights were lowered about 40% halfway into our meal even though it was ~8:15pm, far from 10pm closing time—mildly disruptive to our table’s conversation but mostly just confusing for a second
• Most people’s attention is on the main menu when ordering and the weekly special flyer is easily missed. Just an observation.
Food:
• Chicken karaage was the highlight of the meal. Crispy batter without being too dry and good flavor on the chicken. The scallions don’t add anything when they’re underneath the chicken though, suggest leaving them out.
• Miso ramen: the shiitake mushrooms were cold and watery (they should be marinated), the noodles were oddly spongey (instead of chewy & bouncy), and the miso broth was a disappointment—sharp but also lacked flavor and umami, as if the broth was thrown together 30 min ago and wasn’t given time to meld. Curious what kind of miso was used. Portions of corn and mushrooms were generous but only two leaves of bok choy? Chashu pork belly was reasonable—could be more tender, but the flavor was there.
• Partner got the tonkatsu ramen. It was a thicker broth but still lacked flavor, as if flour was used to thicken it instead of aging pork bones properly. Was there any tare (seasoning sauce) added? He was similarly disappointed with the plain, cold mushrooms and $1.50 only netted half an egg.
• I acknowledge this is subjective but the ramen spoons are comically large. I initially thought they were spoon rests.
• I mean this in the nicest way possible, but perhaps consider lowering the frequency of your changing specials and focus on perfecting your mains.
tl;dr would come back for the chicken karaage, would not come back for the miso or tonkatsu ramen unless both noodles and broths are significantly improved. Recommend taking a couple pages from Santouka and reworking some of your recipes & processes if you want to build a following. I genuinely want the best for this shop; Eastie deserves to have good (East) Asian food!
