Rose E.
Yelp
After reading some of the reviews and seeing the pics of their ramen on Yelp, I was psyched about trying this ramen bar...possibly the top rated ramen bar in Charleston (though honestly, this city isn't renowned for Asian foods).
Well, the place itself is rather small...with maybe 6-7 tables? Still, for a ramen bar, it was fine...I mean, no problem with that, especially given how I got there super-early for lunch.
Then a few issues. For one, this corn dog that I saw on Yelp was not being served (think the cashier said that they were sold out...at 11:30 am?).
As usual with ramen, I get water (I find that it goes best with ramens). Here, they charged me 2 bucks for tap water...in a small, plastic cup. Just WOW (NOT in a good way). Unusually high sales tax too. I only ordered this one ramen bowl, but it costed over 20 bucks. Huh?!?
A/C was kinda weak (on a hot day), and there wasn't any overhead music. Not a very festive vibe at all...though somehow I expected it??
Then the ramen. I got their popular Spicy Tan Tan ramen. First of all, unlike the pictures represented in Yelp, the ramen looked really sloppy...as in crude presentation. Some of the toppings were quite skimpy too. Thank God that the ramen itself tasted good. Luckily, this was the only thing that saved me from dropping 1 or 2 stars.
SO...here were the negatives: I found that the place wasn't too fun/inviting (with poor A/C), the presentation of ramen was really bad (sloppy and lackluster!), and I found the pricing redundant (2 bucks for a small cup of tap water?!?). Luckily, the positive was that I liked the flavor of Tan Tan ramen. It was perfectly spicy, without being TOO intense. For the latter, I'll drop 3 stars.
Not itching to run back too soon, but I MAY go back to try them one more time in the future. Given their good ratings, maybe I was there on an off day...a fluke experience??