Republic Ramen
| Address: | 1301 E University Dr #114, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA |
| Phone: | +1 480-388-3686 |
| Site: | republicramen.com |
| Rating: | 4.2 |
| Working: | 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–9PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
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Tawnya Kiehl
I was looking for a place to eat after a long day at work, and was very excited to find a ramen place. My whole family loves ramen and other Japanese foods, so we piled in. The menu is very limited, but given the name of the place that makes sense. If youre going with a group, make sure everyone knows that the menu is limited (its not going to have a wide variety of Japanese selections); its not a bad thing, but if someone in your group thinks theyll get teriyKi while you have udon, theyll be disappointed. Thave different types of ramen and udon, and a few appetizers. They also have a variety of Asian beers and sake (rice wine). With ramen, you basically pick your broth, then you get noodles, a meat (or tofu) and some add-ins (veggies, nori, natuto, etc). The service was very friendly, so that was great. I dont know if we were having an off night, or if they were, but I had been hoping for a more flavorful broth. Usually Japanese ramen broth is packed with flavor, but mine and my husbands were reeeaaaalllyyy toned down. Still, it wasnt bad. My girls really liked it, once it cooled off. You can request just broth and noodles if you want. The place is just down the street from ASU, so I had to be forgiving that it didnt have a kid-friendly menu. It would be nice to be able to order a smaller bowl, and maybe bring it out less hot for a kid. I would say that if you come with kids, make sure they can handle a giant bowl of ramen and traditional ingredients. The portion size is fantastic, and you have the option of eating it with chopsticks, and Asian spoon, or with American silverware. They have 7-spice if you like that, sriracha, etc. I liked the presentation, too! I want to try this place again, when its not such an off day. Id say that if youre a college student, give this place a shot!
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Terri S
Satisfied My Ramen Craving! I have been wanting to find a good bowl of Miso Ramen, and had checked out a few places that I didnt find satisfying. Republic Ramen is not in my neighborhood, but I decided to take the drive to check it out. First of all, parking was plentiful, and I found a spot with some shade, which is important when its 109 degrees out. Walking in, there wasnt much in the way of atmosphere, but they had exactly what I wanted on their menu - Original Miso Ramen, which I ordered as is with pork, bean sprouts, carrots, scallions and spinach. You can order additional ingredients, but I wanted to try it with their original preparation the first time. I also ordered Japanese Curry Rice to go to have later for dinner. You order at the register, and they bring your food to your table. My Miso Ramen came out pretty quickly, and they said they would bring my curry out shortly. My dish looked and smelled appetizing, so I dug in. The miso broth was good, and all of the ingredients tasted fresh. I LOVED the ramen noodles. They were cooked to the texture that I like, slightly chewy, and were delicious with the other ingredients. The serving was so large that by the time I finished all of the solids in the bowl, I couldnt finish the miso broth. They were not stingy with anything in the dish. I will go back for the Ramen again! I didnt taste the Japanese Curry until I got home. It was still warm, but had an overly oily texture that I didnt care for. It was ok reheated later, but I wouldnt try it again. I cant wait to go back and try some of the other broth flavors for the ramen!
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The ruby doge toys
Came here with my family and spent $72. The Ramen was very basic and the taste was bland (worse than store bought noodles at Asian Market). The Udon noodles were bland (worse than store bought food) We got appetizers the gyosa , tempura, and tofu nothing special and the portion sizes were tiny. We ordered desert, their Snow Cone was the only thing that was good, we ordered for the kids. Here is my grading for this restaurant. Overall would not recommend and will never come here again. Quality of Service: Very Poor. They made multiple mistakes on our order and they were offensive about it and didnt apologize. Accuracy: Very Poor. After waiting 20 minutes for the dessert that they forgot about, they still messed up on the dessert order, giving us the wrong order (2 were wrong, 1 was right). When I asked for a refund they wanted to give me a credit instead. I had to insist several times for a refund. Then they only gave me back the cost of the items, not the tax that I initially paid. Portions: Very Poor. For the money we paid at this restaurant and the quality of food we are disappointed. Taste: Poor. Everything was edible. The only good thing was the Snow Cone. Quality of Food: Poor. I would rather eat at home than eat here. Atmosphere: Good. Plenty of seats and restaurant is clean. Selection: Good. Plenty of options of entrees, appetizers, drinks, desserts, and more. Recommendations: Retrain your staff and improve the quality of the food.
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Russell Zen
... They literally forgot our very simple order of two drinks. We ordered, paid, (you are forced to tip only BEFORE your order arrives). So we sat there for like 30 minutes waiting for two simple boba drinks to arrive. When 90% of the tables in the restaurant were unseated and empty (read, a Ramen place not busy at 4pm on a Monday - already a red flag!). Other guests who arrived received their orders despite us arriving more than thirty minutes earlier. Like seriously, how do you mess up your order chain this badly? Youd have to TRY that hard just to fail. We spoke to staff, apparently there was a shift change.. But this still doesnt explain how you lose an order placed electronically into a Square driven point of sale system. Literally if it wasnt for staff offering us larges instead of smalls (I paid for small sizes) I wouldve just gotten a refund. For this effort by staff, Ill grant 2 stars instead of 1. If you look up the Google metrics for this place over a one year time span, you can see this place is getting less popular. I wonder if this has impacted quality of service over time. As a point of fairness, my experience with Republic Ramen was not always bad. The first time I tried it in 2014 I remember the place being passable, but the last time I came here, my chicken was ice cold in a soup of Ramen noodles. Its sad, because I WANT to like this place again, but the establishment just keeps letting me down.
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Shawn Jefferds
Today was my second visit and I tried the Tokyo Ramen (Traditional) which was very good. During my prior visit I tries the Miso Ramen and did not enjoy it as much, but then Id never had "real" ramen before, only the cheap stuff in the little bags (which I can tweak so youd never know it started out that way). Not knowing what "real" ramen is supposed to be like, I was pleased to see Japanese businessmen there today, probably a good sign? As I said, I enjoyed the Tokyo Ramen and added egg, for some reason I thought it was already supposed to be in there, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also ordered a different drink today and was asked if I wanted Boba. From the menu it appears to be some sort of berry, sort of looks like blueberries, but is...sort of hard to describe, like barely sweetened candy balls in the bottom of the cup, soft on the outside and chewy on the inside...so I looked it up and was right, tapioca! Why someone thought this would be great in drinks...thats another discussion. The all important question, "Will you return?" gets a resounding yes because there are other variations of ramen to try, although I may pass on the Boba balls next time around.
