Underbelly North Park
| Address: | 3000 Upas St, San Diego, CA 92104, USA |
| Phone: | +1 619-487-9909 |
| Site: | godblessunderbelly.com |
| Rating: | 4.3 |
| Working: | 11:30AM–11:30PM 11:30AM–11:30PM 11:30AM–11:30PM 11:30AM–11:30PM 11:30AM–11:30PM 11:30AM–11:30PM 11:30AM–11:30PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 7
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adam smith
This restaurant has slowly degraded its quality over the course of the couple years its been open. The underbelly ramen used to come with spicy kurobuta pork sausages, which were quickly replaced with a couple lumps of pork meat. They used to have a broth that was better than the competition by a large margin. I dont know what theyve changed Im the recipe, but its a mediocre experience today. Just today I came by for lunch, and the soft boiled egg in my ramen tasted like they had pulled it straight out of the cooler. Nothing ruins your appetite like biting into a cold egg thats floating in hot soup. I mentioned that the egg was cold to someone working behind the bar, and he offered to get me another. When the new egg came, he said it would probably be the same as the first. It was. He said the egg should be cold, as theyre refrigerated. He also suggested maybe it seemed cold because the soup was hot. This thing was freezer cold. I said Ive never cooked or eaten a soft boiled egg that was cold inside. He shrugged, apologized, and walked away. I was about to leave when the chef sent him back out with a suggestion: use my chopsticks to cut the egg in half so the broth would warm it up. So, for the record, the chef knows hes sending out eggs as cold as they are coming out of the fridge, and is fine with it? Sorry, Consortium: if youre gonna make customers wait in a line outside and order beer somewhere other than the bar, you need to at least ensure your quality stays high. Ive been avoiding Underbelly for months due to the general lack of detail and flavor, but when I decided to give em one more go today, the egg fiasco sealed it. San Diego has quite a few good ramen places. Go to them, theyll never serve you a cold egg.
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Jennah Lee Bolosan
After hearing reviews from friends loving this place it was finally my turn to try it. The ambiance was nice and modern. Great beer selection. We tried the Belly of the Beast Ramen, chicken Teriyaki salad and all meat rice bowl. The salad was good. The other entrees werent very flavorful. The rice bowl included an egg which I guess we didnt read the menu very well because my boyfriend doesnt like when the yolk is runny. Had we read the menu or the host asked how he wanted the egg it wouldnt have been a problem. When we asked for the egg a different way after it was brought to us he mentioned scrambled and we said sure. Then he came back with no egg and said they dont make scrambled eggs so we get no egg. We were a bit taken back with that whole exchange, but whatever. We figured they didnt want to remake the bowl or take it down because it was so nicely done and didnt want to go through the hassle. Being that the entree included an egg they should have made a little bit of an effort to ask how we want it or fix the issue. They never checked up on us after that. The soup base was a bit bland and the meat bowl was nothing special. We tried using all the condiments they offered to no avail. Its more trendy then it is may thing else. Not very tasty. If you want good ramen go somewhere else, like Tajimas.
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Esmeralda Ramirez
Last time I had noodles, they came from a mustard-colored package labeled "creamy chicken." Since then, I have stepped up my game by trying out Underbelly. I didnt know what to expect and was surprised when I saw most of the seating was outdoors. I enjoyed the open space and creative seating (built out of tree trunks or something). I ordered the pork belly buns as a starter but was a bit disappointed. They were slathered with mayo and the pickles were a little dull. Not sure I would order them again. As for the ramen dish, I went with the Belly of the Beast, as recommended by everybody. I was unlucky to get a large chunk of fat in the meat though. The noodles, however, were spectacular and had a great chew to them. The soft boiled egg was cooked to perfection, and gently oozed out its golden lava once broken. I added a couple of the spicy condiments into the broth to add a little kick and almost finished it all. Surprisingly, the ramen is very filling!
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Robert
Friendly staff, got "Belly of the Beast," dumpling meat was bomb but too much dough for my liking (Im use to thai/chinese style dumplings), other meat was aight but REALLY fatty (my friends was as well) I think thats just the cut of meat, though. Atmosphere is great! Noodles were well cooked al dente... When my friend asked for a spoon the waitress said "We actually dont have spoons, we encourage customers to sip from the bowl." I laughed for about a minute and am laughing again now. The staff did not check up on us once but checked on the people around us. I paid fifteen bucks (with tip) and would only pay 7 bucks TOPS for that bowl of ramen again... Next time Ill make some top ramen with an egg in it and some chili sauce and soy sauce and sesame oil and eat it on my patio. Service 2/5, environment 5/5, food 3/5, price 2/5.
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David Teesdale
Having heard good things about underbelly, I was looking forward to sampling good Japanese ramen with my wife. The food sounded delicious on the menu list and we both decided on the belly of the beast, unfortunately this is where it starts to go downhill. when the food arrived, the belly was there but no beast. half the ingredients that were supposed to be in the Raman were missing, no short ribs or oxtail dumplings. this wasnt the worst part, the broth was barely luke warm and the noodles not even al dente and tasted almost raw. The server was nice and tried to make amends, but the fault lies with the people in the kitchen, whome I fear are not up to scratch and seem not to care about the standard of food they are preparing. So, all in all this place is not recommended and sorry to say I will not be going back any time soon.
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Heather Willens
if you want fancy ramen, this really is the place to go. its delicious. i got hooked on the vegetarian ramen with hearty slices of fancy mushrooms at the little italy location...and have stuck with that here as well. broth has wonderful flavor and all the condiments on the tables really compliment it if you are looking to add a bit more complexity to it -- i like a bit of heat, personally B-) one thing the 2nd location has is the real estate; the other one is a shoebox! sprawling indoor and outside spaces with lovely fire pits at community tables. and parking in this area is fairly easy. since its fancy, the price point is a bit higher than youd find at the hole in the wall convey joints, but the portions are large and i took half home last time for next days lunch.
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Samantha Dufau
I love this place. There are several variations of ramen plus some delicious appetizers like bao tacos. The ramen is excellent; the house ramen is a good place to start if youre not sure what to order, but really everything is delicious, including the vegetarian option. They also have an excellent craft beer selection. One thing to note is that the majority of the restaurant and bar is open-air. This is great when the weather is nice, but be mindful that sometimes you might need to wear a hat/sunscreen or bring a jacket.
