Afuri Ramen
| Address: | 923 SE 7th Ave, Portland, OR 97214, USA |
| Phone: | +1 503-468-5001 |
| Site: | afuri.us |
| Rating: | 4.4 |
| Working: | 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–2:30PM 11:30AM–11PM 11:30AM–9PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 6
JE
Jeshka Lewis
-This is the soapbox portion of the review and my only major criticism of this restaurant(I took away one star for this): If want to add "heat" to something that normally isnt spicy, first stop and think about this: If people want to add heat to their food they can easily add chili oil, or red pepper flakes or hot sauce to taste. But people who cant handle "spicy" foods (No I dont enjoy getting blisters on the roof of my mouth or having the skin on my lips peel off SORRY) can not remove spice once it has already been added. Im not saying things shouldnt be spicy, (I know my bodys reaction to spicy heat is uncommon and a lot of people do enjoy spicy foods) but you could at least warn people on the menu. The gyoza sauce had chili oil in it, and the menma on my Yuzi Shio Ramen(usualy my favorite topping) were somehow spicy. There was NO Warning. Why? Y U Do Dis to mai face, Afuri? :( -This is my highest praise(added an extra star for this... so now were back where we started XD): This is one of two places(The other place is Ramen Ryoma, I highly recommend them) in the Portland metro area where the noodles actually absorb all the nuanced flavors of the broth the ramen noodles are meant to. Other places have amazing broth, but flavorless noodles. -The rest of the story: This place is like the Blue Star Doughnuts of ramen. A trendy, artisinal twist on a beloved classic. If that is what you are into, this is the place for you! If you are looking for the comforting street/train station ramen you know and love from your time in Japan, there are better places for that. BUT Im not going to tell you not to give this place a try. The atmosphere has a modern/industrial feel. The service was about average. The food is definitely of good quality. Aside from the above I have not major complaints. I had the gyoza and the yuzu shio ramen.. The gyoza were crispy on one side, gooey on the other, and delicious on the inside. The ramen was tasty and the yuzu was a refreshing twist, but deep in my heart Im a Tokyo ramen girl, so I wish I would have gotten the shoyu. Over all, hmmm.... I probably wont be coming back, but I do know some friends that would enjoy this place and I will let them know about it
MA
Mark Torres
My girlfriend and I went here a few weeks after it opened once we heard this was the very first location opening outside of Japan, I was super excited to say the least. To preface, I am a huge ramen fan and love to try new ramen spots. So far nothing has been able to beat Kizukis Garlic Tonkotsu in Beaverton so I was hoping that this would be the place that would do it. We started off with a few appetizers, the gyoza which was really good (I liked the citrus soy it came with), the karaage which was perfectly fried and came with a nice mayo sauce and the jalapeno sashimi plate which was good but pretty pricey for the serving size (not a great value order). Now to the ramen, I tried the TORIGARA SHOYU which is a chicken base ramen. All of the ingredients were there and tasted high quality but it was missing the most important part, a good tasting broth. The flavor was bland and didnt taste like a ramen really. The best part of the meal were the appetizers. I wasnt sure we were going to come back after our first visit but I really liked the appetizers we had (the gyoza and karaage mainly) and I wanted to try their pork broth ramen which they recently added. We came back a second time this past weekend hoping to give it another chance. I got the PORK TONKOTSU and my girlfriend got the TRUFFLE MISO after seeing all of the other reviews on it. I was greeted with another disappointment. Both lacked that rich/salted flavor in the broth again. The truffle miso had a nice truffle taste to it but it was still lacking flavor which is what separates good ramen from amazing ramen. Sad to say I likely wont be back unless its to try something else on their menu other than the ramen. I had high hopes for this place...Dont believe the hype!
MA
Marshal Rawlinson
The Good - Nice Decor - Friendly Staff - Karage - Kid friendly The Bad - Not Enough Substance in the Ramen - Too Expensive For What You Get - Yuzu Ratan Ramen Not Well Balanced The Ugly - Ramen Hurt Our Stomachs - Broth Tasted Like Top Ramen Broth My wife and I were going to get a bite to eat at The Commons but they dont allow minors. So we took our 1 y.o. here instead. We got the Karage and were surprised to find that it was well made. Not the best Karage that weve had but good nonetheless. My wife got the Torigara and I got the Yuzu Ratan. They both had, no joke.... HALF an egg, ONE piece of meat, and ONE (seriously) piece of seaweed. Weve had many bowls of ramen and none of them have even come close to skimping on substance this badly. Theres hardly any perceived value here when most of your ramen is purely noodle. The Torigara was bland as well and the Yuzu Ratan was overly spicy that the Yuzu flavor or any flavor had a chance to come through. I had the rating as a 3 but while writing about the lack of value and the fact that it hurt our stomachs not even an hour later, I had to bump it down to a 2. The Karage and Friendly Staff saved this review from totally bombing though. Trust me, I hate giving bad reviews, I dont take joy in writing them.
JO
Joshua Poulivaati
Very trendy setting in an up and coming part of town for restaurants. Parking is on the street, so for those that have difficulty parallel parking...there are parking garages on Grand Ave. Dark but very inviting and warm inside of this establishment. The food is very good and the appetizers we tried were excellent. The main dishes were excellent too, didnt seem like much but it was filling. We ordered three of the Ramen and each was just right in their own unique way, the shoyu was my favorite of the three we ordered. The Flank Steak served a medium rare was sooooo yummy!!! It came with what the bartender described as a corn succotash, it complimented the steak perfectly. This is great, another great Ramen place to eat in Portland.
KY
Kyle M
I attended the soft opening and found it to be wonderful. The prices are high compared to their Tokyo locations, which makes it annoying but kind of matches the Portland pricing scheme for trendy food. We had the Tsukune (chicken meatballs) and they were a lot better than Yatimata Marus. The taste was less pastey and the char on the outside was great. The Shio ramen had a good broth, very well cooked noodles, thin pork (I prefer thick), and a nice (cold) egg. The Shoyu ramens broth was way bettter and had the same other ingredients. We had 4 different types of sake and they were good. The 3-sake taster I had for $20 seemed reasonable and were paired well. All and all the only complaint was the price.
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Sally R. Kim
So sad to see that this solid Tokyo ramen joint had to add all these bells and whistles taking the spotlight away from their simple and delicious ramen. Had such high expectations and anticipation for my favorite Tokyo ramen joint to be coming to PDX. Finally, an authentic ramen experience coming to the US. Tragically, I was wrong. Having been to (and love) Afuri ramen in Tokyo, this westernized version of taking away the focus from the ramen itself, presents an unfortunate distraction. Super disappointed that Afuri couldnt be true to their roots. Portland-ized at its worst.
