JINYA Ramen Bar - Midtown

Reviews 4

JA

Jason Lx

--- NK Score = 8.2/10 --- 8/10 = Furniture/Ambience 8/10 = Food Quality 9/10 = Variety/Mastery 6/10 = Quantity/Prices (Other Ratings Hidden) --- Price Range ($5.00 - $13.00) --- --- For Above ( Snack to Ramen ) --- --- Solo or Group (to 12) = Applicable --- --- Lunch or Dinner = Possible Wait --- --- Parking Accessibility = Difficult --- Atmosphere: Visually the place looks rather interesting, the interior is lit by soft lantern-like jars that pair pretty well with their modern Ramen Bar theme. For seating they have 5 Booths for 2, 6 Table/Booths for 4, 2 Long Tables for up to 12 (Can Seat Separate Groups), and a Bar Area with a few seats for individuals. You can make a reservation incase theyre busy. - Modern, Soft-lit Dark Interior - Good Booths, Basic Table Seats - No Window, No Sunlight Problem - Medium to Louder Noise Levels Food Quality: For appearance, their Ramen looks pretty appetizing with the ingredients scattered above the Ramen in various order. The Ramens texture, broth, and noodle were very close to being perfect. - Premium Tonkotsu White ($11.95): The flavor of the Chicken and Pork Broth really had a punch in this one, it literally dived into my mouth with every sip. Their Pork Chashu was very tender and packed with a mild, salty sweet flavor. The green onions, egg, and fried onions was well made with the Ramen, only exception was the wood ears which were really rough to chew on. Last issue Id like to mention is that the broth I had was a lot saltier than what I wouldve preferred. - Spicy Chicken Ramen ($11.50): Mildly spicy broth with flat pieces of chicken breast, bean sprouts, spinach, welch onion, and thin noodles. The ramen and its ingredients were all very well made and mixed nicely with each other, no complaints. The broth was very warm and soft to the tongue, and combined with the spiciness, it really gave the Ramen an extra kick. Variety / Mastery: They make mostly Ramen, and theyre pretty skilled at making good Ramen. Id consider their authenticity and craft to be much better than some of the other Ramen places around, authentic noodles, and chashu that actually tasted realistic. Although, if you dont want traditional Ramen, they do have Vegetarian or Vegan Ramen and also many different meal sized appetizers you can try by yourself or with a group. Quantity / Prices: First off, the service here was pretty nice and fast, so hats off to Jinya for that. Now, just like most Japanese restaurants, the portion size compared to the price of the dish can be a little harsh. And in this case, even for quality ramen, the cost of the bowl of Ramen is pretty expensive compared to its ingredients, portion, and work put into making it. Recommendations: Premium Tonkotsu White ($11.95), although a bit salty, this dish still brings out good flavor and texture for both the broth and add-ons. - Signed NK (April 2017)

BO

Bob Jerlin

This place has great potential... the food is fantastic, the servers are always nice, it is in a great location... So why the 3 stars? Well, when you eat here they have this very superficial way of greating each person that walks in the restaurant. So what, you ask? Well, the entire staff yells out something at the same time. No big deal, you say? Imagine every 2-3 minutes having 20 plus people yelling something out at the same time while you are trying to enjoy your meal or heaven forbid have a conversation. Look, I get how you dont think that is reason enough not to go. I understand what you are saying. So go then. I advise you to be adamant about where you sit. Do not sit right next to the kitchen. Think about it, there are 10 people there that are going to yell into your ear every 3 minutes. Also, dont sit in the main walk way. The hostess will be walking past you yelling out as loud as she can to signal to all the others that they need to yell. She will be typically yelling within 3 feet of you. I have made both these mistakes eating here, and yes I have been here about 10 times. For a bit they stopped the yelling, last time I went they were doing it again. I dont see myself going back. If any management happens to read this... You are not TGI Fridays!!! You have a great restuarant and act like it. The reason that stuff does not work, see Cold Stone Creamery, is because of 2 things. 1) It is in-authentic. Your employees dont really care and the fact they all yell out together because it is a corporate mandate shows the shallowness of it all. It comes across as fake and insincere. 2) I dont want 25 people pretending to say something nice to me. I want a dinning atmosphere where I am not getting yelled at when I go there. People stopped going to Cold Stone Creamery because you know what? They just wanted ice cream. After going there once, so many people said they would never go back because they dont want to be subjected to that nonsense. I took the time to write this review because the food is excellent and the place has such potential.

MA

Mark Wang

So theres still a very limited amount of ramen joints here in Houston and among those limited choices, JINYA Ramen is the one with the best consistency on the quality of their ramen. Ill be straight, Ive eaten ramen in other states and in Asia, Houston ramen scene is still lagging behind from other major metropolitan cities but its hard to find a ramen place that opens late on the weekend and have a nice bowl of noodle soup to cleanse up your alcohol diluted body thats also not Vietnamese pho. This is their second location as the first location is in Webster, which is relatively far for anyone who lives in Houston proper. This one is in Midtown so its a great location for foot traffic and people to come and enjoy some ramen. One other good thing is that theres a free parking garage. Theres also a bar in the front where they serve craft beer, sake, and other specialty drinks. One thing most new comers dont know is that theres big community tables in the middle of the restaurant where you may be seated with other ramen patrons. The menu is simple and easy to understand as some of the popular ramen of theirs will have a picture along with detailed description on whats actually in it. Then theres also the "upgrade" option by paying additional money for an appetizer, a salad, or a small size curry rice. Again, I have already mentioned that this place is the most consistent and thats a big step up from all other competitions here in Houston. Im not saying their noodle or the broth is the best but its good enough. I have tried quite a few of their popular choice and its not bad, but not the best Ive had. So this is definitely a good place to take your friends to for first time trying ramen. Their appetizers are decently good, I did like the fried chicken nuggets and the tempura brussel sprouts. The service overall is fast and friendly along with good repeat on the orders making sure things were not misheard. The water refill and check respond time is good as well. I always have a good time here at this JINYA Ramen and I will come back when I want some ramen late at night.

AN

Ann Hua

came here on a saturday night during opening week and the place was jam packed! the wait was an estimated 45min, but i think we ended up waiting an hour and 15min or more. we had a group of 6, so it was understandably a little harder to seat us but it would have been nice to have a better estimate of the wait time. aside from the bar, theres no seating for those who are waiting for a table, so the waiting area got really stuffy and hot from all the people crammed into the small space. we were eventually seated at a long, communal table and were next to some strangers, which was fine. the only thing was that since we were seated next to and not across from each other, it made it difficult to talk to some people in our group. the service here felt rushed and the server seemed annoyed and kinda snobby. however, the food arrived quickly and was surprisingly good for a chain restaurant! the tonkatsu black broth was thick and had a lot of depth, whereas the tonkatsu white was thinner/lighter but without any sacrifice of flavor. the noodles were cooked perfectly and all the ingredients came together well. the broth was a taddd salty for me, but nothing compared to the sodium bomb bowls of ramen that ive had in nyc (e.g. totto ramen and maybe ippudo). everyone was pleased with the ramen and the price was not dirt cheap, but pretty standard for the amount of food. the server came by to ask us what we wanted to order for dessert. when i asked what the options were, he seemed super annoyed again and quietly mumbled something about mochi and almond something. i had to ask him twice to repeat the almond dessert because i couldnt understand anything he was saying. finally, i just asked what was in it and he said it was almond pudding. it sounded good, but ended up being pretty disappointing (had weird-consistency whipped cream on top and overall, didnt taste like much). so just stick with the ramen! id come back to jinya after the hype dies down. its definitely a welcome addition to the previous lack of a ramen scene in h-town!