SATO Ramen

While the service was quick and friendly I found the dining quarters to be so close to the kitchen/​servers it was uncomfortable. I understand it’s a small place but the employees were obviously bored and just kind of pacing around (not their fault). The broth was was EXTREMELY bland. The noodles were clumped together and either old or under cooked. The pork was fatty and unappetizing. The dumplings were also chewy (not crispy) on the outside. It was also $ 10.00 for the most simple bowl. We wouldn’t recommend it.

Get the kimchi ramen — it’s amazing. Spicy, flavorful, filling. Otherwise, the place is small and unimposing, with little room to sit — but the ramen makes up for it.

I was shocked to see a raved review on Buffalo NY Channel 2 news station. I wonder if it was a paid advertisement. The noodles absolutely suck. Everything is pre-​made and just packaged together. The broth was cold and weak-​almost tasteless. This is the absolute worse ramen I ever had the displeasure to taste. I threw it out. Ramen needs to be prepared as ordered. The order takee said the Japanese chef was in the back as all I saw were two guys placing things in a box. Below is my review from yesterday. Don’t waste your time with this overpriced trash. Simply go to an oriental shop — but high quality ramen noodles — miso dashi-​ajinomoto-​egg-​scallions-​a little corn-​fish cakes– and hard boiled egg. I really can’t believe channel 2-​unbelievable.
Decided to try today. What s disappointment. There is no chef. It is like an assembly line with food sitting out all day. On top of that — food is not fresh — noodles are poor quality — food is slightly warm. I know my Japanese Food better then most, and this was close to the bottom of the list. The noodles probably are cooked at the beginning of the week and sit in a pot for days they are disgusting. The Miso quality is weak –really weak. A regular bowl of Miso Ramen includes a whole egg-​no chopped garlic-​and is served hot. The owner obviously cuts corners and takes advantage of people ignorance. I won’t be back.

Hands down favorite place for a good chicken rice bowl. Love this place and have always enjoyed my meals.

Cheap, fast, and easy. I had the curry «vegan» ramen (which included egg? I had mine without) and the table split okonomiyaki fries. The latter were not my favorite but I’m not a fan of mayo. The ramen was a bit soft on the tooth, but the broth was SERIOUSLY rich and full of starchy goodness. The regular sized bowl lasted me three meals, no joke. Small building, cute, and close to the park and ride metro. I’ll be back!

The first time I had this place literally left me craving it! I decided to try the Tori Paitan chicken ramen. Was a little disappointed, super bland tasting. It was okay, but I definitely didn’t feel good about spending $ 13 on it. I’ll probably be back to try something else but wouldn’t recommend this particular dish.

I was pretty excited to go to Sato Ramen, but left feeling very disappointed. I ordered the regular spicy miso ramen, the texture of the ramen tasted like it was over cooked. The broth was bland and needed seasoning, the meat that was put into the dish was ok but not great. For only buying a tea and one spicy miso ramen for $ 19 (had extra meat) I was expecting a great meal but got a less than satisfactory meal. Would I go back? Probably not any time soon.

This is my new favorite restaurant. I ate the Buffalo Chicken Ramen, which is not spicy, but definitely tasty. The only semi-​negative thing I have to say is that I was still hungry afterwards. I wish they gave you a little bit more noodles. My friend got the Teriyaki Don, which was also delicious.
The atmosphere is nice, but it is small. There was a whole group of people waiting to sit while we were there. The service was great.
I definitely plan on coming back and I also want to try Sato on Elmwood. A friend of mine went after me and got the Spicy Miso, which I plan on trying next.

Was alone and the staff was friendly and informative. They explained the differences in the different ramens and suggested their favorites and customer favorites. I took the suggestion of the fan favorite and staff favorite Spicy Miso Ramen, regular sized. I’m not a big egg person, so I asked to swap the egg for the bamboo shoots and they were happy to help. Music plays in the background and sake complemented the meal well. Will return for a second helping!

My boyfriend is a regular at Sato, and loves that he can get a quick healthy ramen bowl nearby when he doesn’t have time to cook.
I have to say, I’ve had better ramen before but still enjoyed my meal. The fermented mushrooms were delicious, but the noodles were not my favourite. My boyfriend got extra shrimp in his bowl, and when I tried one it was still cold so I’m guessing it was just defrosted. I wish they had fried shrimp on the menu.
The guys at the restaurant were really nice, especially the waiter/​greeter. The music selection did not fit the theme, but since everyone working there was a college student I can understand that they want to play their own music.
Overall, not a bad restaurant. It’s great for students nearby, and the atmosphere is fun and modern.
Some tips I would have for the restaurant is to wipe around the rim of the bowl before serving and to leave a tip jar at the front!

the owner contacted me in 2 hours after my review and told me that the staffs mislabeled the soup in the morning so I didn’t have the right soup for my buffalo chicken. they offered me to come back and give it one more try or even have some other flavor, on the owner. I’m amazed by how they take customers’ experience seriously and just because of that, I think they deserve 5 stars.
I’ll definitely go back and update how’s the food with the right taste!

Tried this place with some friends. The menu offered new options that I have not seen in other Japanese restaurants. That may say something about variety in Japanese restaurants around Buffalo, or maybe it’s me. The usual fare is sushi in my go to places. Anyhow, if you want to explore something Japanese and not sushi, this is a fine way to go. There is sushi, but here it’s all about the ramen. Three base choices to which you can add all kinds of goodies. I went spicey, and was very pleased. Friends ordered a curry, and their plates were cleaned! Clean digs. Friendly and attentive staff.

How should I say this… for buffalo it’s good, but it definitely not authentic. The restaurant is very small on the inside, with an industrial feel to it. Service was decent. The restaurant had one other table but our drinks still took several minutes to come.
Recently, I came back from Hawaii, which has a large population of Japanese, thus lots of authentic ramen places. Sato’s ramen, compared to authentic ramen from Hawaii:
Broth: a little too salty and a little too oily, (however, I think this may be solely due to the chefs error, which they interchange everyday). The broth did had just the right amount of richness to it.
Charsiu: really dry. There was no fat on it. It was very thinly cut. It did have a lot flavor to it. I was looking forward to this the most, but received the very nub of the stick. If only they could cut it thicker and leave some of the fat on it, it would be dry or overcooked.
Noodles: wasn’t «bouncy» enough. It was soft on the very outside layer, but the inside has the bite of soba. I was fully disappointed by this. This could be that the noodle makers are inexperienced. (Over-​kneading the dough, or putting too much flour)
Toppings: the red ginger was a very unpleasant surprise. The egg was cooked well, however the center was cold.
I would come back, but I wouldn’t rave about this place.

Food — 5
Service — 4
Price — 4
Atmosphere — 4
Spicy Miso Ramen and the Gyu Don are simply Duh-​mazing. The flavor in the food is so explosive and delish. This is my 2^nd time coming here. I always go somewhere twice before completing a review to make sure that I rate the above items fairly.
Again, food is a 5. It may seem like the wait for your food to arrival takes a bit longer than usual, but that just means that they are making everything from scratch; so expect freshness. Freshness you can see and taste. Patience is a virtue, use it here! Expect to leave feeling satisfied and overly full because you keep telling yourself one more bite, until you look down and it’s gone. The space itself is small but doesn’t feel crowded.
Service is as expected. Very nice people and their open with giving their recommendations. They also offer a punch card, sort of like a loyalty card, who doesn’t love that?

I was pretty excited to try this place after hearing and reading such good reviews, but I was somewhat disappointed. The restaurant itself is kind of small, but we did get seated right away and service was speedy. We ordered the vegetable ramen and a tofu don bowl and okonomiyaki fries as an appetizer.
I liked: the sake (nigori) was good, portion size was decent.
I didn’t like: our okonomiyaki fries were all burnt and kinda ruined the whole dish (I was really excited to try these due to the hype on Unilocal!), my vegetable ramen had literally no flavor (I had to add more salt and drown it in sirarcha), my friend asked for her tofu not to be fried but cooked or heated up, but they couldn’t do that, and the noodles were very soft and had a strange texture.
I probably would not [willingly] come back here. Maybe it was just a bad day, but definitely ruined Sato for me.

Was in Buffalo this entire week for work at University at Buffalo wanted to try out a new place. I have studied at UB and I can tell you this is a blessing for the students and people working in the south campus of the University. Who does not like a hot bowl of ramen on a cold winter day ?! It is just a short walk from campus, so makes it a perfect place for lunch or to pick up dinner. The place itself is quite small, but has enough space to seat many people with seating on the counters as well. Cute place with modern décor and friendly service.
First of all I am vegetarian and to find a place serving ramen with a vegetarian broth itself demands full points !!! I got the curry ramen and oh my god it was just too good. The broth was flavorful and delicious. The spices just came through and worked so well with the noodles as well the veggies in it. The tofu in the ramen was also one of the best i have had. Crispy on the outside and smooth and soft on the inside. They also serve many other vegetarian options like dumplings and spring rolls etc., we stopped for lunch so did not have time to try it all. Next time for sure. The portion of the ramen itself were really huge, I took home more than half of it !!
All in all, I love this new addition to the University area ! :)

Came here for dinner. The place was a lot smaller than I imagined, so it was rather cramped. I ordered the Kim chi ramen while some of my friends ordered their chicken teriyaki dish. Also had an order of their fries. I was disappointed. The noodles, I expected to be chewy and bouncy, but they were soft and almost had a soba like texture to it. The soup was bland but the toppings I enjoyed. The rice dishes my friends really liked. However, they said it wasn’t filling. The portions were tiny. The fries is definitely an acquired taste. Had a bit of a fishy taste to it. We wouldn’t order it again.

We just moved in a block away from Sato and it’s saving our lives! We’ve moved from San Francisco where asian food is a plenty and have never had such tasty and well thought out ramen before. We love the effort to make a few dishes vegan, which we’re not but will happily eat. The Kimchee is my favorite so far. They just added a few dishes to the menu this past week so go check it out. Nice quite spot during the week, haven’t seen what it’s going to look like when south campus UB picks up. Also the sake is good and worth the chill pill.
Good ambiance with limited seating. That hasn’t been a problem so far. Soups super hot (temp wise) which is nice because it stays warm for so long so watch out!

This is it. This is what I love. A simple, no frills place with an affordable menu serving amazingly flavorful ramen + other appetizers. There are only a few tables, but a lot of space at various counters and bars and the three people I came here with had no problem conversing with the view out to Main Street.
Their menu has far more ramen options than SATO in Elmwood Village and the broth and noodles are all made in house! We shared the Okonomiyaki fries, which are INCREDIBLE. If you’re at all looking for an appetizer to share and love french fries, this is what you need to get! We got a small serving and it was more than enough to share between the three of us. The fries were extra crispy and dressed beautifully with kewpie mayo, shredded nori seafood, green onions and pickled ginger. They had a smoky, but crisp flavor and lots of seasonings with the other dressings. I would have preferred a tad less salt, but it was totally fine.
The kimchi ramen I ordered was hearty, delectable and overall AMAZING. It was comparable to the delicious Ramen I’ve had in NYC — a strong and depthful broth with tofu, kimchi (it’s not weird in this ramen, I promise the flavors go together very well) and braised pork (incredibly tender). This was so, so good and the portion was huuuge.
Service was great, we were waited on which I wasn’t expecting (thought it’d be more of an order at the counter kind of place) — water was served with lemon and constantly refilled. If you’re just hankering for ramen, I highly suggest this place in University Heights!

Do you ever ponder the relationship you’ve had with ramen noodles? No? My history with oodles of noodles begins sometime around an afternoon Barbie doll play date with the neighborhood friends. The Ray-​men noodles (god what a pronunciation) then appear in my recent college years as the easiest, yet possibly most dangerous drunken meal. Now, here I am, asking for pickled shiitake in my homemade buckwheat veggie ramen.
Here to point out the obvious– Sato ramen is owned by the same people as Sato on elmwood. Based on my eyeball estimate, I believe around 30 people can be seated overall, but the bar overlooking the open kitchen seats around ten, and it’s super cozy. The interior is new, kind of modern, clean. Walked in on a Friday night to a laid back atmosphere. I deem something as «laid back» when I can comfortably walk into an establishment with sweats. Success.
Now to the FOOD! I ordered a seaweed salad, kimchi and the veggie ramen. Vegetarians and vegans should take note: the kimchi has teeny tiny flakes of shrimp! (Fine by me, but good to know!)
Ramen– the broth tasted mostly of mushroom, but it was pretty flavorful in my opinion. I added a spoonful of sriracha to give it a boost! The noodles are so freaking good. Thick, curly, buttery, slurpable? I don’t understand the reviews about the tiny portion sizes? My serving tonight was VERY fair. I have a picture for proof! The large portion was around nine dollars. I think this is a fair price for a hearty, fresh meal! I will update when I have tried more from the menu, but I will stand by my positive review. I urge you guys to give the place a go!