Ramen Station

I was excited that there was a new ramen place in town. But I was disappointed in the end.
I ordered the tonkotsu miso ramen and karaage.
The broth was very salty, when i mentioned this to my waitress she graciously brought it back to the kitchen where they added more liquid to make it less salty. That made it edible but otherwise the general flavor was lacking. The egg didn’t have much flavor but the pork belly was good. I would have appreciated more noodles since they were quickly gone.
The karaage wasn’t edible. It was more rubbery than crispy and looked (and tasted) as though it had been rolled in msg and/​or salt. I had two bites and couldn’t eat another. My lips were caked in salt.
Not impressed overall. Hope they can make some improvements.

I liked this Ramen. Honestly, the noodles were a little under cooked, but the pork was so tender and delicious and everything had a great flavor. My boyfriend and I ordered two different noodle bowls and both thoroughly enjoyed them. He was a little disappointed that the menu listed his as having beef, and it was ground beef. We also had a dumpling appetizer that was fantastic. The menu itself was pretty limited as far as variety goes, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The restaurant was beautiful and had a cozy ambience that I thought was really nice. And the service was lovely, too.

Biggest disappointment! According to the WSJ, the chef lived in Japan for 12 years and worked for a ramen restaurant. The portion size was expensive, the bowl presentation was not attractive, and the broth was just TERRIBLE!!! If they where in Chicagoland area it won’t last. I think the Chef need to go back to Japan and learn how to cook ramen. I definitely prefer Ramen Kid over Ramen Station.

I absolutely love this place!!! The ramen is so delicious. I am not sure I agree with any negativity about this place. Madison has been so cheese curd and spotted cow not to mention almost dead for years. It’s about time to get out and see the city or travel the world. This place will give you a taste of that on the way to the airport. Only flying out of Madison is $ 800 in the spring.
The décor is amazing and I love filling up on a bowl of Ramen. Yakitori or skewers are also awesome. Chicken, shrimp and bacon yes bacon skewers are fantastic. Hope you enjoy. You can always go to Arby’s LOL Get out of the house! It’s cold here til June.

Service was on par, although I did hear the waitress complain about getting a small tip from the table next to us. One of the diners wanted Sriracha sauce to add to the ramen and was told there was none. Which led to a full blown inquiry amongst her friends of whether they were at a Japanese restaurant or not and why wouldn’t they have Sriracha. Our seating was too close to others and that constant complaining was getting in on our dining experience.
The ramen was ok. The noodles didn’t meld with the broth as much as I had hoped and tasted as though it had been recently boiled (which is good) but lacked that oomph. Hubs got the sesame ramen, but under the lighting, we couldn’t tell what it was until we got home and poured out the leftovers. It was a white broth, not yellow (from the lighting). There wasn’t much flavor to the sesame ramen, but thankfully, I ordered the more flavorful shoyu tonkatsu. The appetizers were decent. We ordered the skewered shrimp and curry chicken wings. One of my wings, which was larger than the other two, was undercooked.
We’ll try it again once things get more established.maybe.

I went here with friends. We had two different kinds of ramen, fried rice, and yaki soba. I don’t have much to say simply because there wasn’t much to it.
The over all word of the night was ‘bland’. Everything was under spiced. Both ramens were a bland broth with bland noodles. The fish cakes and pork in the ramen was quite good, but it’s not enough to make the ramen bowl. The egg was a little small and bland for what I’m used to as well.
The fried rice was the only good dish, but I’d personally rather get a box from a random take out place like Double 10.
The restaurant is gorgeous. The decorations and large booths are quite lovely. Apparently the place is run by the same people who run Takara. It has the same «meh» food, nice allure feel. For me, the owners are a deal breaker anyway as the worst dining experience I’ve ever had was at Takara. I also had a small miscommunication issue at Ramen Station about drinks, but not enough to cause a fuss.
I’m giving two stars as the food wasn’t actively bad. I imagine it would be a fine place if you wanted to go out, but every where else was busy.
Edit: Since I received quite the rude message over this, my example of getting fried rice from Double 10 is showing that while the fried rice here was good it was not beyond what you’d expect from a take out place.

Now with Ramen Station open, there are (at least) four ramen places available in Madison (here, Ramen Kid, Umami, and Tavernakaya). In my mission to be the foremost ramen expert in Madison, I gave this place a try during lunch.
My order was the tonkotsu ramen with pork broth, and I split some edamame with my lunch friend. They have several options of broth, including pork and miso. The ramen came with nori, soft-​boiled egg, and bamboo shoots as well as beansprouts and a slice of kamaboko, which no other ramen place adds to their ramen.
All in all, this ramen is done correctly, if not spectacularly. The broth is savory and made from real meat/​bones. It’s not as salty as the other ramen places that I tried, so if, say, you found Ramen Kid’s broth too salty, then this might be a better alternative for you. I appreciated the extra things that they threw in to the ramen, and the noodles had good texture as well. They gave a good proportion of pork, though it seems that they used a very lean cut because the meat crumbled during the course of the meal. I think you’re supposed to use fattier slices of meat for ramen, and the ramen itself could use a bit more fat to make it heartier as a whole.
I think of this place as a younger brother to Ramen Kid or Tavernakaya. They’ve gone through the motions of making proper ramen, and they followed the rules and conventions that makes ramen good, but they’re still amateurs. They’re more expensive than Ramen Kid, and have fewer amenities than Tavernakaya, so it’s in an awkward place when sized up to the competition. If you live near here, then it’s a convenient place that you can stop by for lunch, but I’m not sure it’d be worth schlepping out to give this place a shot.

I’ve tried several different places over the years (including Tavernakaya, Umami, and Ramen Kid, which ranged from meh to sad) and this is the best in this Ramen-​God-​forsaken town.
The broth on the tonkatsu, which I consider the most important, was rich and savory. The noodles were neither undercooked nor mushy. The toppings were of an adequate amount. An extremely satisfying meal.
I took a star off for the service. It took a while for the bowls to come out, and our server didn’t come to check on us at all throughout the meal.
All in all, highly recommended and I will be back. I hope that their food quality is consistent and that their service kinks will work out over time as they are brand new.

I had the tonkatsu ramen, stir fry (udon) with fried chicken.
The broth for the ramen is good, not with a heavily salty flavor. The chashu was also moist and tender, but there were only two tiny pieces in the whole bowl, totally not like what they showed on the menu photos. And the marinated egg was overcooked a bit.
Everything tastes good, but I wouldn’t say it’s a Japanese restaurant. It’s more like Chinese to me. I thought the fried chicken would be like the Japanese ones with a slight of lemon on top. But it was more like the Chinese-​style chicken popcorn.
The udon was ok, but really, it’s more like Chinese style stir fry.
The service and atmosphere are both really good. But I wouldn’t come back often. Will recommend the other ramen place on state st more.

The broth was good. The noodles were okay. The meat was pathetic and nothing like the pictures. Not rushing back anytime soon.

We had a few skewers to start and they were very nice.
The tonkatsu ramen was very good, as said before the egg was a little over cooked but the broth was nice and the pork slices were very good fell apart into nice little bits to eat with the noodles.
So the service was very good to. I will be going back, and back.

Place is packed for dinner the first night! Food is wonderful and everyone seems pretty happy. The whole mackerel is pretty awesome.
Come try them now before you must wait forever to get a table

Went on opening day for lunch. The place is beautiful! However the ramen is just ok. If the broth had more depth it would be really good but it was just average. I’ve had a lot better. Noodles were so so.
The BROTH is the key. Do this well and you will do well. Good start but needs improvement

I’ve been waiting for this place to open up!
I started off with karaage. I found the meat itself to be nice and moist, but the batter was not crispy enough. I probably wont order that again.
I got miso tonkatsu ramen. Let’s break it down:
The bowl was presented nicely with noodles and bean sprouts holding the chashu under the broth (which is where i like to put it when i start eating), and menma, soft boiled marinated egg, naruto, and nori shaped like a flower (kawaii!!!).
I wish the bowl came with a little more noodle because they seemed to be gone in my tummy pretty quickly. It’s also worth noting that this is the first time i found naruto at a restaurant in Madison. The menma was relatively flavorless, and the egg was slightly overcooked for being soft boiled.
The chashu retained a distinct pork flavor and still had a lot its fatty moisture well distributed in the dark meat. The slices were just a hair too thick for my preference, but it was still pretty good. It really had a melt-​in-​your mouth texture, but I didnt find it to be as good of broth sponge as Ramen Kid’s.
Now, this broth is where the ramen shined. If Ramen Kid’s miso broth is rock n roll, Ramen Station’s miso tonkotsu broth is jazz. It wasnt overly salty, allowing the delicate nuances of miso to shine. It was a little sweet and nutty from the miso, meaty from the tonkotsu (although not creamy), and slightly spicy on the finish (perhaps from ginger). This balance between delicate miso and meaty tonkotsu is quite something.
Atmosphere-​wise, it feels more likely a traditional asian restaurant than Ramen Kid or Umami.
If you want your bowl of ramen to be a huge amount of food, Ramen Kid and Umami do a better job with that. However, Ramen Station provides the most well-​balanced ramen of the three.