Ramen Boy

I wrote a haiku to express my disappointment:
Oh boy, that was bad:
My misou tasted bitter,
The chicken was cold.
The good: The place looks authentically Japanese, even down to chairs which let you stow your bag beneath them. We were greeted with an enthusiastic «Irrashaimase.»
The bad: The cooks looked singularly uninterested in what they were doing, and would periodically and somewhat mysteriously disappear into the back of the store.
The ugly: The ramen. I’ve had better ramen off of a supermarket shelf. I am not being snobbish here — it just wasn’t tasty, and for a couple of bites I wondered if there was something seriously wrong with it.
Yes, Ramen Boy, you have cornered the ramen market in Philly. However, you will sit in that corner by yourself if you continue to turn out this kind of product.

I’m so glad I no longer have to go to NYC for my ramen fix. Ramen Boy’s base tonkotsu broth is clear and fatty; not as thick as in my personal preference, but the slowly cooked pork and fat flavors are there and blend well with the medium thick noodle. The chashu is cooked to perfection, as well as the soft-​boiled egg. On top of that, the gyoza is a great side order, being fried nicely crunchy on one side only as it’s supposed to be. Awesome!
A tip for the ramen novice: ramen is not for those with «cat-​tongues» as Japanese would say, meaning those who cannot eat/​drink hot food. Slurp it in in 10 minutes or so while it’s piping hot, otherwise it will get lukewarm, soggy and flavorless, which is likely what these negative reviewers are eating. Enjoy!

My friend and I were expecting much more flavor in these ramen noodles, but it just wasn’t there. The service was excellent, calming even. The atmosphere of the restaurant itself is clean, modern, nice size. I like the stools offering a place for my purse. Now then, the food.
First, if you’re going to charge $ 15 (total) for a bowl of ramen noodles in miso with chicken and three dumplings, I expect there to be some flavor. I added sesame oil and chili pepper and still, nothing notable arose. The noodles were cooked al dente as ordered, but seemed to get soggier as they sat in the steaming, slightly sweet miso broth.
The dumplings were good, but even those seemed overpriced to order individually. I caught a glimpse of the portion of edamame and that, too, seemed overpriced for the portion. Not impressed, Ramen Boy.
They do take Visa and allowed us to split our check, which is a rarity in Chinatown. My buddy and I kept going back and forth at how many stars we’d give them and I settled on 2 rather than 3 because of the lack of flavor.

This is my first time, because I have been hearing bad reviews about it from my friends. I would have to disagree with them, its not bad at all. I have been to Japan (the country) & Nom Nom Ramen, its a little below expectations, but its not totally horrible either. However, their service there is excellent.
I got the Miso ramen to go, minus seasoned boiled egg and scallions. They gave me a lot of bean sprouts. Their chicken could have been more seasoned and diced/​sliced up, according to what is written on the menu, I didn’t really get any other vegetables. I am assuming it will be more like the photos if you eat there.
As take out, they require you to cook the noodle at home, because they do not want it to be soggy if they cook it for you and then have you take it home. However I do recommend eating there if you have the time, because then you don’t have to put the meal together yourself. They packaged everything by itself, meat, soup, & noodle. I had finals so I wanted to take it to go and I live down the street, so I had them cook the noodles for me. I almost feel like it defeats the purpose of take out if I had to cook myself, despite the fact that I am just boiling water. I loved their bamboo, its extremely tasty.
The restaurant itself is nicely designed, very cozy. I would definitely come back just because I love ramen, its not terribly bad, and its down the street from my house.

Ramen is comfort food people!
It took a very long time, but ramen is finally in Philadelphia hopefully to to stay. I loved everything about Ramen Boy, but let’s talk about the food.
I don’t know what people expected, but Ramen Boy delivered. The broth was clearly made from scratch, the pork belly done perfectly, and the noodles … oh boy the noodles… not too firm and not too mushy. Goldilocks would have approved.
The service was on point and the atmosphere friendly.
Don’t listen to the naysayers. Try it for yourself. It’s comfort food! Go after a hard day at work or after a fight with your significant other. You’ll feel better.

If you want comfy seats to sit in for hours, you should go to Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company, get a Gunslinger they’re really good. Looking for 5 star interior aesthetics, you should go to a Starr Restaurant like Parc, its beautiful in there. If you want a coat rack go to Pier 1 I’m sure they’ll have something to accommodate you. If you want really good ramen you should go to Ramen Boy, the classic ramen tastes like liquid pork shoulder. The staff is super nice and accomadating. My only complaint is their hours. I work late and they close early.
I don’t usually give reviews on Unilocal a second thought but the complaints are a bit trivial. My advice is to use Unilocal to get business hours, addresses and a phone number. Reviews like this one and every other one here are subjective and basically full of hot air.

Finally, Philadelphia has ramen! I must have been asleep this month when news of their opening was released, but judging by the increasingly positive reviews since then maybe it’s a good thing I missed out on them working out all their kinks.
Had a chance to speak to the chef, who was very friendly and takes pride in what he does. Gyoza, broth, noodles, everything is handmade here. Got the gyoza, spicy and classic ramen. All were quite good, gyoza was a little on the cool side but definitely tasted fresh.
Spicy ramen came topped with fatty steak and a deep rich orange spicy broth. It wasn’t super spicy, but enough to compliment the noodles and wake up the sinuses. Classic was a chicken-​pork broth and came topped with HUGE pork slabs. You even get to request the softness of the noodles– al dente all the way!
I thought the space and décor was great, and if you sit at the noodle bar you can get a peek of how everything goes into the meal. Great for those who’ve seen the movie ‘Tampopo’ or are crazy enough ramen nuts to watch documentaries of it on Japanese TV translated into english, and want to watch the action live.
Prices are comparable to what you would find in other ramen shops outside of Philly.
Definitely recommend this place, broth was thick and rich and noodles were perfectly chewy.

Ramen Boy is a true gem! The owners have done a lovely job of transforming a cozy Philadelphia store into a taste of Japan. The décor is a pleasant combination of modern and traditional Japanese. I ordered the tonkatsu ramen and thought that it tasted just like it should. I’ve been to Tokyo and Osaka, and this ramen reminded me of what I tasted when I traveled there.
Ramen Boy has gigantic vats of broth containing meat and bones, which are boiled all day. As a result, the ramen has a really rich taste. Comparing this ramen to a cup of noodles is like comparing a steak to a hamburger. Sure, there are similarities, but the effort that goes into creating the broth, noodles, and meat that accompany it is an order of magnitude greater.
Finally, the people are really nice. I had the chance to chat with a waitress, who suggested to me that I try a really high-​quality cup of green tea. She helped me modify the tonkatsu a bit, as I told her that I prefer to eat chicken over pork. One of the owners also stopped by the table to chat, and was a very friendly guy. Ramen Boy was created by the same people that founded Yakitori Boy. I’m sure this restaurant will also grow into being a destination that brings people out to Chinatown.

What I find ridiculous is that people would never go into their local burger or pizza joint and start ripping the food because it does not live up to some high standard they experienced at some gourmet restaurant. I think Ramen boy gets a lot of flak because there are such small number of options for Ramen in the area. Imagine if there were only a couple of places in Center City for pizza.
Ramen is street food and comfort food. Just like a good burger or pizza is. And it is unfortunate that people DO have to travel a bit just for a bowl of Ramen. If I had to travel to the city just for a couple of slices of pizza Im sure it would taste a bit worse than if I had to walk a couple of blocks from my house.
So if you expect the Ramen here to change your life prepare to be disappointed because it wont. But if you are around the area and are in the mood for a ramen fix, it should do the trick. The classic ramen is the best out of the few flavors they do have and the portion size is generous.
The only thing is the price seems a few dollars to high, but maybe it seems like it because it is in the middle of Chinatown where prices really cant be beat.
The service is good, friendly, and attentive while the atmosphere is great. The rating is closer to 3 ½ stars but Im going to round up it up to try to battle the unnecessary flak this place gets.

My friend had been here before mysterious «gas line» shutdown and complained about the food at Ramen Boy. When she heard that they improved after reopening, she convinced me to go with her.
We came here on a Friday night as a party of five. It was pretty empty in the restaurant when we were seated. They get +1 for the coat racks. Everyone seemed to enjoy the «butt groove» stools. I just liked that I could shove my purse underneath the stool.
I guess they are still working out the kinks because a server asked what we wanted to drink, and five seconds later another server asked us. I was very disappointed to hear that there was no lemon available for my water.
We order chicken and veggie gyoza and 3 of the different kinds of ramen (not veggie). The gyoza tasted like frozen from a bag dumplings. Not worth it.
The ramen… well we were never asked how we wanted the ramen noodle cooked so it came out mushy and soft. The miso was so tangy and strange. I had one sip of the broth and it was not good. The chicken in the soup was also pretty burnt. The spicy ramen tasted like watered down red pepper paste. The beef in this was inedible.
The classic was the best of the three. The broth had a subtle flavor and the pork, while really fatty was okay. The little jar of spices is a godsend! This definitely made the dinner better.
It feels like Ramen Boy is just trying to dress up a $ 1 pack of ramen noodles with lots of toppings and fillers. The broths need improvement!

Even if I didn’t have a comparison to Ramen Boy, I would still give this restaurant 1 star. The 1 star would be for the service or interior décor.
Green tea for starters tasted like powdered water.
The food was terrible. I had the spicy shrimp and vegetable gyoza and could not taste a single piece of shrimp. It was hard finishing 6 pieces of boring vegetable dumplings.
For ramen, I decided to try the miso ramen. The broth was flavorless and bland. Where were the 7 kinds of soybeans hiding? I had to add chili oil and spices to my broth to give it some kick. Never have I done this at Ramen Setagaya or Ippudo. A good ramen has to have great noodles and equally as great broth. I was never asked if I wanted my noodles soft, al dente or hard but did notice that later the check said al dente. I suppose I look like an al dente kind of girl. The chicken was chicken. Nothing I was savoring over and might I add too chewy. After we finished our bowl of noodles, the waitress asked if we would like dessert. Store bought mochi and individually sized haagen-​dazs ice cream cups is not very original.
For $ 10/​bowl of noodle I would rather go somewhere else in Chinatown. I appreciate that Ramen Boy acknowledges the ramen trend that has been going on everywhere else but Philadelphia but there is plenty of room for improvement.

I hate to be a Negative Nancy, but my dining experience at Ramen Boy was fairly underwhelming.
The shrimp gyoza was. interesting. It wasn’t necessarily bad but I also wasn’t really excited to finish the one that I was eating. Something about the mix of spices and veggies was just a little off.
The Ramen Boy Classic (tonkatsu ramen) was salty and fatty, which was good enough for the first few bites, but there’s only so much a person can take. Eventually I found the flavor to be quite heavy and dense. If there were any ingredients added to increase the flavor complexity of the broth, they were definitely lost.
Other than the food, I liked the restaurant and the atmosphere. The service was friendly and attentive. I’m not sure why there’s such an uproar about the seats — yes, they are stools, but there is more uncomfortable seating out there in the world, I assure you. And they even had coatracks!
Overall, I’m not quite ready to completely write off Ramen Boy, but I probably won’t be making any special trip in the near future either.

COOOOME ON~ it’s not that bad! i would give it a 3.5 stars… 4 to even out the rating. :P i had really low expectations coming here. so it turned out to be a surprise for me.
to sum it up. it isn’t as flavorful or savory as ippudou or totto. however, quality isn’t so bad. their pork is not the fatty kind which i like and they give you a BIG chuck of meat unlike the fatty chai sui slices that are pretty much used more as decoration than for eating… presentation is ok. noodle… idk if i can call it ramen, it tasted more like egg noodles from the chinese market. but well. ramen boy is located in chinatown. what more can you ask for?!
one thing they can definitely improve on is their eggs… that was absolutely disappointing! being a ramen restaurant, that’s one thing it must conquer… it was way over cooked, ruining the texture… :(
whether you like it or not. ramen boy is still going to be a profitable establishment in chinatown being the first ramen-​ya. hopefully it gets better as time goes by, i do understand that the broth for ramen takes time to mature… so hopefully next time i go, it’ll taste even better developing its own distinct characteristic :)

Despite all the negative reviews I decided to give this place a try. And I’m glad I did.
I’m not sure if they had some growing pains in the first few days but I can honestly say I had a very good meal here. Ordered the Tonkatsu Ramen and the noodles were done well. Quite al-​dente and not overcooked. Broth was flavorful and the meat was pretty good.
Is this place Ippudo? Absolutely not. But is it a hell of a lot closer and hit my Ramen fix? Hell yeah.

AVOID.
Really disappointed. Yes, I’ve read the reviews beforehand, but was still curious and so I went and ordered their gyoja and spicy ramen.
The broth was tasteless (and not spicy at all), and the portion was deceptively small (big bowl; little noodles). They added a lot of bean sprouts which made it seem like there was actually substance in the broth but really, it was like half bean sprouts and half noodles! What is that?! I ended up asking for siracha to give it some taste. sad.
very, very disappointed.

Despite the poor reviews on Unilocal,I decided to give Ramen Boy a fair chance. I was in the area with my mom and aunt, and it was nice noodle soup weather.
First off, even the drinks were not on par. Mom and aunt ordered green tea, which must be artificially colored. It’s BRIGHT green, which was a huge turn off. We got an order of shrimp gyoza for the table to share. They are disappointing — full of vegetables and tiny pieces of (what seems to have been) dried shrimp. Adding chili into the sauce they give you helps…
Onto the main event: ramen. Mom and I ordered the spicy ramen and aunt ordered the miso. No one liked their bowl at all. I felt as if mine was not edible. Our soup was not even spicy. The meat was chewy. Not into the «creaminess» some have mentioned.
With Sang Kee down the street and the multitude of phở restaurants, I don’t see how this place will stay open long. I’ve been to Japan and I’d rather wait to go back than eat here again. I will go back to relying on $.35 packaged ramen and going to NYC.

Ramen do not al dente noodles and bland meat make. The pork wasn’t seasoned and the noodles barely cooked. The broth was also bland and the portion really tiny for the price. Alas, my hopes for an authentic ramen place in Phila were dashed. Kudos for the attempt but not for the execution.

Finally! A ramen place in Philly!
I would recommend the Ramen Boy Classic ramen. It’s a tonkotsu broth (pork bone broth) that is light and delicious, and isn’t too salty. The noodles themselves were well cooked– al dente and chewy! The stewed pork belly (chashu) had good flavor, but needs to be… dare I say… a bit fattier!
The gyozas were a letdown. I tried the chicken with garlic, as well as the «philly cheese steak» gyoza. I think a bit more salt/​seasoning would’ve made a world of difference. The dipping sauces didn’t make much of an impact either.
Love the décor! Wooden stools were surprisingly comfy, and loved their practicality. (also doubled as a cubby to store purses/​backpacks) Overall, decent place to curb ramen cravings. I’m already eyeing the Spicy Ramen for the next visit!

I have been complaining that I can’t get a decent bowl of ramen anywhere in Philadelphia for years. The only restaurant that has something that resembles the real thing was Yakitori Boy. It’s hard to travel to Mitsuwa or Ippudo whenever I want a decent bowl. and being the ramen fiend that I am, I jumped when my friend told me that the owner of Yakitori Boy opened up a place for Ramen two blocks down.
Well, he didn’t think much of it when the owner of Yakitori Boy offered him and a few close customers a preview. The second day me and 6 of my friends showed up to a packed house, saw another friend that told me the ramen was at best a «meh» and we had to retreat back because the small space cannot accommodate our party lest we wait 30 – 45 minutes. On the third day I went back by myself.
The space is small and cramped — around 30 seats. The stools are not exactly comfortable. When I went in late Sunday morning, it was practically empty but the waitress insisted to lead me to a bar seat and not a second after I sat down she asked me if I was ready to order. «No.» (I had barely lifted my menu) Even though no one came in and out the front door, I was surprised by a cold draft on a freezing day. After much investigation, I saw a door that led downstairs was open and I went to close it and a few waitresses were startled by my action. «It was cold.» I explained.
The menu is small, with items repeating front and back. There seems to be not much of a choice. If you want tonkatsu soup, it would have to come with charshu, miso soup must come with chicken, and the spicy broth would have to be beef. What if I want miso with pork, would the gods of ramen come down from heaven and strike me with a ramen cane? And how come the lower price miso ramen comes with egg, corn and all kinds of vegetables and the pricier spicy beef ramen comes with practically nothing and if I want egg and corn, I have to add $ 1 per item? That hardly seems fair.
I ordered the miso ramen for the egg and corn only because they weren’t sure if they have the tonkatsu ramen. Also they didn’t have the pork and vegetable gyoza and I ordered a shrimp garlic gyoza. (On the third day and you’re already running out everything, really?) The gyozas came with a tray and four sauces. What I didn’t know is that each gyoza had a whole cloves of garlic inside and even with the clove of garlic, it tasted unbelievably bland. I can’t really make out what I was eating, so I guess that’s why we needed the sauces. A spicy plum sauce which was very forgetful. a gyoza sauce that I pretty much stuck to, wasabi oil which was mildly interesting but nothing more, and the same gyoza sauce with a hint of lemon juice, but why?
The bowl of chicken miso ramen came with two pieces of chicken the size of my thumb, corn, half a tea boiled egg, bean sprouts and bamboo shoots. The miso broth wasn’t all that strong and the noodle is al dente but tasted like it was boiled in water and hasn’t absorbed any flavor from the broth. $ 13, Eek! Methinks not. I wonder how the Yakitori Boy ramen translated to this from only two blocks away.
What bothers me is, well a lot of things but, after using the roux to make the broth for my bowl of soup the ramen chef stuck a spoon in the broth to taste and then throw the remaining broth on his tasting spoon back to the pot. Also, them not having a few items on the menu available third day into the business. Also, playing a radio station with commercials and all as their background noise. Also, the draft keeps on blowing as employee goes up and down and not closing the damned door. Also, the waitresses who works in Chinatown but don’t speak a lick of Chinese. Also, using a touchpad to take orders like they would really need it in such small space. Also, the tasteless food and the small selection.
I do believe that I can make better ramen than these people, if not like the other Unilocalers had reviewed, I had tasted better instant noodles, in fact, not 20 minutes ago. Oh disappointment. I would still give them a chance if they are still open 6 months down the line. Good thing I can go down the street to buy an egg tart for less than $ 1 to cheer myself up.

The opening of Ramen Boy is kind of a big deal because Philly and Ramen are not that well acquainted. Having found the ramen at Yakitori Boy to be decent, I was expecting something even better than that here since the menu is so much smaller.
The space is small and decorated to look authentically Japanese. Seats are backless but have a little shelf for your belongings underneath. For now, it is BYO. I enjoyed my pairing of ramen and a cheap vino verde.
The classic pork ramen is $ 10. The portion is not so huge that you can’t polish it off in one sitting. The broth and noodles were good, maybe about 70% of what my ideal NYC ramen is like. The only addition were a hard boiled egg, some scallions, a few bamboo shoots, and a piece of fatty pork. Unfortunately the pork was non special fatty roast pork, not a luscious piece of pork belly.
An order of chicken gyoza fared worse, despite the chunk of garlic in the middle, it was flavorless.
Get the broth a little richer, change out the pork, and improve the dumplings and I would be more willing to have a 2^nd ramen-​tic meal here.