People’s Noodle Bar

This pop-​up is no longer happening. The guys who used to do it run the People’s Bao stand at the Mt. Pleasant farmers market on Saturday mornings. They are not planning to do ramen in the area again anytime soon, but apparently have some kind of longer-​term bao outlet planned in Silver Spring … they’re vague on the details. People’s Bao is awesome so you should seek them out at the market.

As a pop-​up restaurant, i.e. temporary restaurant, it was at this location for a while. But I walked by last week and it’s now gone. Sad that I only got to eat there once. Hopefully the viability of a ramen restaurant was proved and we’ll see more permanent places open up around the city.
Like many others have posted here, the raman is quite good here and I love the use of local high quality ingredients.
Columbia Heights could use more places like this instead of all the more commercial chain-​like restaurants that are starting to enter the neighborhood. For those of you that like Peter’s food, you can also find him at the Mt. Pleasant market on Saturday’s serving up hot asian bun sandwiches. Also delicious.

3 stars for the food and flavor, an extra star for hard work/​general feel of the restaurant. If you don’t look hard enough, you might actually pass this restaurant since it actually still says Señor Chicken in the front with a ghetto small sign in the front that says People’s Noodle Bar. Le boyfriend, mother and I went to grub one Saturday afternoon and it wasn’t packed. I got the original and thought it was okay, it’s the best we can get in DC without heading up town to Silver Spring’s Ren’s Ramen (which btw is a 5 stars) The spicy wasnt as spicy as others have noted but might be because mom doesnt have as many taste buds from eating unncessarily spicy Chinese foods.
Overall, it’ll do the job if you are craving ramen but I’ve had better so it’s unfair to judge by comparsion. Price is also reasonable, enjoy!

My strategy was to keep it simple. This is often the best way to assess just how skillful a ramen chef is – to seek out a ramen shop’s baseline bowl of ramen and to avoid the many potentially lavish permutations (particularly on the first visit).
In the case of People’s Noodle Bar, the baseline bowl of ramen is its namesake item – called, «People’s Ramen.» It features a tonkotsu broth with medium-​sized noodles, heritage pork (shoulder), wood ear mushrooms, a helping each of baby spinach and chopped scallions, a sprinkling of black sesame seeds, and one poached egg. It also comes in varying spice levels. However, I chose the mild version – unaugmented, straight from the pot. A spicy component in a tonkotsu broth, while adding complexity and boldness, most often masks what deficiencies might otherwise be there and overwhelms the salty, creamy essence that I want to savor and assess first of all.
When I received my order and dug in, I was glad to see a mix of golden, beige, and pearly hues in the broth. A couple of quick slurps revealed a clearly salty but pleasing taste. While I could tease out the unctuousness of the broth, which was discernible, it was just a tad too liquidy and did not have enough of a creamy definition to it. In fact, I found the broth not oily enough. It did not remind me (as much as it could have) of the collagen, bones, fat, and marrow that went into its making. While the final broth should not be a gelatinous brew of porky extracts, a truly noteworthy tonkotsu broth should remind me of its origins without tasting of it. It’s a tricky proposition that only the very best ramen shops master. Given the daunting task of getting the broth just right in this way, People’s Noodle Bar did a more than admirable job.
As for the noodles, they were al dente and toothsome. I thought the kitchen nailed the noodles perfectly. Plus, there was a rather generous helping of them too, which made the meal feel substantial rather than slight. The topping of pork was extremely tender (almost to a fault) and served in large slabs rather than in less appealing shreds. The wood ear mushrooms were crisp and provided an appreciable textural contrast.
Little leaves of baby spinach complemented the meat superbly and were clearly a better addition than standard issue napa cabbage or bean sprouts. Sprite, vibrant, and fresh, the spinach was a novel twist on the traditional assemblage of ingredients and worked extremely well. It was one of the true highlights of the meal.
What didn’t work for me was the poached egg. It was almost completely raw and extremely undercooked. I don’t have an aversion to raw, runny eggs. I just think a bowl of ramen is better served if the accompanying egg has more body to it – more integrity and substance. I would rather bite into a poached egg that is half-​cooked and half-​raw and that still holds its shape and not an egg that disintegrates into the broth, like melting jello, upon being bitten into. A bleeding egg, in the end, muddies the broth needlessly. With that said, I was, overall, very pleased. The «People’s Ramen» is legit.
It may be customary to declare a winner by comparing what I ate here to some competitor’s version (hmm…we know who that would be); but, I’ll refrain from doing that for now (as much as I would like to). Let me just say that the «People’s Ramen» has nothing to fear in my book. It can take on any local challenger.
People’s Noodle Bar, under its current status as a pop up venture, will soon be on hiatus (after the close of business on Wednesday); but, it will be opening again in a couple of months with a revamped menu and more selections. Hopefully, at that time, it can become a permanent fixture in the neighborhood and in the ever expanding ramen subculture in DC. I look forward to it.

Finally checked out this delightful pop-​up, and just in time!* Certainly was not let down, but was also not blown away. Unexpectedly, while the noodles and the broth were not very memorable for me (the broth was a little too salty, and was somehow lacking in depth), the tender, slow-​cooked pork was a home run. My people’s ramen also featured a perfectly poached, rich, creamy egg, making this a surprisingly very hearty meal for $ 10. The wood-​ear mushroom in my bowl was also tasty, though difficult to eat, as it was large and not falling-​apart-​tender the way the pork fortunately was.
I wished there were more vegetables (beyond the few spinach leaves scattered in the soup) and perhaps some japanese style pickles to offset the heaviness of the delicious, fatty, locally raised pork. Love the attitude of this place and the use of local, fresh ingredients. Also enjoyed the little nostalgic Japanese touch of the bottles of ramune in the beverage cooler. With a few tweaks, this could be a great restaurant concept!
*Quick word of warning: I spoke to the charming chef this evening, and he said this pop-​up would only be operating for another week and a half! He claimed, however, that they would be back in Columbia Heights at a more permanent location with an expanded menu. I hope he wasn’t only saying this in response to my pathetic crestfallen face as we spoke over the cash register.

We went to get some phở, but a blackboard sign outside Señor Chicken that say «People’s Popup serving ramen» got us intrigued. I live in Falls Church, where Phở is plenty and ramen is non-​existent. After 2 minutes of debating outside the restaurant, I finally managed to convince the group to try the ramen place.
I got People’s Ramen with little spicy. The presentation looks great. The only time I get ramen is when I visit NYC. I took one bite of the pork. It was pretty awesome, I rarely use that word to describe food. It was the best pork I’ve ever had, in NYC ramen shop or anywhere. Crispy and slightly charred on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside.
The ingredients are pretty fresh. I would say the environment is a bit cold. They obviously spent 0 dollars on the décor. Maybe they put all the money in the pork? The pork itself is worth 6 stars if I can give 6 stars.

Ramen (omitting the instant kind) seems to fall into two types: the greasy/​salty type (Santouka and Daikokuya come to mind) and (obviously) the lighter type (Orochon and probably Ippudo from what I’ve been told). This place is the former.
The soup is definitely greasy and salty, but it’s still pretty good. It has that delicious broth taste, although not as rich as the good places.
The noodles are run-​of-​the-​mill fresh ramen noodles, nothing too exciting there or worth ranting about.
The meat is the best part. «Heritage pork» is fatty pork. And it’s really fatty. Like melt-​in-​your-​mouth fatty. Duck confit is delicious as well — it’s basically tender duck leg meat. However, their duck confit would probably better suited in a French dish or a fancy salad — it just didn’t seem to complement the soup as well as the fatty pork did.
Try the Niku (which includes both fatty pork and duck in the tonkotsu pork broth). We went around 8PM on a Wednesday night, and it was only ¾ packed. Much better than the ridiculous wait at Toki! And like the other reviewers say, be prepared to just eat ramen!

It’s great to have a ramen joint so centrally located, but if you’re truly a ramen-​holic, make the trek to Wheaton for Ren’s.
People’s Noodle will do in a pinch. It is the Chipotle of ramen (and not just because it inhabits what used to be, and still feels a lot like, a Mexican restaurant), with most ingredients being pre-​prepared and assembled to order. A pitfall that resulted is that not all of my ingredients/​toppings were warmed through all the way. The broth was also a bit on the salty side (and I’m a salt fiend).
Disclaimer: I tried People’s Noodle on their opening weekend — they may have improved things since then.

This is one of the few good ramen restaurants in DC. And of course, when I say «one of the few», I mean only good ramen place in DC. The broth was super, super rich– I’m not sure what he puts in it, but at first, all I see is the noodles swimming in this slightly red broth and think «Sure, I can finish this.» Half an hour later, I was full to bursting and could literally not drink another
The owner was also very nice. He was a bit unwilling to talk, but he gave us free drinks at the beginning (I think he was trying to get rid of the previous business’s leftovers). I believe this store is an experiment for him– I really hope it stays around for a while.
The only drawback to this restaurant is that you have to *really* want ramen. There’s really nothing else on the menu, not even desserts. Maybe this will change on the restaurant becomes a bit more established.

Maybe my problem is that I’m just not enough of a ramen enthusiast, but this place did not do it for me.
Some of my colleagues has been giving the People’s Noodle Bar rave reviews, so as soon as I could, I ran over and checked it out. Upon arrival, the first negative impression came from the fact that they were out of duck, leaving only pork and mushroom as the options. Fine for me, but not great for my non-​red meat or mushroom eating boyfriend. So, he left to find food elsewhere, and I stayed on, determined to try this place that was supposedly so great. My selection was the three mushroom version, with mushroom broth, spiced hyper spicy. I ordered and salivated as I waited for what I supposed would be a delicious dinner.
My ramen came fairly quickly – I think I waited 5 minutes at most. And it was served to me by very friendly staff (presumably the owner), but the food I received was a total disappointment. The ingredients were certainly fresh, but the broth was bland, even with the hyper spice, and the ramen itself was nothing special. I left feeling very unsatisfied and still rather hungry. I’d give it one star, but the service was pleasant and the (all organic) ingredients were fresh, so it gets some credit for that. And like I said, maybe I’m just not that into ramen, so maybe that’s the problem and this place is actually as great as everyone else says. Either way, I don’t plan on returning.

The ramen here is on point. Peter, the owner and head-​chef, puts a home-​style and personal touch on every bowl. The pork and broth are prepared all week long in Peter’s traditional fashion. Each bowl comes with imported japanese noodles, a soft-​boiled egg, mushrooms and other assorted veggies. My favorite, along with many others on here, are the wood ear mushrooms. I would also suggest buckwheat noodles if you would like a healthy, more smooth change from the original noodles. If you are looking for something excitingly tasty go for the ox-​tail. The oxtail meat is very soft and tender and does not disappoint.
The noodle bar has only been around for a few months, and is on its way to a staple in Columbia Heights. Although it is in a former senior chicken, that does not take away from the food! Give it a try and you will won’t be disappointed.

As someone who inhales ramen, I’ve continually bemoaned the fact that downtown DC doesn’t have the same density of ramen joints that New York has. Sure, we have Toki, but it isn’t worth the 2 hour wait, and Ren’s Ramen is just too far out. What’s a girl hankering for ramen after work to do? Why, go to People’s Noodle of course.
I’ve been coming to this ramen popup since I first found out about it, back when they were only doing Saturday night sittings. I’ve taken friends there and have always, always loved the experience. The broth is rich, the pork and duck generous and tasty, and the noodles are always just the right amount of chewy. I second the comments about the wood ear mushrooms – they are a wonderful addition. Tonight, I had some black garlic flakes in my ramen, which was divine.
This place gets 5 stars from me because of the people behind this ramen joint – the chef, Peter, and his colleagues clearly are passionate about serving good ramen and getting to know the customers who frequent the place. Good ramen, good people. I can’t think of a better neighborhood standby than this!

The ramen here is solid. I saw that a few of the earlier reviews complained that the broth was too oily, but I did not think so at all. People’s broth is a tonkotsu based broth, similar in style though very different in flavor to Toki’s. The meat and veggy toppings were good, especially the wood ear mushrooms. The noodles were cooked to the right consistency, and it definitely wasn’t «too chewy» as another reviewer said.
Talking to the owner, it is obvious that he is very passionate about his food. I hope they find a permanent location soon, as I imagine the food will only get better once they settled down.

I seem to be continually reminded why the Columbia Heights area is a disappointment, and this ramen shop was no exception. The area promises a more relaxed and neighborhood-​like feel for lower prices than surrounding areas like Dupont or Logan Circle. The problem is that the drop in quality is rarely worth the just barely lower prices, with a few exceptions such as Meridian Pint or Room 11. We visited this restaurant just after another huge disappointment at Zeba (which has replaced its previously great happy hour pizza deal with something that already looks shot down by the Red Baron), not far down the street. The H Street area is proof that this concept can work (as both a neighborhood and ramen place more specifically), but right now Columbia Heights has a long way to go to reach that status.
I’m not sure if this is still classified as a «pop-​up», as it once was when they only operated on Saturday nights inside the Señor Chicken’s kitchen. It seems now that it is available every night (and perhaps during the day), but just haven’t changed the signage? Well, there goes the unnecessary exclusivity, which I’m fine with, but it seems some quality has been lost too. I had finally convinced Suzy that noodle soups could be good, after our most recent visit to Toki Underground, and this place did everything it could to undermine that hard work.
To me, it wasn’t «bad», although you might get a different interpretation from my dining companion, but it was just completely underwhelming, and even the promise of adjustable heat levels couldn’t save it. It’s clear they banked on recent popularity of Toki, but comparing the two (at really comparable prices) easily reveals a winner. There are technically more options here, with nearly ten different types of pre-​designed bowls, all with the option of adding extra pork ($ 2), duck confit ($ 7), shiitake or wood ear mushrooms ($ 1 each), extra noodles ($ 2), or an egg ($ 1). You can also pick your spice level (the default is none, or #1), with #7 («impact» spicy) and #8 («extremely» spicy) being 50 cents extra.
My biggest complaint of all wasn’t with the resounding lack of flavor in the broth, but the fact that I went with the level 7 spiciness as a test and it wasn’t even as bold as Toki’s base kimchi broth. There was virtually zero noticeable heat, although you could see a giant pile of some sort of pepper base on top of my soup before it was stirred in. I’m not sure if this is a problem of outdated ingredients losing their potency or what, but it did not deliver the promised heat level at all. I’m really sick of getting «white people spicy» as Asian restaurants when I request things hotter, so if you actually advertise your varying degrees of heat then you had best be accurate.
As for the actual ramen, there’s not much point in discussing the two types of bowls that we got, since the variations were only minimal. I did like the wood ear mushrooms more than the shiitakes, but the black garlic oil that was supposed to be in my «Modern» bowl (
) wasn’t really significant. The pork here is nowhere near as substantial as the tenderloin piece you get at Toki, and compared to the pork cheek you can get there it’s almost sinful to consider anything else. Neither of us gave the duck confit bowl a try, and after our preliminary visit I’m not really tempted to go back and test it out. The noodles are too chewy here as well… massive fail.
I would probably come back for this ramen if it were in the $ 6 – 7 range as many phở places are, because it’s still decent, but when you’re charging $ 9 – 15 a bowl I really just can’t justify the sub-​standard quality compared to what’s available elsewhere in the city.

You can call me somewhat of a ramen enthusiast… I’ve been to literally every notable ramen joint on the east coast (and any hidden joint I happen to find), and the west coast, and most notably… the island of Japan itself. I’ve taken ramen classes. I’ve worked at ramen restaurants. Hell, I spent two days at the Yokohama ramen museum. I breathe this stuff. My DNA helix is composed of half ramen. Cookie monster: Cookies; Me: Ramen.
I always go into any restaurant completely famished. If there is a new place I want to try, I fast. This is to ensure I can experience what the chef tastes as he cooks.
Consider the Hakata Modern, this is traditionally a thicker soup. This is where the first mistake was made. Thicker does NOT equate to grease broth (which other Unilocalers have complained about). An initial boil of the bones must be done to filter the bulk of the junk out! Too much fat rendered gums up the broth and completely overpowers the other elements in it. It coats your mouth and tongue and prevents you from experiencing more nuanced flavors. Not to mention, you cannot gulp it down at the end without feeling like a bloated whale
The pork slice was alright, but it was lacking in panache, probably the oil from the broth affecting its taste.
The «poached» egg was a disaster. They audaciously threw in a raw egg right before they served it. This is not poached, it’s clucking lazy! My friend’s egg wasn’t even intact. The hodgepodge resembled that of yellow armageddon.
Now, usually I can overlook these flaws if the most important element is done right: the noodles themselves. PNB committed the cardinal sin of all noodle dogma: it was overcooked. This is unforgivable. I nearly cried and simultaneously flipped over the table in pure rage. But restraint is a necessary virtue, I simply stopped chewing and swiftly expelled the stringed atrocity.
My friend witnessed one of the kitchen people (either the chef or assistant) rush out and stop the noodles with the expression of omgileftsomethingboiling stamped on his face. This probably explains it. I hope to babyheyseuss that this was an isolated event. I can’t bare the thought of others experiencing this crime to ramenity.
This was the first time in the history of my life that I didn’t finish a bowl of ramen.
I know they are a pop up place and they might be closing down temporarily while the building gets a facelift. Please, please, please do more testing and refine your broth and the timing of adding ingredients, ESPECIALLY the noodles during this phase.
I’m glad there are most ramen joints opening in DC. But with Toki established (and Ren’s a distant option), and Daikaya and Wagamama coming in sometime this year. PNB is going to have to seriously revamp their foundations if they want to succeed.

I’m surprised by all the negative reviews here! I went in around 6:30, it took maybe 10 minutes to get my ramen. I got a bit of attitude when I said I wanted to carry out instead of eat in, but who cares. I think the ramen that I got was called Modern or Current Ramen or something like that. Other Unilocalers say the pork is all natural, I just say that it’s delicious. So much flavor. I definitely wouldn’t call the broth greasy — maybe the other Unilocalers came on a bad night? It’s not quite as thin as other ramen broths, but I’d consider that a good thing, this broth had more flavor. $ 10 flat price for the bowl. I was really hungry and ate all of it, but lighter eaters could probably split a bowl.
Apparently their twitter feed said they are planning on shutting down this operation March 31^st when they either get a new lease and renovate or find a new home. So you should definitely try some before it’s gone!
UPDATE (May 1^st, 2012): I’ve walked past this place a few times in the past week and it seems to be open so I guess they worked something out? Popups are confusing.

The ramen was good but the broth… it was soooooooo greasy, oily and rich. I felt overwhelmed and only ended up eating half my soup. Later, both my friend and I had stomach aches.
I liked the other elements of the soup. The meat, veggies and noodles were great. However, I can’t fathom going back until the broth situation improves… I’ll be checking back to see what other reviewers have to say!

Went on a Thursday night, there was no line but the food was S-​L-​O-​W, it almost looked like the chef was moving at sloth speed. Every table waited 20+mins. Maybe they don’t have enough help in the kitchen or have too many seats.
The good:
Fresh ingredients
Chef was very particular, a solid presentation
Al dente ramen noodle
The bad:
Waited 20 – 30 minutes. it’s noodle, make it more efficient, no excuses
Soup was so oily, a friend and I both got stomachaches
Only chicken or mushroom broth on menu. What happened to miso or pork broth?

This place has a lot of potential. The ingredients are fresh and the portions are fairly generous. The prices are also reasonable. A few shortcomings I noticed on my recent visit: the ramen was not served nearly hot enough, my pork (I ordered the Taipain ramen) was still pretty cold, and the spicy ramen my friend ordered wasn’t spicy at all. These are easy things to fix. I’ll be coming back in hopes of seeing that the things listed above have been corrected. I’m happy that there is now another choice for ramen besides Toki in DC.

Who knew I’d run into the new pop– upp People’s Noodle Bar (inside the former Peruvian Senior Chicken shop), on Park Road (a few doors east of Pho14)?
Who knew they’d be out of pork, so I happily enjoyed my bowl of ramen with duck confit, shitakes, tree ear, bean sprouts, and poached egg, garnished with scallions, in chicken broth.
Triple serendipity would have been if Chef Peter He had some of legendary Bao for me to eat. Maybe next time?
If I knew how to post pix, I’d post one of my yummy, generous steamy bowl of Ramen
Check it out, get your own bowl, and give them encouragement to thrive.