Ramen Bar: come here for yummy pork ramen and more pork ramen!

On a rainy Sunday evening a few weeks ago, we noticed a shiny new restaurant called Ramen Bar in Eastwood City. Because we're fans of both Japanese food and new restaurants, we decided to ignore the ominous "soft opening" sign posted on the door and give it a try. We ended up waiting almost an hour for our food. Oh well, we were warned.

Yakiniku Beef Rice Topping - Php165

JOSH: My favorite Ramen Bar dish has nothing to do with ramen. It's a simple but satisfying meal--rice topped with juicy beef strips and onions. The serving size is pretty good, and the price is reasonable.

LIZZ: This huge beef bowl was delicious and far better than the Teriyaki Boy Gyudon that's almost double the price. The beef was soft, the rice was excellent, and they didn't skimp on the spring onions. Delicious!

Shoyu Ramen - Php280

JOSH: It's a big bowl of ramen with shoyu (soy sauce) soup base and topped with slices of pork. The thing I liked the most about it was the rich and flavorful soup. It's on the expensive side, but it's worth a try.

LIZZ: I thought this was pretty overrated. It's good, but not that great, and it's certainly not worth almost 300 pesos. :P



We went back to Ramen Bar a few days later to try some other items. The "soft opening" sign was no longer there, and the service had thankfully gotten more efficient.

R.B.S. #1 (R.B.S. = Ramen Bar Special?) - Php380

JOSH: This is the most expensive item on their menu, and I was expecting the best bowl of ramen ever. Instead, what I got was, as far as I can remember, very similar to the shoyu ramen I had during our first visit. Sure, this one had more pork in it, but I'm not sure that's worth an additional 100 pesos.

LIZZ: If I didn't want to spend 300 on a bowl of ramen, I certainly don't want to spend 400. When I was living in Japan, ramen was what I ate when I was too broke to buy convenience store sushi. Totally not worth the price, IMHO.

Kakuni Buns - Php180

JOSH: I loved the tender pork and the delicious sauce (tasted a bit like Peking duck dipping sauce). The downside? You only get two pieces for 180 pesos. Faced with the steep price tag of 90 pesos per bun, the cheapskate in me has no choice but to give this a

LIZZ: I actually liked this a lot, and if they had been less stingy and given you 3 to 4 pieces for the same price, I'd have given it a yes. I'm not really cheap when it comes to food, but even I have to raise an eyebrow at 90 pesos per bun. :P

Yes, this is their whole menu.

JOSH: Overall, I think Ramen Bar serves excellent food. But I'm giving them a meh for now because I think their menu can use some improvement. They could have just called the place Tonkotsu Ramen Bar, because that's basically the only kind of ramen you can get there--all five items under the ramen section of the menu are just variants of the same thing. Maybe I would visit more often if they offer ramen topped with beef, chicken, or seafood... or anything other than pork.

LIZZ: I'm not a huge fan of ramen and I'm not gourmet enough to be able to really tell the difference between great ramen and just regular ramen. That said, go here once to try out the beef bowl but never again (unless you want another beef bowl, that is). Unless they add more stuff to their menu, I doubt I'd go back.


Ramen Bar is along Eastwood Ave. in Eastwood City, Q.C. (see map)