Big Bowls Little Plates
“Soup dumplings and boas were a favorite, looking forward to trying out more of the easy to order menu.”
“You can definitely see a few remnants from Bergen Burger (prior restaurant) but they did a great job with the lighting!”
“It's BYOB so don't forget to bring your bottle of wine or beer.”
Big Bowls Little Plates
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
4 reviews
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It pains me it really does. Where to begin??
First the small plates were all pretty good.
We started with the pork belly. Deep friend and salty.
We also had swordfish fried dumplings. Couldn't taste the fish.
We then followed with soup dumplings. Best part of the night.
We further ordered two big bowls. Ramen both.
Mine was sashimi ramen. Which according to the menu is in fact called sashimi and delivered with vegetable broth on side. I got cold noodles, no broth, and waiter delivered tuna ramen. They call it tuna he says. Ok. Where's my broth? Never showed up. The tuna was coated and tasteless until you got to the bottom 3 pieces which tasted like a salt lick.
Hubby gets the buffalo ramen. After trying to get French onion (out of that at 6pm on a Thursday).
Ramen broth is beef based and tasteless.
Served with a breaded breast of chicken that is served whole not cut up– rather difficult to eat if all you have is chopsticks.
Atmosphere- nice decor
Service- frankly the 3 servers are overwhelmed. You place your order when you enter and then pay and seat yourself. There are sauces at the front and tiny paper plates for serving.
They bring you the food as its prepared but that's it. No further service.
I won't be back, for the money I paid I like to be seated and served and I like more than mediocre food.
I usually don't get out of bed to eat at a place with less than 4 stars! Ha! But a co-worker recommended this new place for it's delicious little plates and big bowls of noodle soup so I took his word for it. Also, I really wanted to see for myself why yelpers were giving this place such mixed ratings.
Let's dive in and tackle some of the common issues I see in reviews so far:
–Poor service: Order. Pay. Wait for your food to be brought to your table. Leave when done. We had two different people come up and ask how everything was going and if we need anything else. I didn't see any issues with service. Everything came out pretty steady. Perhaps this was due to a slower night for them or they read some of these reviews and stepped up their service.
–Bland broth: I ordered the Vegetable Ramen and I expected it to be full of vegetables and it definitely was! The broth was light and mild but that's why they have the sauces to dispense as you will and flavor it up to your liking. My boyfriend had the Spicy Seafood Ramen and it was full of flavor and full of clams, mussels and shrimp (heads on!). Maybe it's just personal taste, but I like my broth to be a bit of a blank slate and I can dress it up with sauce as I wish.
–Lack of parking: Yes, it is street parking only and you need to feed the meter. However, there is usually plenty of parking around town. I don't see how parking would merit a lower rating. We actually needed change for the meters and they were happy to oblige.
One thing everyone seems to agree on is the decor (woodland wonderland!) and the little plates! Little plates are assorted appetizers, wontons, dumplings, steamed buns, raviolis, and side dishes. I had the steamed Shanghai Wontons which are vegetarian, spicy and delicious! My partner had the Roasted Duck Buns and inhaled them.
Next time we go (and there will be a next time) I'd like to try the Fried Doughnut Rice Roll (they were sold out when I went) and the Scallion Pie and definitely slurp on some more Vegetable soup!
So, I stopped by recently when Rutherford was having a car show along Park Avenue and I must say, I understand some of the previous reviews regarding the service here. I must have gotten lucky the 1st time I dined here since it wasn't packed at the time and didn't experience all the problems stated by other reviewers. Now I know!
So one of the main problems here is the ordering system they have in place. You walk in, grab a paper menu, pencil in your order, and then hand it to the person behind the counter. Here's the problem(s) with this:
1. It's like being at a crowded bar trying to order a drink when there is only 1 bartender. If there is more than a few people ordering at the same time, they all crowd around the "bar" and the person taking the menu to enter has no idea who is next since there isn't any kind of line in place.
2. The person behind the counter is highly dependent upon the customer(s) filling out their order on the menu legibly. The menu of customer ahead of me looked like chicken scratch so the person behind the counter took over 15 minutes trying to decipher his writing and basically had the customer reiterate the entire order.
3. I'm sure this was a good idea in their heads when they came up with it, maybe cut the cost of having multiple waiters/waitresses walking to the tables and taking the orders and instead, just have the customer write it down and then submit their orders. The problem here is, if there is multiple guests arriving, there is still only one person taking the orders and typing them into the one terminal they hae for the kitchen to start preparing food and to bill the customer.
Two words: hipster ramen.
First know that there is only street parking. The place is really cute inside and the food is pretty cheap. We ordered the soup dumplings and I ordered the spicy seafood ramen. We waited about 20 minutes for the food and there was only one other table. The dumplings came out and I was surprised. They were pretty good (not a lot of soup) but I enjoyed them.
The ramen- I'm mixed. The broth was good and kind of spicy. There was a lot of seafood which was awesome. However there was also a lot of vegetables and I kind of wish there had been less. It was a lot of soup and I was very full.
Overall I think I would come back. Definitely a close location for when I need a soup dumpling fix. Come if you're looking for a not so original spin on ramen.