Oiistar

Trudged over here on a cold and snowy Thursday night to get some ramen and have  a bidness meeting. I had been meaning to try this place for awhile as it looks intriguing with the weird old cartoons playing off a projector on the wall. And the large glass container of what i found out was house made sangria.

I walked in to loud ass top 40 rap music being blasted, and while this is obviously a "cool" restaurant, with "cool" employees who shout something indiscriminately asian at you when you walk in for that authentic feel, it is quickly shattered because Nelly is playing on the speakers.

So this is a biz meeting, right? And there was one other person in the place when I walked in. So i asked politely, can you please turn down the music a little? She kind of regressed and was like "I will see what I can do, the music has to be at a certain level." What? Cmon bro, there's nobody else in there, the employees outnumber the patrons 2-6, just ask the boss, but no, she just gave me a passive aggressive non answer and turned the music down a few decibels, not even really noticeable.

Normally this kind of thing would give me reason to spank them with a 2 star review, but the food, man the food. Its good.

Fried Avocado & Shrooms - This was tasty, a new take on traditional tempura, with a wonderful dipping sauce and some other hot sauce. I loved this, the presentation is cool also in a little deep fried dipping basket.

Veggimen Ramen - OK, so I have been to Japan and had the ramen off the street so I kind of new what to expect, a big bowl of hot soup with tons of noodles, and this was for sure that. I really enjoyed slurping this stuff really loudly in my biz partners face as he yelled at me about how he created his biz from nothing, because of what he did. Acutally it was probably a good thing the music was up loud at the end because this dude was on painkillers from breaking his ribs and yelling like a hippo tied to a windmill. The ramen was devine, lots of good veggies and noodles, and a wonderful bright red hot sauce to bang your colon against.

Wanted to try the desserts, but they all ate already, so it was table of 4 with 2 dishes.

I will be back. They are open pretty late.

Let me start by saying, I was so looking forward to a new ramen joint in the neighborhood... I would gladly had given it a fighting chance, HAD I NOT WAITED FOR 20 MINS WITHOUT A SINGLE EMPLOYEE TO EVEN TRY TO GET A TABLE FROM.  I felt bad for them, but seriously, this is a real quick way to sink a new restaurant.  

We got there early (as I had heard it had been busy) so you figure, 6pm, Saturday night, probably buzzing but not insane.  And that's precisely how it was, tables were full, but nothing crazy.  Except for the 10 people standing aimlessly in the doorway... We come in and realize everyone, from those standing at the door, to those at the tables, are looking around for ANYONE to help them.  Seriously, a busboy, a hostess, a waitress, a bartender, ANYONE!  There are people with empty drinks/water, nothing.  People practically begging for their tab, nothing.  Empty tables filled with dirty dishes while people waiting in the doorway multiply, nothing.  It was beyond absurd.

To make matters even worse, there was no hostess, just a clipboard which we wrote our own names on, and then I realize... There are literally 3 staff running the whole place.  No hostess, no busboys, just 3 poor waitresses who are serving all roles (although hostess fell by the wayside because we were never even acknowledged).

Needless to say, we left, and went down the street to Antique Taco and had the best service ever! Considering you buy your food at the counter and sit family style, we still had 4 different people come check to make sure we were ok and ask if we needed anything else.  They even timed our horchata milkshake to come after we finished our food so it wasn't just melting while we ate.  THAT is how you run any establishment (and yes, I've worked in the industry, for years, so don't bite my head off that I don't know about service).

Oiistar, take a cue from your restaurant neighbors, beef up your staff, and you better cook some damn good food otherwise you'll be outta there in 6 months flat.  I wish you luck.

I thought the broth was pretty good, but nothing like the broth I had at Daikokuya in LA. The avocado fries were delicious and the aioli it came with was fabulous. The portobello buns were alright, I guess. I liked the ramen, but the noodles were definitely not the ramen noodles I expected to be eating. I didn't feel like it absorbed the flavor of the broth as well as I wanted and it kind of felt like I was eating angel hair pasta. I don't think spicy paste should be an extra $1.50 if I still had to put a healthy amount of sriracha in the ramen either. But then again, I'm asian and picky when it comes to Asian food. For a place in Wicker Park it's not bad at all. The ambience is pretty good. However, I thought $5 for a beer was pretty steep for the size of glass they give you. Don't expect your beer glass to be the same size as your water glass.