Sapporo Ramen & Noodle Bar

We ordered 4 of their appetizers, hot tea and ramen/udon and everything came out at once! How do I appetize, drink hot tea and eat my ramen?? I wish they had a better service configuration. Maybe next time I need to ask for apps and drinks first? Known fact, worldwide. Anyhow, the most “popular” ramen was most definitely underwhelming. Broth was super salty (pork broth) and besides the pork and egg which were both delicious, not much to “play” around with. And that salty broth….yikes. The best thing I ate there today was the octopus appetizer. That little thing I’d go back for over and over.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Takoyaki

Great noodle soup!
Fast service!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Hakata Classic

Prices are too low. Food was good, service was SLOW. Signs indicate they are short staffed... Simple fix to that, raise your prices! $11 for a quality bowl of ramen is ridiculously cheap. Wake up, inflation effected everyone. You're doing yourself a disservice with your prices.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 3

Name name!!!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Hakata Classic

Addicted to this place! You MUST get the orochon miso - the others don’t compare. I get shiitake mushroom instead of pork and I also add tofu & garlic oil. I come every other week for it now ?

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 4

I dont want to write a review and draw any more attention to this place. However, it is TOO DAMN good to be THAT selfish.
I got the curry rice, the vegetarian sobamen, orochon ramen and vegetarian shoyu. Everything was phenomenal. I had to get all mine to go and they packed everything so well. It reheated perfectly. The one thing GR consistently drops the ball on is a good ramen egg and a solid silky broth. This location is the best in the area by a landslide.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Workers were friendly. Food was good. Gave me horrible food poisoning however.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 3

Recommended dishes: Ramen Noodles

Even though they were low staff when I went. The time wasn't horrible. You have two tv to keep you entertained. The food was delicious ?.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Ramen Noodles

Dietary restrictions: Gluten free options available

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Brave Ramen, Chicken Karaage, Hakata Classic, Ramen Noodles, Orochon Brave

I really enjoyed this place. The workers were nice, and they played anime on the TVs. I ordered the takoyaki and Hakata ramen. The pork was succulent and fatty, and the toppings were very tasty. I will say the broth was a little too salty for my liking, but still tasted great otherwise. Will be back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The cooked pork came cold in bowl of otherwise hot soup and the takoyaki was overly hot on the inside while dry and stiff on the outside, clearly not made or cooked fresh and instead microwaved. Also far too much oil covering the soup the sesame oil should be a nice thin layer for taste, not 1/8th inch deep. The canned boba tea was okay.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 1

Depending on who's working, sometimes the quality of food can change a little bit, sometimes the pork belly is perfectly rendered and soft, and sometimes it can be really chewy and hard to eat. That aside, I will say that this is the best ramen place in Grand Rapids. The Hakata Modern is my go-to. The orochan brave is also really tasty too!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

For those of you who are fans of this place, I don't want to burst your bubble, so don't read on if you enjoyed this ramen. I want this to continue to be your happy place.
If you are looking for the absolute best ramen or if you are the owner of this place reading this review and want to improve, then here is what I have to say:
Right off the bat, I was confused about how to order, then disappointed that full service was not available at this place (it's a cheap businessmans way to cut costs). You must order first at the register and then proceed to get a buzzer to retrieve your own food. The beverages are also self-serve. If I'm not getting service at a dine-in restaurant, don't give me a tip prompt at checkout (just a tip jar will suffice and is appropriate). Also, if you're the greeting checkout person, SMILE at your new customers! I don't like my dining experience to start off with you looking like you don't care about your job.
Eating alone, I prefer to sit at a bar as it gives more of an experience. That they had bar seating was curious to me, and I sat right up. The first thing I noticed was the dirty walls, the dirty soda machine, along with storage boxes and other misc cleaning items (which were a bit of an eye sore). Above the mess was a couple of quaint knick-knack shelves with some anime stuff and some drawings (maybe a couple locals made). This was at least nice to see. Then above that, some velcro wall pieces where a picture used to hang? Anyway, just more mess.
I ordered the popular ramen, Hakata Modern, with extra chashu, extra noodle, extra narutomaki (somehow not listed in the ingredients on the big menu), extra bok choy (also not listed), and extra nori (I never got any nori). I added an appetizer of Gyoza (of which the best cooked option, pan-fried, wasn't available).
I get the ramen and the side extra noodle together immediately (disappointed there was no delay for the extra noodles as they're just gonna get cold now). The steamed gyoza were good, not great, but decent. Ramen starts with the broth (or stock), and the tonkotsu flavor was just decent, but it was not hot (BIG MISTAKE), just a bit more than warm. Next on the Ramen pass/fail checklist is the chashu. Slices were inconsistent (some very thin, others thicker); the first piece I took for a first bite was cold (BIGGER mistake)! The broth was already not hot, and now I have to sink my cold chashu in it to warm it up and make my broth even less hot. I'm not happy. The chashu also wasn't torched, which isn't a make-or-break, just less nice. Ramen p/f #3 is the noods (noodles ;) ). They pass, nothing bad to say, and always happy when I get no noods clumped together. #4 is egg, was ok, nothing special, also cold. Narutomaki was cut too thick. Bamboo/bok choy/bean sprouts all pass. There seemed to be a curious thing I put in my mouth to taste. Yuck! A big ol clump of tonkatsu paste, I think!
I won't be coming back. I'll be at the other ramen/sushi spot (5 star Ramen as far as I'm concerned), only a 10 minute drive from this place, and they also have pan-fried gyoza as well as full service and excellent sushi. Not gonna name drop to spoil this review.
Ramen is not as hot of a topic here in the Midwest, so this is still a step-up for people who've not experienced japanese ramen. My co-worker who never tried dine-in Ramen said it was yummy ?

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 2

I don't know what happened to this place. Maybe it changed ownership? I've been eating here weekly for years, but whatever changes they've made means I wont be coming back. Last nights experience was the final straw: we couldn't get them to pick up the phone for a take out order at 6pm on a Friday, finally got an order in and the gal working the cash was annoyed to do the basics of her job (as if I was inconveniencing her by picking up my food?), and then we discover our chicken karaage was full of tiny sharp bones.

Such a shame.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 1

Whoever has rated the food here above 2 stars has never eaten any authentic Japanese food in their life. Using soy sauce in soup doesn't make it ramen. Chicken karaage is hard to mess up but somehow they found a way. ?‍♂️

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 3

Recommended dishes: Chicken Karaage, Fried, Ramen Noodles