Chika Ramen Bar

This restaurant was a bummer. Cool concept, fun vibe, and the ramen was delicious. However, the restaurant was so poorly managed that we will not be returning. Almost everything that can go wrong with service went wrong and it was also pretty expensive. TLDR: accidentally gave away our reservation table and didn't own it so we waited 30 minutes to be seated; forgot an order; 2/4 delivered orders were wrong; overcharged us on 2 items on the bill. Never offered to comp anything, or even really apologized. Full details below:

1. We had a reservation for a party of 4 for 8:30 pm. We arrived at 8:32, and noticed that 4 walk in customers had just been seated at a 4 person table. When we checked in, there was immediate panic, and we are pretty sure that someone accidentally seated the walk ins at our table. We waited a half hour to be seated.

2. Once we were seated we ordered gyozas, 4 ramens, and 4 drinks. We ordered one ramen with extra meat, and the rest with egg. The person bringing out food seemed to be generally confused about what was going on. He would bring out bowls bounce between tables asking what they had ordered, and generally seemed to have no idea where he was gong. 3 of our ramens came out at once, one missing the extra meat (2 were correct). After ~10 minutes, our waitress came by to check in, and we told her we were still waiting on the 4th ramen. We also mentioned the missing meat but said it was fine as long as we didn't get charged for it. About 10 minutes later, another ramen was delivered but it was not the right order. After another 5 minutes, the correct one showed up.

3. At the end, the bill showed up and we were overcharged by $28. We had been charged for the extra meat add on even though we never got it. We had also been charged for the most expensive sake, instead of the cheaper one that we ordered. The waitress seemed pretty annoyed by this, but did correct it.

Given the long wait/messed up reservation, wrong orders, forgotten order, and overcharging, we were hoping they would comp our drinks or appetizer. But they never offered anything and didn't really seem to care at all. So overall: this is a very good kitchen with really terrible management. It's possible we just had an off night, but it was pretty terrible.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 1

This place could easily be one of the best spots in Philly. But is completely decimated by terrible service and being understaffed.

I’m from Seattle where we have great ramen, and if I’m being honest this is some of the best ramen I’ve had on the East Coast.

Here’s a list of one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had:

Seated half an hour after our reservation

The orders came out wrong (missing additions to orders)

Incorrect food dropped on table and then handed to another table when we told them it was wrong

One of the ramen bowls came out 20 minutes after the rest of the group

The restrooms were not taken care of

Mischarged for food and drink when settling up (and the server seemed annoyed we asked about it)

Severely understaffed and one of the runners was texting on the job and delivering incorrect orders to all the tables around us

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 1

Recommended dishes: Shoyu Ramen 1pc

Nice ambiance however just saw a worker moving sushi with their hands(not gloves) that was on the plate and then licking their fingers. I just lost my appetite right there. Very upset with driving 40min to be disappointed..

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 1

Amazing food and amazing staff! Here’s a top tip: the bar seats are the best. Great conversations,great service, and you’ll definitely make some friends!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Spicy Tuna Rice Crisps, Chashu Burger, Spicy Chashu Miso Ramen, Fried Ice Cream, Spicy Chicken Miso Ramen

I made reservations today for my birthday for 8:45 PM. We walk inside and the bartender ask us can you help us. We informed him that we made a reservation for 8:45, he then tells us that we have to sit at the bar which has a large fan on top of it. I informed the person that I wanted to sit at a table as requested in my reservation, but he said that's all we have available. The back of the restaurant was empty.

I do not recommend this place especially if you're celebrating a special occasion!

The customer service was awful!

Service: 1

The cutesttttttt underground restaurant I’ve been to in Philly that reminds me of New York. The aesthetics reminds me of a diner from the 90’s with LED lights on the wall. Just to inform you, if you go on the weekend DEFINITELY make a reservations just in case. We went to chika ramen bar on a Saturday but that was the day of Billie Eillish’s concert and the Phillies game so it wasn’t that pack but before we entered they did asked us if we had a reservations. The 2 seater table was cute but not very much spacious for my boyfriend and I because we ordered so much food hehe. They gave us time in between our appetizers and entrees to give us space on the table. I started off with a deckard cocktail and it was fruity but wasn’t strong which I like. I also loved the foamy top of the drink. We then ordered the tuna tataki, hamachi crudo, and spicy tuna rice crisps. Omgggg I can eat these 3 appetizers everytimeeeee. The raw fish was not really cold as I hoped it would be but it wasn’t warm, almost room temp. That kind of stood out to me but I didn’t get sick after so that was a good sign. The tuna crispy was deliciousssssss, the texture and the taste combined was everything plus some. For our entrees, we ordered the spicy chicken miso ramen and it was good as well I actually liked the broth and everything that was in it. We also ordered the poke-mon bowl… it was sooo good it was like a mixture of everything in a bowl. The flavors combined were delicious and it was definitely fulfilling. As a dessert, I decided to have the nexus-six and I’m sorry but it was disgusting. The cold foam was good but the espresso was absolutely disgusting. For 15$, the drink was super tiny, I should’ve just ordered another deckard. Other than that everything else was amazing.

Parking: Really hard to find street parking so we got there on an electric scooter and parked our scooter in the motorcycle lane.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Spicy Tuna Rice Crisps, Chicken Miso Ramen, Tuna Tataki

Miso chicken ramen and Kara Kara Tonkatsu ramen were delicious!! The lobster and spicy salmon handrolls were so good, we each got seconds! The handrolls are hard to hold and fall apart somewhat easy, but the flavor was on point! We were seated and served quickly! We’ll 100% be back!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Salmon Hand Roll, Tonkotsu Cashumen with Ajitama, Chicken Miso Ramen

Good food, great vibes, the staff was courteous and friendly.
But the place seemed really understaffed, like they had maybe half the people they needed for the crowd they had. Bartenders were practically running up and down the bar to make sure that everyone was being taken care of. The kitchen and servers looked super frazzled too.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 5

Wow. Talk about a lazy broth that tastes like bath water. They say the cook it for 24hrs. Maybe sans bones & pork. Shame on you.
And the tonkatsu says it comes w one piece of pork. And an extra order contains 3. So upon receiving only three in total (meaning 2 were extra) for $5 kinda makes me feel like a chump. How about some pride in your kitchen

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 5

Decor is 50s ice cream shop meets 1980s neon tubes with 2024 pop music. It's quite dark and difficult to get decent pictures of dishes. I managed. The Chcken Satay was superb. The Chashu burgers are Korean sandwiches... excellent texture co toast and taste. Highly recommend these. The Ramen was a chicken based broth. They only have chicken and vegetable broth here, no pork broth. Taste was bland. I asked for garlic and spices paste to add. the garlic was not noticeable. The spices paste added what the Ramen needed. fresh produce was good. I asked for fried tofu to add. the pieces were a bit big to add to Ramen. half the size of individual pieces would have been better for add on.
The ice cream are medallions. I asked for a berry mango. it's essentially vanilla ice cream, and a frozen flavored gel coating .. was OK. Service is quite casual here and not a good place for conversation as the music is loud.
I did enjoy the food.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 3

Ordered for pick up… never got it… staff was useless

Service: 1

Went a little after opening on a weekday so it was barely busy. Our server was very nice and clarifying to make sure we got exactly what we wanted. I ordered the shoyu chashuramen which was delish! The broths were flavorful and the chasu was cooked nicely. We ordered the hamachi as an appetizer which was also pretty good but just a little bit overpriced for 5 pieces. Overall a great experience !

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Don’t order pick up. My order somehow was never received even though I was charged. When I arrived, well before closing, the staff was anything but helpful in resolving the issue.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 1

You pay for the ambience and even that's not great.
The Tonkotsu Chashumen was just ok, it wasn't bad but I've had better for less. The worst part was the Ajitama for $2 extra, which is supposed to be a marinated egg with a runny yolk but ours just seemed to be a regular hard boiled egg.
Service was good and very fast, but this was a Tuesday night so the place was pretty much empty.
The decoration is the main attraction of this place, and while the neon lights are kinda cool, the music and other details didn't compliment the theme at all. It felt like any regular bar so no atmosphere really.
I don't see myself coming back to this place

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 5

This ramen bar has a great vibe. Food was very tasty and drinks were strong.

The staff were very friendly. 10/10

Can’t wait to stop by again!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5