Bad Luck Ramen Bar

Favorite restaurant for chill atmosphere and good food in

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

BEST RAMEN AND SAKE IN CVILLE!!

Bad Luck Ramen is seriously the best. I’ve been going here for a year now and they never disappoint.

Dylan is a fantastic server and Robyn is seriously the best!

You will find top notch ambiance, service, food, and more here.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Incredibly friendly staff with amazing food and drink

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Ramen was sub par.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 4

Everything is great there food , sake, people, atmosphere. I highly recommend

Best vegetarian ramen ever and the mushroom dumplings are to die for. Special mention to Robyn and Caleb, you are awesome. The only Sake brewery in Virginia! Sake tasting is also an available. This place is highly recommended folks.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Smokey and the Veg, To Go Mushroom Dumplings

Such a vibe in here! Food and service is amazing!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We really love the bok choy appetizer and the ramen broth was AWESOME. The ahi tuna sushi was meh, but everything else, including the service, made up for that.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Had a fantastic experience at Bad Luck Ramen in Charlottesville! As I walked in, a chef outside (turns out his name is Jason!) recommended the spicy meatballs, and let me tell you, they were incredible. The rich broth and perfectly cooked noodles were delicious, but the meatballs really stole the show. I later told Jason they were "fire" and we got to talking about his passion for using high-quality ingredients and the care he puts into his cooking. As a fellow chef, it was inspiring to hear.The sake was also on point, and the atmosphere is trendy and inviting. Overall, a must-try spot in Charlottesville. I'll definitely be back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Mr Spicy

This is my absolute favorite place. The food speaks for itself, it’s wonderful, but I feel like it’s the people that truly make me feel at home. Melissa, Caleb, Robyn, as well as the rest of the staff (whose names i unfortunately can’t recall) always make me feel at home, seen, and cared for as a Charlottesville resident, as a regular, and as a friend. :)

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: 3g Chicken Teriyaki

I don't normally write reviews but I was so blown away with how bad my groups experience was today that I feel the need to share.Starting with location, I'm actually amazed we even found it. The GPS will take you on one of the main roads, however you need to drive through a very hilly (and crater filled) driveway around the back of the building to find the door. They have the tiniest signs ever telling you where to go.Atmosphere wasn't bad, booths were reasonably comfortable and the decor was nice.Service was slow, but they were very nice. Restaurant had 2 other tables and it took us about 45 minutes to get our food from the time we walked in the door. Probably the cooks fault tbh.Now onto the food... The pork dumplings were decent; solid appetizer, and the only enjoyable part of our meal. The ramen. Oooohhh the ramen. I have never had worse, I would have been happier eating cup noodles from a 7/11 at 4am. We had a party of 3 and 2 of us ordered the same thing: 2 Nas originals and 1 Mr. Spicy. First of all, the 2 originals came out looking COMPLETELY different despite having the same ingredients. One came out with a standard looking tonkotsu broth that wasnt very good, the other came out super dark and genuinely tasted burnt. THEY BURNT THE BROTH. The only note you could taste in the Mr. Spicy was chilis. No salt, no richness from the pork meatballs, no umami. The Original broth tasted like they threw a couple aromatics into a pot for 30 minutes and called it a day. It wanted to be good, but needed to grow up. The noodles were clearly instant, which I honestly don't care about most of the time but these were soft and firm in ALL the wrong places and had a bizarre sweet undertone that I didn't care for. The Tonkotsu pork was edible but the pork meatballs had to have been 50% panko. They were grainy, flavorless, and didn't have any browning on them whatsoever. The veggies with each bowl were also disappointing. Bok Choi was bitter, mushrooms weren't half bad to me but my table didn't care for them, corn was canned corn. (can't really mess that one up) the only saving grace for any of the bowls was that eggs were perfectly good. Not hard boiled but not runny either, perfect jelly consistency. Still completely flavorless though.It got to the point where me and my friends would keep trying parts of each other's food and laughing after each bite because none of it was good.The drinks were ok. Sake and Sapporo can't miss. Their house saiko sodas were pretty awful though.And to top it all of. My friend and I got sick about 5 hours later. Hope it's a coincidence but I doubt it. This was genuinely the worst restaurant experience I've ever had. I have NEVER felt the need to write a Google review for anything before today but I felt the need to share my thoughts. Take your money elsewhere, not only is this place super overpriced for ramen, it's not even good. Eating here truly is bad luck.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 2

Recommended dishes: Mr Spicy, Nas Original

Amazing ramen!!! Love this place!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great place to relaxed and unwind. Very down to earth staff and a very artsy environment. They also have great japanese whiskys!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Inari

Excellent ramen with sake tastings. Really enjoyed the atmosphere.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: To Go Quiet Giant Can

I believe every self respecting town needs a good ramen place, someplace woth good tonkatsu broth that dosent cost to much, and while this ramen bar is expensive, the broth is just so good. Never before have i had tonkatsu broth with as many layers and notes as a proper glass of red wine. The topping were a little sparce but what was there was very good. The noodles were firm and I cannot understate jist how amazing that broth was. The atmosphere while noisy was also very welcoming and cozy, everybody seemed welcome and happy, it felt like a community, while many other resteraunts and bars i visited don't even get close to its personality and atmosphere. The alcohal is also very good, I'm not much of a drinker but what I got (the jasmine beer) was very nice and floral.In summary, if you want ramen forget the other lousy places that will charge you $16 for a bowl of $6 ramen, and instead come here

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 4