This is my RAH’MN review. This is not a sponsored post, all views are mine. All my Twin City peeps, I know you’ve been seeing these ramen places popping up all over town in the last year. You’re probably wondering is it really worth $7 for 25¢ worth of ramen? I’m here to tell you – probably not.
RAH’MN Review – The Ramen Place on Snelling
RAH’MN opened up in Saint Paul on Snelling Avenue about a month ago. It was packed the first night – crowds in line around the corner – so I figured we’d wait a bit. We’d gone to the Mac’s take out place two doors down, which had also just opened, and were disappointed. I wanted to give the new restaurant some time to get it’s sea legs since they are close and convenient and who doesn’t like ramen?
The daughter asked if we could give it a try, so I said sure. I went to look up the menu online, to get an idea of cost (because it’s ramen, for cryin’ out loud) and was frustrated that I had to place an order to see what was offered and what things cost. RAH’MN does not have a menu on their website, although it looks like they are trying to get one up quickly. That they tout their meats are gluten free had me laughing but irritated.
The daughter is picky and she has food allergies, it’s always nice to be prepared when trying a new place. So, already I was frustrated. I asked some friends on Facebook about their experience and they said it was “solid”. I took that as a positive and headed on over.
Right away the ordering process was confusing. Or maybe that was just the way the door was positioned. No one seemed to know where the line began. The place was pretty busy and it smelled nice so I continued on. When I got to the counter I had a difficult time talking to the nice young man who was dishing up the ramen. The sneeze guard was too high, or he and I were both too short. I had to stand on my tippy toes to shout my questions at him. He responded with a smile, but I couldn’t hear a damn thing he said over the sneeze guard or the loud music and din of people talking to one another over the loud music.
It’s a build your own ramen bowl, just like at Chipotle. Chipotle is stressful, it’s not as bad as ordering coffee, but it’s up there. I have been ordering Chipotle for at least a decade now and I always get the same thing for fear of holding up the line to avoid the kind of stress I endured last night.
I had no idea what my daughter wanted, but she likes all things Asian inspired so I started building her ramen. I threw in some tufo, some bok choi and some tomatoes – all things she likes and figured I was safe.
I wasn’t sure about the meat so I texted her a picture of the RAH’MN menu and one of all the add-ons, including 4 or 6 choices of broth.
“No vegetables” was what she texted back.
Thanks, that helps, a lot.
All the while the couple next to me is pushing me to the right, even though the friendly guy behind the sneeze guard hadn’t started on my order yet. In fact, he only had one bowl going.
This caused a fair amount of anxiety because now the one he just put together for my daughter was going to become mine even though I am not supposed to eat tofu and tomatoes in ramen sounds disgusting to me. I didn’t really want pork either, which is what the kid wanted.
Lawd knows, as a Minnesotan, there was no way I was going to ask them to start over again.
I got pushed in front of the cashier and explained to him that there was another bowl that needed to be prepared – plain. Just ramen and broth.
We stood there, awkwardly waiting for the guy to produce the bowl of $7.95 ramen and then he asked if I was paying for the people next to me.
Um, no.
He bagged up my ramen bowls, cautioned me not to swing the bag around, and I was on my way.
I took a deep breath when I got outside and told myself I would not cry.
(probably more hormone related than ramen related)
A few minutes later I’m home with a dripping bag of $20 worth of ramen.
When I asked what the daughter though of it, if she liked it, her response was:
“Meh”
She’s 14. Everything is “meh”. She did eat most of it.
Mine on the other hand wasn’t what I wanted, but if it had been something I would have ordered I am sure it would have been ok.
It was ramen, it was way too salty and the noodles were soggy. I was disappointed, mostly because of the experience, but the cost of something that is pennies to make at home also irritated me. That’s not their fault, I walked in there willingly. I guess I figured ramen could be delicious, especially starting at $7.95 per bowl.
It’s not.
I couldn’t finish it. The dogs like it, though I didn’t give them the broth since it was so salty.
I’d like to say we’ll give them another try, but probably not. The daughter will want to, but she’s going to have to do that on her own.
The place was clean, the staff was friendly, though not as helpful as I would have liked. The place was too loud and the food was overpriced. But other than that, it was great!
Good Evening,
I would like to first and foremost apologize for your disappointing experience at RAH’MN. My name is Chris and I am the Owner of RAH’MN. I read your review of the restaurant and wanted to share, explain and apologize for the experience that you had. As I began reading your review I saw your first irritation with the restaurant was that we had gluten-free meats. I share with our guests that we have gluten-free meats because many meats prepared for Asian cuisine have soy sauce that is not gluten free. At RAH’MN we only use Tamari, a Gluten Free soy sauce. This allows us to be more available for our guests with dietary restrictions and allergies. We created our service line in a “chipotle” Build-your-own-format with the hope that it will allow our guests who have allergies and dietary restrictions to create a meal that fits their needs. I would hope that our build-your-own menu would be more conducive for your daughter than cause you more frustration.
In Regards to your frustration with the height of the glass sneeze guard and pressure of a moving line. I want to share with you that the sneeze guard has been a frustration for me as well. It does make communication more difficult and slows the efficiency of our operation. I know it has been painful aspect of our service. We ordered a new lowered sneeze guard the second day we were open because we saw the difficulties it was creating. It unfortunately takes 6 weeks to create and deliver. We are expecting to have it replaced now in about a week or so. This will help tremendously with the frustration and stress that you have and other guests have had with our ordering process. I want to assure you as well that if you start creating a bowl and for some reason it is not correct or to your liking , we are happy to fix it for you immediately. So when you were adopting your daughter’s meal, I would say in the future (if I may have a second chance) let one of our associates know that you would like to change your order or start over. We would be happy to assist you with making sure you leave happy. This is the most important aspect of the business for us, your happiness and satisfaction. The cashier may have been assuming that because you were one person with two bowls upon reaching the cashier that one bowl was a person behind you in line. It is not the correct assumption obviously and I will address it with my staff.
In regards to your food quality, saltiness and pricing. I want to assure you that here at RAH’MN we try to be very conscience about salt levels in our food. We strive to be a healthy option to the traditional Ramen restaurants that are loaded with MSG, salt and high levels of seasoning. I am curious to hear which broth you had? I only put three teaspoons of salt into nearly 3 gallons of soup. Out vegan broths we add no additional salt, the seasoning comes from the miso. We do not use MSG at RAH’MN either. In regards to the price, I am sorry that you do not feel the price is fair. We use only fresh ingredients at RAH’MN. Over half of our selection is organic. We make everything from scratch. This includes our broths, dressings, sauces, etc. We braise our meats for 3 hours, and we use local, high quality Duroc Pork. We even use Duroc Pork bones for our broth, that we specially ship to have them specifically fabricated for our restaurant. Our noodles are fresh and custom made to our specifications. I understand that you can have ramen at home for less than 25 cents. But when you consider the quality of ingredients, organic, fresh, sustainable ingredients, scratch kitchen labor and simmering a broth for 8 plus hours it is difficult for me to offer a bowl of food at the dried ramen price. Again I care about your experience and what happened to you and since you seem to have a voice to the public I wanted to make sure I addressed the issues you had at the restaurant.
I would happily offer you a refund for your experience. It is not my intent to make you frustrated, stressed and overall not happy with your meal. Again I am sorry your experience was not up to your satisfaction or mine. You may email me at chris@rahmn.online. We can speak further there and I can remedy your experience more there. Thank you for the feedback, we will continue to use it constructively to ensure all our guests have a great dining experience with us at RAH’MN.
Regards,
Chris
RAH’MN Ownership
Hi Chris, thank you for leaving a response and sorry it took me so long to approve it. I appreciate you explaining these things to me. Especially the part about the meat and that sauces might not be gluten free, I didn’t know that.
I will try again, as I mentioned, much of this was my own doing. As a Minnesotan, it isn’t in my DNA to send things back or make a fuss. I didn’t know what I wanted, and if my daughter had simply come with me it would have been a lot easier, she could have just ordered her own damn food instead of having me guess. I don’t remember what broth i had, I think it was a combination of a couple of them. I think next time I will start with something simple, no need to start mixing things up just yet.
I realize it takes a little while for any new restaurant to settle in and I will try again. Thanks again for responding.
Jen
OK… I am sorry you didn’t like the ramen… but I laughed several times at your review. You are such a good writer!
We have a great ramen place here but it is gluten… so I have only been once. I heard so many good things about it that I decided the aftermath would be worth it. It actually was. 🙂 But not a “go twice” thing.