A nicely decorated, chill ramen shop in the Chicago Chinatown area that serves just alright ramen. I wasn't too impressed by the broth and the noodles were alright.FoodComing to Chicago for the first time and trying all kinds of burgers amd steaks left me craving some asian food. And ramen is one of my favorite. Compared to other ramen that I've had, Strings was a below average spot for me. I wanted to go all out and got the Super Premium tonkotsu ramen. The Super Premium has kamp while the Premium does not. The noodles were okay, but the broth was not very good. The broth wasn't as rich as I expected for a tonkotsu and watered down.AtmosphereCasual and a great spot for just hanging out! The inside looks very Asian with the lanterns hanging from the ceiling and the wooden tables and chairs are a nice touch.PricingPretty expensive for average to below average ramen (mine Super Premium was about $21), but not sure if this is standard ramen prices in Chicago... I've had better ramen for $5 less per bowl in the Seattle area.ServiceService was good and the server was very nice. We had the option to either sit indoors or outdoors but given that it was a sunny day we went for outdoors!OtherLooks like mostly street parking around here
Food was great! Place was small, but we got a table right away. Can't wait to come back.
If you are a person that is a larger than a size medium, you are going to have issues sitting inside. ** (read below)For our 7 year anniversary we decided to try out strings. This restaurant was completely new to us as we have only been to very few in Chinatown. The chicken dumplings were really good. I definitely recommend those if you do decide to give this place a try. Both my husband and I originally planned on trying out Ramen as neither of us have had authentic Ramen. However I ended up going with the meat lovers Rice Bowl as it was the only menu item that I could justify paying the price for. The chicharrones, or pork skins, are definitely from a bag. I like fried pork skins. I just thought they would be fresh. The meats were all flavored nicely. My husband ended up getting to the Hell Ramen Level 1. There was no heat (spice) for either of us. He also didnt like the texture of the baby oysters in the ramen. So if you go here to try this for heat, I would reccomend a different level. Even after adding the red pepper flakes in oil that is provided on the table, there was no heat.Service is ok. We got water & a pitcher. So it was nice to be able to refill ourselves without asking. There's a QR code on the table to pull up the menu. We opted out of dessert.** there are a couple booths to accommodate larger people however when we visited this location, we were offered a tiny corner table surrounded by a bunch of strangers. The table we were offered would not have sat us comfortably. We were sat at the opposite end of the tables. However we took up two full tables that were set to seat 6. If we sat in the orginal corner we were offered, me and a stranger would have been sitting uncomfortably and touching. The people at the booths did not rotate out at all while we were there (1.5hr).
Excellent Chinatown ramen shop. I found the prices to be very reasonable and still quality was very high. Staff was nice and very knowledgeable of the menu. The ramen itself was fantastic. I think I would have preferred more noodles, but otherwise very good.
Their ramen is obviously amazing but don't sleep on the rice bowls either! ??
Cool spot to get ramen in the china town. The service was quick and no wait time though it’s a fairly small space. Tasted good. Definitely recommend.
The portions felt surprisingly small especially for NA ramen joint standards.Also the Hell Ramen lvl3 felt pretty barren as far as ingredients go. It looked like there was maybe some ground beef and bean sprouts lightly sprinkled in and I was suppose to fill up on deep fried pork skin?As for the noodles, there simply wasn't enough and no option to op for thicker noodles either. I had to add a seasoned egg, nori, toasted garlic and corn seperately to make it feel like a full meal.Service was great, broth tasted quite good as well. May come back to try a different bowl~All in all, pretty average stuff.
Nice place with good choices of ramen. Clean and not busy. Nice and friendly staff. Good place for lunch. Thank you!
Classic Ramen shop with a good vibe, fast friendly service and great food. I ordered the Tonkotsu Ramen with pork loin. It came out pretty fast and was delicious. The menu even has “instructions” for how to properly enjoy ramen. The restaurant was small and dimly lit with lots of wood and hanging paper lanterns to give it an authentic Japanese back alley restaurant vibe, very cool.
Great food! The spice levels are pretty true to scale, so plan accordingly!