The question “Where do you wanna go eat? ” is one that instills anxiety in the American spirit. With there being so many restaurants in Stark County, it can be hard to choose where you want to spend quality time with your family and enjoy a good meal.
On Oct. 30, a new Asian Cuisine contender had its grand opening in the heavily saturated market of hungry people wanting to eat. Momohana Ramen & Boba Tea is a new restaurant in Belden and the people need to know if it is worth your tastebuds and wallet.
In this review, I will be giving five aspects of my experience a score out of 10. These five aspects being: appearance, menu, food, price and service. I will then average each of these scores for the overall score which I have dubbed “the grub factor.”
Appearance:
When you first go to walk into the restaurant you go through a revolving door, an exciting and charming thing that you don’t see often in a small city like Canton. The inside was ornamented with Japanese decor all over and was very lovely to look at. When we got our menus there was some sort of leftover stain on one, which is a minor inconvenience but a disgusting one. Other than that everything including our table was squeaky clean. When we got our bill there were tip suggestions printed out for you, a convenience you don’t see often.
8/10
Menu:
The menus are very bold and visually appealing. Everything you can order there are pictures of, which is not a common sight in many restaurants. Being that it is primarily a ramen joint, the lack of other varieties outside of ramen can be ignored. There is a submenu on top of the ramen selections, that allows you to order additional toppings to your bowl if you wish, a nice offering. However, although the menu was visually appealing it was also overwhelming and confusing with so many images everywhere and menu headings flipped to the side.
7/10
Food:
If you eat at Momohana, stick to the ramen. We ordered three appetizers and none of them were that fulfilling. Firstly, the jalapeno crab had zero spice, which is HIGHLY disappointing and shameful considering it was ordered in hopes of having some spice. The gyoza dumplings were all right but lacked much flavor. The char sui was the best appetizer ordered, having a delicious savory taste. While the appetizers fell short the ramen made me forget about them. I ordered the Teriyaki Ton Ramen and it was presented in a delicious fashion. It had teriyaki pork, green onions, corn, bamboo shoot, red chili pepper and spicy sauce all in a delicious pork broth. I was highly pleased with the ramen I ordered and found myself gulping the bowl clean.
7/10
Price:
The price of the food at Momohana was overall very average. All of the ramen dishes were around $15 each with additional toppings costing around a dollar each. Considering the fact that you get canned soda that can’t be refilled, the drinks are overpriced. The appetizers were a normal price and overall nothing was appalling expensive. Three appetizers, two ramen bowls and two sodas total at around $60 minus tip. For the price you pay, the portions of food you get are relatively good, and I was full by the time I was done eating.
7/10
Service:
We were seated fairly quickly after taking another person’s reservation. Our waiter was an exceptional man. He was very friendly with a radiant smile, liked to make jokes about how we should tip him $15 and even gave us a fist bump as we were leaving. We got our food quickly after we ordered it. Unfortunately, despite our waiter being great there is one unforgivable thing that enraged my soul: I ordered a Fanta (as it said on the menu) and got a Crush Orange instead. Anyone knows that Crush is a pathetic excuse for an orange soda compared to Fanta. Indeed, I am very disappointed that I paid $2.50 and did not get the drink I ordered.
7/10
Overall Grub Factor: 7.2/10
Overall, although Momohana Ramen & Boba Tea is not a life-changing experience, it is a quality ramen restaurant that makes delicious ramen. I would recommend that anyone who enjoys ramen or boba visit it if they are shopping in the Belden area and are looking for somewhere to eat.