Oh! Taisho

Our never-ending quest to find great tasting ramen brought us to Oh! Taisho, a small eatery on St. Mark’s Place in the east village. Since all of the places along St. Mark’s Place are somewhat similar (small, always packed, cheap eats and lots of beer), we’ve been trying to go to restaurants with good ramen reviews. All of these small Japanese eateries along St. Mark’s place are so alluring initially; lots of pictures of tasty-looking dishes, but when you actually sit down and eat, you’re disappointed because you realize the food really sucks. I read a couple reviews that Oh! Taisho is the place for ramen, so we decided to give St. Mark’s Place another chance:

The broth is very salty and has a distinct meat flavor. The noodles, however, were a huge disappointment. When I think of ramen, I always think of a chewier noodle (although that’s not always the case); Oh! Taisho served up a bowl of limp noodles that tasted overcooked. I wouldn’t have minded if they had just opened a bag of Maruchan ramen and dumped the noodles from there into my soup because those noodles taste better than the ones I was served. The meat had a great smoky flavor, but I ordered ramen, not a bowl of meat.

Chris ordered the pork with rice:

We couldn’t eat the majority of the meat since it was mostly fat, but the bits we did eat were enjoyable. The dish was also over-sauced and tasted like something from a mall food court.

Since everything comes in small plates, neither of us were full after our entrees and decided to share an order of pumpkin tempura:

My favorite dish of the night; the pumpkin was a little sweet, had lots of flavor, and when you pulled off the tempura, tasted pretty healthy!

Oh! Taisho wasn’t the worst restaurant I’ve been to along St. Marks, but it was seriously disappointing.