Stix Noodle Bar

I want to this place to succeed. I encourage new, independent businesses in my city. I love ramen. But, Stix really needs to get their act together. My husband and I tried this restaurant for lunch. Although it was not particularly busy, we were ignored by the 3 people behind the counter. We were told that we were standing in the wrong place to order. There was no signage to dictate appropriate action. They pointed to the right to indicate that we should stand approximately 4 feet to the right before they would take our order. My husband and I ordered the pork belly ramen with egg to eat there. We were told that there were not enough eggs, so they would split one. When our order was ready, we were disappointed to be served in paper take out bowls. Also, we we're informed that they were out of spoons! Holding a warm bowl of steaming broth is one of the main visceral joys of good ramen. The paper dish was a huge disappointment. Also, the runny yolk mixing with broth is another key ramen experience. However, we were denied this important element as well. We shared an egg, but we were made to feel bad about taking their last egg. Also, ramen is a soup. No spoons! The broth itself was flavorful and the noodles were fine. The pork belly was tough and undercooked. I want this place to do well. I love ramen. I love independent business. But, I felt cheated by Stix. $26 for essentially 2 "Cup of Noodles" served up with a side of attitude.

Stix is a new establishment that opened this week, and I thought I’d give them a try. I went the day after opening day, and ordered take out. It was a pleasant experience at first, service was great, the manager (owner?) was very nice to us. The ramen I had that night was pretty good, broth was above average, noodles and meat on the other hand left something to be desired. This should have foreshadowed my following experiences with this restaurant. I went again a few days later for lunch, I thought it would be nice to give something else a try on their menu. I ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry, mind you this is a rice dish and their specialty is their noodles. Let’s start with the chicken katsu, it was tender and juicy, not bad at all. Everything else on the other hand was a disaster. Their curry, probably boxed curry, was still very lumpy/pasty it seems like it was not thoroughly mixed. This was a major turn off. Now let’s talk about the rice. I will never order a rice dish from them again, assuming I ever step foot in this restaurant again. They keep their rice right next to the boiler for the noodles, this is a terrible idea. If you have ever worked with noodles, you would know when someone finishes boiling them and pulls them out, some water will be flung off the side, guess where all of this water lands? Yep, you’ve guessed it, right in the rice! I don’t know if anyone likes soggy, mushy, and slightly powdery rice, but I definitely do not. It is completely unappetizing and utterly disgusting. I think most people would prefer to not have flour and wax from the noodles being mixed in with their rice. I don’t think I have ever had such mushy rice before in my life. And just to top it all off, the rice also had burnt bits, I don’t know whether to be amazed or disturbed by the fact that you can have burnt the rice as well as turned it pretty much into porridge. Anyways, I will forgive this mishap because Stix is a noodle bar. Thus, here’s the issue: Stix is a noodle bar. I would assume that you would give your employees some training to actually prepare noodles. Yes, I understand this is your first week in business, but this is unacceptable. I do not think its feasible for your employees to only be working diligently when the owners are around. You can tell that they are slacking off, and this just is not right for the amount you are charging for your noodles. I went back again, Sunday 2/18, you have been officially open one week. You would assume by now you would have some order in how the restaurant should be run, but this is not the case. I ordered my food, and people who ordered the exact same thing as me received their order before me. This wouldn’t have been an issue, but they came in like 10 minutes after us. I went in today when there were only 2 customers eating inside, how does one forget an order when there’s no one even being served? Please do tell. I finally asked about my order an they prepared it right away, I could already tell this was going to be bad. My food came promptly after wards, say 3 minutes, now it was getting a bit crowded in the store. I looked in my bowl, the noodles are still stuck together, this was a bad sign. I let the noodles soak for a good 3 minutes, and then give them a try. I take one bite, and as soon as I bit down I was utterly disgusted. The noodles were cold, floury and waxy. These noodles were probably just put in the boiler for a solid 2 minutes. They were nowhere cooked through. This is completely unacceptable, I expect to at least have noodles that are cooked through, see picture. I don’t understand how can you run a business like this, it’s not fair for any of the customers to be served this poor quality of food. Honestly, I don’t even want to think of whether the water in the boiler is even changed daily due to the amount of stray flour and wax in the noodles. After two bites, I just left, its not worth my health to actually finish that bowl of ramen. I really wanted to like Stix, it’s a great concept, and there aren’t many noodle bars like this in the area.

I have gone to this place twice for take away and both times have been an utter disappointment. The first visit I ordered the pork belly and was given next to no broth resulting in the driest bowl of ramen I've ever had. The second visit I also ordered the pork belly and they absolutely destroyed the noodles by overcooking them so they were nothing but a glutenous clump of awful. I will never bother with their food again, once could be a fluke twice just shows a lack of care or skill or I don't know.

My husband, daughter and myself ate here for dinner. We ordered four entrées between the three of us. The portions were huge. The poke bowl was absolutely delicious. Very generous sizes of protein. Not too expensive. Very clean. Very friendly. Decent service. We walked in just a few minutes before they were closing and they were happy to serve us. We would recommend this restaurant.