Mirror Restaurant Review: Menya Jiro

Located a couple doors down from Urban Outfitters, the new ramen restaurant, Menya Jiro, is now open at Legacy Place. Founded in Ibusuki City, Japan in 2010, it has spread to locations, such as Cambridge and Brooklyn.

This is the first restaurant primarily featuring ramen in Dedham. The opening was announced over a year ago, with its doors finally opening at the end of September.

Menya Jiro does not offer reservations, so I was nervous about wait-time, as several customers dining during their opening week reported wait-times of up to two hours. However, at lunchtime on the Monday of Columbus Day weekend, my party of five was seated immediately.

The establishment was nicely lit, giving off a modern and inviting atmosphere. Though small, there was a nice mix of booths and tables.

The menu was promising, with a brief page of appetizers, including dumplings, gyoza, and edamame. There was a page of ramen bowls, a page of assorted udon (thick noodles), and a page of donburi (rice bowl dishes). There were a couple pages of other menu items that aren’t available just yet, but will be later on as the restaurant’s service expands.

The restaurant currently has a Google review rating of 3.3 stars. This is not so much because of food-related issues, but because of service issues. Due to a busy opening week, tables were neglected. Similarly, my waitress was friendly, but not very attentive.

I ordered the spicy edamame as an appetizer, which was well seasoned and had a nice heat to it. The portion was also a good size for its price of six dollars.

The wait time for the food was a bit long, especially for the ramen, which took over a half-hour compared to the udon’s 20 minutes.

The wait was worth it, however. The presentation was excellent and looked very appetizing. The Ibusuki ramen, one of their most popular dishes, was delicious. Its contents included ramen in mixed broth made from pork and chicken paired with garlic and soy sauce, which was topped with chashu (Japanese pork), scallion, bean sprouts and fried garlic. The pork was very tender, and the broth was super flavorful. The noodles were high quality and the vegetables added a nice crunch. It cost 16 dollars, a very reasonable price for the amount of ramen given.

Another popular dish on the menu our table tried was the karaage udon. It had noodles in a mixed broth made with savory sauce topped with karaage chicken, scallions, seaweed, and kamaboko (fish cake). The chicken was very good, but felt sort of out of place. Since it came on the side, there was confusion about whether or not it was supposed to be eaten separately, or put into the broth. In addition, the seaweed flavor was slightly overpowering, and the spices in the mixed broth were not able to be tasted as much. Nonetheless, the dish was still very good for its price of 16 dollars. Most of the menu items seemed to be reasonably priced, with bowls averaging about 17 dollars.

Overall, my first experience at Menya Jiro was very positive. The restaurant is a refreshing change from the usual American food offered at Legacy Place. The food portions are most definitely in place. That being said, some improvements can be made on the service end of things. I am hoping as time goes on the restaurant will work out any wrinkles it currently has, and am looking forward to the new menu items they will be introducing!

Rating: 4/5 stars