Ramen Bar Update Review

Ramen Bar
4040 Locust St
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Neighborhoods: University City, Spruce Hill

This is an update to my original review.  I came back here for the third time.  This time it was because it was super cold outside and I wanted something hot to warm me up.  I dropped by and asked to sit at the bar overlooking the kitchen.

The food was good as usual, but the primary reason for my review update concerns the cleanliness of the restaurant.  During the 20 minutes or so that I was sitting there, I noticed that the chef was multitasking with his ungloved hands and without washing his hands in between each task.  What was he doing?  Nothing too gross - but he was basically picking up ingredients and dropping them into my soup, cleaning the counter with some towel that I'm sure was not something I want his cooking hands to be contaminated with, cleaning up random empty containers, etc.

I also noticed the pork was just sitting out on the counter at room temperature - granted, I don't know how long they actually keep it out.  Regardless, it probably should not be placed in a location where someone like me can sneeze and immediately contaminate future customers with my yucky germs.  That's right, if you came in on Wednesday, you and I are probably closer than you think.  Just kidding, I didn't sneeze :)

Having eaten at Philly food trucks and traveled to countries where food cleanliness is the least of my worries, I'm not a "germaphobe."  But, given Ramen Bar's attempt to be a somewhat decent mid-end restaurant, I expected better!