JINYA Ramen Bar - Tulsa

We were in Tulsa for the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships and decided to stay an extra 2 days to celebrate my birthday. That also gave us more time to check out the Tulsa food scene. If you like Ramen noodles, JINYA is the place to go! Our waiter Brandon was SO cool and explained everything on the menu. We ordered the Pork bun and takoyaki (octopus balls) for appetizers and had the Tonkatsu Black Ramen bowl (mine with gluten-free noodles!) and it was all SO incredibly DELICIOUS! WE are SO impressed with the quality and variety of food available now in Tulsa! THANK YOU, JINYA, for an amazing birthday lunch! 😋

My wife got the gluten free ramen in pork broth with chicken as the protein. The menu says in small print below: if you are gluten free, don't get this. I guess the noodles are cooked in the same vat that regular noodles are cooked in. This seems like it should not be labeled gluten free. I got the spicy umami ramen with crushed hamburger. I was hoping for pork belly, but that wasn't an option. Hers tasted like fancy chicken and noodle soup. We also found it odd that the add ins were "on the side". She ordered corn, bok choy, and a seasoned egg. She had 4 dishes (chicken was on the side) plus the bowl, which seems odd. I can't figure out why they don't just put it in the bowl? My spicy miso broth was thin and didn't give me the mouth watering experience umami flavors are known to provide. It tasted like they rushed the broth before it was ready. Also, the ground beef was skimpy and doesn't belong in ramen if you ask me. But that's just an opinion. Oh, and watch your receipt. We were charged an extra $1.50 for pork broth. The manager said their system is broken and adds that on there. He said "We need to fix that." He was nice about it and removed the extra charge. The service was good. They were attentive, kind, and explained the menu to us since it was our first time. All in all, I've had spicy miso ramen in Tokyo, Toronto, San Jose, OKC, and New York. Tokyo and OKC were the best I've ever had. The $15 for a bowl is on the expensive side for ramen. The value for what we received was worth no more than $10. Unfortunately, for me, JINYA in Tulsa was the bottom of the list. P.S. My wife has celiac and has never been bothered by things that were touching gluten or fried with gluten. Currently, she's in the other room with a bad stomach ache. Our concern is the noodles themselves were not GF.