Taan Noodles

Damn it… why did this place have to close… maybe if I got off my lazy ass and wrote how great this place was it would still be open: /
The endless living social, groupon, and Unilocal deals should are always and ominous sign and I should have known the end was near. I thoroughly enjoyed half-​off ramen while it lasted.
I’m not sure why this place didn’t do well. Obviously it’s not location because it is right next to Cashions and Mintwood, while Sakuramen is in a basement.
Maybe there reason why this place never caught on was because it was very different than other ramen in the city. However, its bold contrast is what made this place so special – the counter culture of ramen. Stepford wife toppings of bamboo shoots and scallions were deferred for pickled cucumbers, inoki mushrooms, and crisp cabbage. Also let’s not forgot the full service bar and cocktails. Ramen with a tall boy of soporo, more natural combination than peanut butter and jelly.
Duck leg ramen you will be missed. Please consider yourself ahead of your time instead of a failure.

Not really thinking of coming back here. Food took a long time for only two guests in entire place. Buns that were supposed to be with 3 meats had just the pork belly and were soggy from the «salad» on it.
Squid salad tasted just as if ingredients were unpurposely thrown together without thought. Also very «fishy» and all we hope is that we aren’t sick tomorrow.
Didn’t even try the Ramen after those appetizers. Not planning to come back.

Ehhh… I don’t love it. I really love ramen but I can’ t get on board with Taan but it’s mostly because I’m a traditionalist. All the fancy duck confit doesn’t really interest me. I want my ramen full to the brim with broth, not almost-​covering my noodles.
Great to see more ramen shops overall, but I think I’ll stick to another noodle house besides Taan.

Taan doesn’t do it for me. Service was great, and it’s nice inside, but the food is truly «meh». I love ramen, but I found Taan’s broth to be lacking in flavor and with noodles that didn’t have that perfect, chewy texture. The noodles reminded me of packaged, store-​bought ramen. I ordered the shoyu duck ramen. The duck was great – confit and the drumstick were tender and tasty. My friend ordered the triple stock ramen, and while the broth was slightly more complex in flavor than mine, she didn’t love it, and neither did I.
We also ordered an appetizer (gyoza) and dessert (chocolate cake). The gyoza was good, but nothing you couldn’t get at the tasting station in Grand Mart. The dessert options confused me – chocolate cake or red velvet cake. I was expecting mochi, or maybe a red bean or taro pastry. And while the cake was fine, I think Taan is confused as well.

was looking for a new spot on sunday night in my neighborhood and i’ve walked by taan so many times that i now decided to try. i don’t eat pork so my options were a bit limited, but my waitress recommended the taan vegan ramen & i’m so glad she did!
i was starved and this meal was huge and filling. so colorful with all of the vegetables, and the spicy soy milk broth was so different tasting — yet so good! the spiciness was just right, especially for me, since i can be a wimp about spices. definitely should have asked for extra tofu, though.
wish the menu wasn’t so small, but would definitely come back to try the other vegan dish! the starters look good as well! may come back with a friend to split a dish or two though, since my total bill for the one dish w/​tip came to $ 18.

I’d been craving some ramen and decided to check this place out on a Groupon deal (1 appetizer, 2 ramen bowls, and 1 dessert) for what I think was like $ 20. We arrived and had a reservation and they immediately sat us upstairs. At first I was excited b/​c upstairs looked cozy, but once we were up there I wasn’t as happy. It was really dark and I could barely read my menu, and my back was up against a brick wall. The tables were super close together, so my friend and I moved to a small table by what looks to be an upstairs bar. This area had more light, but the bar was stocked with random supplies like extra silverware, boxes of napkins, etc and those things really belong in a supply cabinet, not all over some closed down bar area people are eating next to.
But really, that was the worst part. Our server was really really friendly, and helpful with picking out dishes. We started with the duck papaya salad which was absolutely fantastic. The duck was crispy and the dressing on the salad was nice and bright. Definitely a highlight of the meal. We both ordered the Tan Tan Men bowl which was a spicy broth with pork belly and a variety of different veggies. Overall, the ramen was pretty delicious though there were a few really bitter veggies included that threw it off for me. The pickled ginger wasn’t sliced very thin so it was extremely pungent tasting and was in sort of a clump so at least I was able to pull it out completely. There was also some other veggie (I don’t know what it was) that I wasn’t a huge fan of. But overall the ramen and broth were delicious and I wish there’d been more pork belly b/​c that was also very yummy.
The dessert was probably the biggest let down. The choices were either chocolate or red velvet cake, which just felt like a cheater dessert. I expect that from Chili’s or a diner, but not a ramen house.
Overall, I would probably come back if I was in the neighborhood or craving ramen. I enjoyed the broth and from the reviews it seems like the restaurant can easily make changes to the meals as people want them (spicier, more veggies, less veggies, etc) which I think is great and I’ll take advantage of that for sure next time. I just think it was a tad pricey (if I wasn’t using a Groupon) based on the atmosphere.

Went here for girls’ night on a Groupon deal. We walked in and were seated immediately for our reservation even though it was a Saturday night. The food itself was fantastic and I would give it 5 stars. We split the papaya duck salad which was TO DIE FOR. We couldn’t stop eating it. Perfect blend of spicy and sweet and fresh and fatty. Definitely my favorite item of the night. We both had the Taan Tan Tan bowl, which did not disappoint either. Great level of spice and mix of ingredients. We were too full to eat the chocolate cake for dessert, but we took it home and I can testify that it was delicious as well.
The only reason I didn’t give 5 stars was because I didn’t particularly enjoy the ambiance. It’s a matter of taste and others might love it, but it just wasn’t for me. It was a pretty small setup and we were seated on the second level, which was a bit dingy and dark for my taste. It also prevented our waiter from coming upstairs often so we were there for longer than we would have liked. There was also a pretty hipster vibe that I didn’t expect in AdMo, but lots of skinny jeans and thick-​rimmed glasses from the clientele. Like I said, not objectively bad, but just not to my taste. I wish I lived closer so I could order delivery! Would recommend for delivery, lunch, and dinner if the ambiance sounds like something you’d enjoy!

Move over Toki and Daikaya. Taan Noodles provides authentic, tasty ramen in a cozy environment without the long waits.
Came here for brunch through a voucher — don’t judge the Ramen/​Mimosa combination until you’ve tried it! Service was friendly and attentive, and the ramen was delicious. Loved the Taan Tan Tan Men (spicy) noodles.

I really wanted to give this place a chance but alas it proved to be extremely underwhelming and previous criticisms were spot on. I got a Groupon deal with a friend, which included an appetizer, two ramens and a dessert.
Before delving into the criticisms, I would like to offer a few compliments:
— The service was decent, polite and efficient.
— The ramen prices are competitive — most expensive (Maze-​men) was only $ 15
— Great atmosphere
— They are creative with the ramen, not settling for the same formula
And now the criticisms:
I understand the owners’ philosophy. They want to reinvent ramen and make it chic. They want to think outside of the box. But at the end day, ramen is comfort food. It warms the soul on a cold, wintery day. It’s like mac n’ cheese or fried chicken, you don’t want to get too creative with it or you end up risking the whole «comfort food» experience. And that’s exactly what is happening here. They are thinking so outside of the box that they are not even near the box any more.
APPETIZER
We ordered the most expensive menu item ($ 9), the beef tenderloin salad. The presentation was simplistic and colorful. The dressing was tasty. But the experience was ruined when you realize that for $ 9 you only get a handful of chopped romaine lettuce leaves and a few specks of diced beef here and there. This is not $ 9 worth of food! For $ 9, Obviously I’m not expecting giant portions of food for an appetizer but is this all for $ 9? Maybe the okonomiyaki or the gyozas are more worthwhile but definitely stay away from the salads. Not worth the price.
NOODLES
We both ordered the most expensive one ($ 15) on the menu — the Taan Maze-​men since it seemed to offer everything in one bowl.
The noodles were cooked just right, which is about the only redeeming thing.
Contrary to popular belief, the most important component to a ramen dish is the BROTH. It sets the flavor and amalgamates everything together into one unified dish (toppings, noodles, etc). You can have perfectly cooked noodles but if the broth is bad, everything is ruined. However, if you have awe-​inspiring broth but if the noodles are a little off, you can still redeem yourself.
So herein lies the problem for Taan. In your most expensive ramen dish, the broth was not very good. It’s one dimensional and very salty. The salty pickles made it even saltier. I ended up drinking lots of water after each bite. To add insult to injury, I think our ramen was also missing a few key toppings such as woodear, egg and chicken confit. But it doesn’t really matter at this point because the toppings in general just don’t mesh with the rest of the dishe.
Toppings should complement the noodles and when eaten together, it’s supposed to merge into one unified experience in your mouth. Somehow when you cover noodles with chopped romaine lettuce and a sweet cherry tomato along with the slightly crispy outside of the duck confit, there’s so many different flavors and textures in my mouth that I can’t really taste anything. It become unmemorable. It’s like stuffing a candy, a french fry and a piece of cumber in your mouth. You get three distinct flavors and textures but none of it stays because there’s just too much contrast. This won’t work with ramen.
DESSERT: We ordered the chocolate mousse cake ($ 5). To be honest, the cake was REALLY GOOD and probably our favorite dish of the night. The only problem was that the slice was very thin that it doesn’t justify the $ 5 price tag.
SUGGESTIONS TO THE OWNERS/​CHEF:
You have a good thing going here but there are a few critical things you need to fix in order to be taken seriously, especially when there is stiff competition just right down the street.
1. If you eat ramen the proper Japanese way, you start and end with the broth. So fix the broth is key to continued success. From reading other reviews, it seems your broth is either too underwhelming or overwhelming. There has to be a good balance and more body or flavor. You can’t expect customers to fine tune this themselves by telling you to add more or less salt. Once it comes to that, then it’s already too late. The chef has to come up with a winning formula for good broth or your ramen is doomed.
2. Tone down on the contrasts for toppings. Make them consistent (complement) with the noodle dish and broth, not stand out.
3. Bigger portions for the appetizers and dessert.

Even better the second time around! This time we had bottomless mimosas and they were really attentive!
My friend had the vegan ramen and I had a taste. It was truly one of the best vegan soups I’ve tasted, and creamy, too! Their pork buns are also super good, almost Taiwanese style, with cilantro and pork belly.

They do a good job cooking their proteins (duck moist and tender, pork belly gently browned, egg nicely medium-​boiled) and I dig the pickled cucumbers. The broth is just okay: Tan tan men was mildly spicy, shoyu duck broth was forgettable, and triple stock ramen broth the least underwhelming. Maze-​men had more than enough broth over the yolk to coat the ingredients with light tossing. Not enough togarashi and oil bottles to stock every table, and the latter is more sesame than chili anyways. On our return visit, Taan only ended up marginally less oily than Daikaya. Noodles are similarly inconsistent; too thin to offer chew to begin with, but firm enough to withstand lacquered chopstick handling.
Bao are alright, yet definitely not worth the price point at $ 4 apiece when you consider the low ratio of filling to plush bun. Friendly service despite forgetting napkins one night. Competitive ramen pricing at conservative portions. Cocktail menu sounds reasonably interesting, but hasn’t quite compelled my latent alcoholism. Limited outdoor seating. Hot tea is in bag form. Overall, pretty disappointing experience when you consider how luxe the menu reads… I’m beginning to understand why they keep offering LivingSocial deals, but I’d rather go for better execution at Sakuramen in this neighborhood.

I finally had the opportunity to try out Taan Noodles last night. Cold weather and hot ramen = a perfect combination.
I was surprisingly impressed by the place as soon as I walked in. The décor was contemporary modern and not what I expected. We were immediately led upstairs and the ambiance was completely different. The upstairs was dark, narrow, and a bit small.
We were given our menus and asked for hot green tea. Once our hot green teas arrived, we couldn’t help but laugh. Green tea bags from Essential Everyday was what we were given. In any ramen house and/​or any Japanese restaurant, I’d expect better tea.
We ordered the Steam Bun, Taan Tan Tan Men and the Taan Shoyu Duck Ramen. I’ve had many pork belly steam buns before, and this one did not disappoint. The bun was warm and soft, and the pork belly was perfectly crisp. The samba sauce was sweet with the perfect amount of spice. In short, the Steam Bun was perfect.
The ramen were just as good. The noodles were perfectly cooked and had the right amount of chewiness to them. The broths were rich and flavorful. Both the Taan Tan Tan Men and the Taan Shoyu Duck Ramen were delicious.
I’d rate this place 5 stars if it weren’t for the service and cleanliness. The person who sat us was the only server. Service did not lack, but was not excellent either. As for cleanliness, the restaurant itself is clean. We had slight issues with my sister’s water glass and chopsticks. The water glass had a lipstick stain on it and the chopstick were dirty. Both issues that were quickly resolved and can be improved immediately.
As a ramen lover, I’m a fan and prefer Taan Noodles over Toki Underground.

Delicious ramen that hasn’t been met with hype yet! There are a ton of Ramen places that seem to be met with instant hype and crowds by the wealth of hipsters who love Japanese culture. I could literally probably open up a Ramen restaurant, call it «authentic ramen» and serve instant ramen and these hipsters wouldn’t know the difference and have a line out the door calling the ramen shop the Resurrection of Christ.
Luckily, this place doesn’t have the same crowds as the other aforementioned ramen shops. It does serve a pretty good bowl of ramen soup as well, not the best I’ve had, but definitely worth coming here rather than waiting a ridiculous 2 – 3 hours for Toki underground. Granted, Toki is better, but their space is so small and their reputation has grown so large that it’s impossible to get seated within a reasonable time there. Taan noodles is a nice alternative, their soups are full bodied and flavorful. The ramen noodles themselves have just the right amount of texture, great quality. The seared pork belly is also a step up from Toki’s braised pork. I like to get the Meze-​men with extra broth. You get a duck confit leg, seared pork belly, egg yolk, ramen noodles and an assortment of veges. All of it is really delicious and I would get it again! So far glad that this place hasn’t been packed by hipsters yet, but I think that will be short lived once the word gets out more… Time to open up my own «instant» ramen noodle pop-​up…

Taan is an interesting ramen place that tends to combine a bit of Chinese and other Asian flair into its ramen noodle dishes. Admittedly, I was skeptical, but left satisfied.
I had the Maze-​men, which was a lot, but was impressed at the sheer volume.
Ramen is supposed to be a meal in Japan, not an instant noodle college staple as it is here. The variety of ingredients was well-​received, although I could have used a bit more broth. When asked, the waitress informed me it would be extra, so I declined. Besides, the size of the dish was sufficient to have me stuffed at the end, so it would have been wasted.
Taan is competing with several other ramen joints in the area — if you’re in Adams Morgan, I would certainly pick this one over Sakuramen, which has declined considerably since opening.

Like many others, I came here because a good deal and it proved to be worth it!
I had the Taan Tan Tan Men ramen because it was supposed to have a bit of a chili flavor to it… and it did! What else was in the bowl? Pork belly, some greens, scallions, a few woodear mushrooms, and pickled ginger. Now I know why most people order ramen with no pickled ginger or on the side – this stuff can get intense in pleasant bowl of soup. If you aren’t a fan of ginger, get it on the side! The broth was a little salty to the point where I was very thirsty after finishing my bowl.
I was told some of their ramen doesn’t come with the soft boiled egg… so be sure to ask! The star of this bowl of ramen was the pork belly… omg, the pork belly. I know people usually go crazy over this stuff but this place does it up right. The pork belly had a crispy outside and tender inside… I would come back just for this.

A friend and I went to Taan Noodles because I had a deal from Gilt City that was expiring, and overall I felt that it was just average Ramen with haphazard and poor service.
We started with the shrimp rolls, which actually came apart as you held them. Without the peanut sauce, they were absolutely flavorless, so I can’t say I recommend them. For entrée, I ordered Ramen with pork belly and duck confit, and for a cheap dish, the pork belly was pretty good. The dish itself, was just okay. Most of the ingredients were already under the broth and in the Ramen by the time it arrived, so anything crispy was no longer crispy. Our online deal came with dessert, but then the only dessert was chocolate cake. Why is chocolate cake at of Ramen place? It was obvious that the cake was just bought from a Baskin-​Robbins or who knows where. Literally there wasn’t anything special about it.
I will say that the service was bad throughout. I had bought an online deal for appetizer and two entrées and dessert with drinks, and you would think that since I went there on the day it expires that they had seen this before, but the server act acted like he had no idea what this was. Throughout the dinner, he asked to take my phone away to check on the deal, even though I declined. Why does my phone need to be outside of my possession for you to take it into the back room? And then their credit card machine didn’t work so they asked for cash — luckily I had some, but I normally do not.
A bigger issue was that he refused repeatedly ignored my request to be checked in via OpenTable. I am VIP on OpenTable, and a certain number of no-​shows would have that status canceled, so I made sure to identify myself that I made a reservation, even though the place wasn’t that packed. Even when he said he would do it, he didn’t. (I know this because we were sitting towards the front where the check in area was.) This is probably just an issue that have to do with me personally, but I didn’t appreciate him straight up ignoring my valid reservation. He just wasn’t a good server in the first place.
Overall, thinking about the food, I wouldn’t recommend Taan Noodles anyway. But then, to add the poor service on top of it, and it’s definite not recommend. The food isn’t horrible, so it doesn’t deserve 1.0 star, but maybe 1.5 stars.

Nothing beats some sort of noodle soup on a brisk fall evening. Traffic was bad so we decided to wait it out and grab dinner in Adams Morgan. My food connoisseur partner-​in-​crime chose Taan Noodles, which he had been wanting to try for a while. Great choice!
Taan Noodles produces some of the tastiest ramen I’ve had in this area. Honestly, I find Toki’s vegetarian ramen to be the most disappointing and least flavorful of the available options, but that’s not really an issue since most Toki fans are in it for the porky menu items.
Mister got the ramen with the seared pork belly and had to stop intermittently to declare how good his soup was. He drained the bowl! And you just can’t go wrong with seared pork belly, he said. Despite the decadent topping, my dining companion said that he could eat here once a week, but that Toki’s richer soup was reserved for maybe once a month.
My vegetarian take on the popular Japanese soup was spicier than his broth and super delectable. I enjoyed the al dente noodles, the assortment of veggies, including bok choy, the slivers of ginger (though I’m not even a fan of ginger), and especially the crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside tofu. The tofu chunks are really an art! How do you get it so crispy on the outside and so soft and creamy on the interior? Mmmmmmm.
Taan is a nice, relaxed environment for dining, definitely on the trendy side. I like the upstairs seating option and the French bistro type music playing in the background.
Tip for ramen/​noodle soup newbs: Don’t let your noodles expand. Move in on those noodles, slurp like crazy, and eat the soup as quickly as possible. It killed me to see all those other diners lazily picking up their spoon, sipping a little, setting it down, and enjoying conversation while their noodles drank up all the broth and got bigger and bigger… and not so tasty.

Solid ramen without the crazy wait for Toki Underground. Not only that, but Taan has some awesome happy hour deals, daily specials, a 20% off Unilocal check in offer, and 20% your bill from Savored. I dig it.
Came here after a book signing with Freddy Jr R and a friend of ours visiting from San Francisco. I have a Living Social deal but since you needed a reservation to redeem it, we decided to use Savored instead. I start off with an order of the pork steam buns and decide to do the Mazemen with extra broth. My friends order the triple stock ramen and the beef salad.
The mazemen ramen which comes with duck confit, chicken confit, and pork belly is a deal at $ 15. Although the broth was a bit lacking, the combination of duck, chicken, and pork belly along with the egg yolk, noodles and vegetables was good. I found myself liking the pork belly here more than at Daikaya. The mazemen is typically served with little broth, but I decided to make it a soup with a side order of extra broth. I recommend it.
The pork steam buns I thought were okay at best. For $ 8, you get two which were a bit underwhelming. Not bad though. Freddy state he enjoyed his triple stock ramen and our other friend enjoyed his salad. Our server was also very polite and helpful.
Bill came to $ 40 total with the Savored deal. Not bad since we saved $ 10. I will obviously be back since I have a Living Social deal, but would I come back without one? Most likely. The drinks menu looked quite good and the daily special deals like half off cocktails on Thursday is definitely a draw. I have yet to try Sakuraramen, but Taan is pretty solid.

This place really needs to do more to their outward décor. It looks like the place isn’t even open for business when you are walking or driving by. There doesn’t appear to be any sign announcing what the place is.
The inside décor isn’t much either. Small non impressive bar, open kitchen and random doors nailed to the walls.
Service was quality, there was almost no one in the restaurant when I was there so it wasn’t much to have the servers full attention.
Food was just decent. I had the TAAN Maze Men, this basically their ultimate dish, it features every protein they have and every vegetable in on dish. Broth flavor wasn’t bad, could have used a little more kick. Vegetables were a tad too prominent for my likening. Noodles were of a quality consistency.
Overall Taan just didn’t do it for me, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t wasn’t very good, it was just kind of in the middle. Worth a visit if you want to brag and say you’ve been to every Ramen place in the area but will not blow you away.

2.5 Stars
We arrived at Taan and were quoted 15 – 25 minutes. We went to Mintwood for a drink and came back. We then didn’t get seat until an hour after we came back to check-​in. This means the total wait time was an hour and a half, not «15−25». How could you be off by so much? We were told «just a few tables ahead of you» so we just stood by the door waiting, but it was an hour of standing!
The food was okay. I like it better than Sakuramen, but Toki is way better. The portion size is pretty small considering I was able to finish a whole bowl wheras I usually have to split a bowl with someone. Or I was starving.
The drinks were also really sweet and the beer was over-​priced like whoa but I didn’t see the cocktail prices. I took a pic of the menu, but only the food side.
There is a «waiting area» upstairs, but there is no food service.
Final Stance: Wouldn’t go back.