Restaurant Review - Umami Noodle Bar.

I'll admit that I had high hopes for a place like this in Maine. I'm a huge fan of Japanese food, and I've always dreamt of trying real ramen.

The logo design is pretty cool, and suggests something new age, and modern. Umami is the fifth of the 5 basic tastes. Its considered to me similar to saltiness, but  unique in it's own sense. Green tea is said to have a lot of umami.

You walk up to the counter, pick your broth, protein, and add-ons. The add-ons cost extra, there is a $1 and $2 section. The base price is $7.99. Honesty the prices are not that bad, but if you want a typical ramen-like meal it might add up. Typically, ramen includes egg, naruto, and napa cabbage. (They don't offer naruto at this time.)

I ordered "Japanese Miso" with tofu, and 1 add-on, napa cabbage. Jessica ordered Japanese miso, with tofu, and 1 add-on, hard boiled egg.

It carried a pretty good aroma of miso, and onions. Although the restaurant itself wasn't filled with any distinct scent, which was surprising since there should be a lot of flavorful broths being made. Broth carries a lot of aroma, not as much as say, bread, or a baker, but still.

The miso itself was pretty weak, and to my amazement, it needed salt. Miso usually is pretty salty, its actually one of the reasons why I like it. The noodles themselves were okay, they didn't have anything special going for them, they tasted like typical pre-packaged ramen noodles. (Not the 20 cent package kind, though.) The extra $1 I spent on the napa cabbage was really a waste. Maybe two or three pieces in there, it did taste pretty good though. The tofu was really the star (As it should be) and it was fried. It was cooked really well, and had a great taste. I wasn't disappointed in the tofu at all.

As far as flavors go, they are okay. Not fantastic, or memorable in anyway. Its also brand-new, first or second week open. They were also completely packed, and the line was out the door. I wont make excuses for them but I am also going to revisit them in about a month to see if I have a better experience. Their customer service is pretty awful; Jessica's noodles were substituted without her being told, as they were out of the other kind. The problem with that is: we paid extra for those noodles, but were given cheaper ones, and no refund. She also didn't have tofu on hers. When she complained they just tossed cold, uncooked tofu on top. Completely unacceptable. She complained again because we suspected that the noodles were different, and her tofu was awful. So they redid her entire meal, and the second bowl she had completely lacked the hard boiled egg she ordered. (Also $1 for half a hard boiled egg? What the hell?)

I really hope that the lack of good flavors, and bad customer service was due to the amount of people there that day. I paid $30, $5 of that being a tip. The tip was pre-food/service, otherwise I wouldn't have tipped at all. Honestly, if they had even decent customer service, I should get my money back.

This rating isn't out of pity, it was originally 1 leaf out of 5, but the owner contacted me and apologized, so at least he has some decency.

Umami's facebook & location can be found @

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Restaurant Review - Verve.

This is a local place in Bangor, Maine. Their first store is located in Orono, Maine. This review is solely based on the Bangor, Maine location, I have no experience with the Orono location, nor have I ever been to any Verve previously. Also keep in mind that I am a pescatarian.(I do not consume anything meat besides fish.)

The meaning of the word verve is vigor and spirit or enthusiasm. A common synonym is zest. 

I'll admit that I had some pretty high expectations when I walked in the door, their facebook contains a lot of favorable reviews. However, the restaurant's decor isn't anything remarkably memorable. It was really open-spaced, with oddly small tables.It felt more like a coffee shop than a burrito place. None of this had any remnants of vigor, or enthusiasm, and definitely not "world moving", Personally though, I don't find decor as important as the food itself, but even some tacty local art on the walls would do it some justice.

I ordered the "Veg-head" breakfast burrito - Scrambled eggs, Gimme Lean vegetarian sausage, black beans, cheese, salsa, and sour cream. $5.25

It didn't smell like a whole lot. It was just a very bland black bean smell, with a hint of cheese.

I'm not really sure where they buy their products, and how much of it is made in house. I'd like to assume that they make everything minus the obvious. (Sour cream, tortillas, veggie sauce) Usually with ingredients listed, they are in order of amount. The burrito was rather large, but I think its safe to say there may have been only single egg's worth of scrambled eggs. The most dominating thing was the beans, which were extremely bland. I would almost say they came from a can, which is sad because if it were true, it isn't much effort to buy raw beans (Cheaper, too) and cook them with more flavor themselves. I mean, at least add some chili powder and salt. It's suppose to be Mexican food right? Mexican food is very flavorful.  The vegetarian sausage? Tasted like charcoal, hard as a rock and burnt to hell, though, its amazing I could taste it at all, considering there were only two small pieces. Salsa and sour cream were not even in the flavor profile. I wouldn't even know they were there. 

The price was right, the flavor? Was not. It's amazing that a business like this has the balls to expand; it's food would be considered cafeteria food at best. In fact, my college's lunch at around the same price, with more food, is better tasting. I'd like to also add that the employee preparing my food, wore no food safety gloves, and two other employees were just sitting around screwing off on their phones. (I was the only other person in the restaurant, which makes sense, people like good food) 

Verve does not live up to it's name. Perhaps they should add some more "Zest".

This wasn't a rating out of pity, it was edible, and I didn't die. Would I recommend the place? Nope.