Short Review:
Decent food, good service, a little expensive, and limited parking spots. For a couple of friends just wanting to hang out with yummy food to eat and drink, it's perfect for it. But for family plus kids, I don't recommend going here. Of course, I am speaking of dining-in. If you are getting take-out, then it doesn't matter. For more details, read below.
Long Review:
Sosoba is located in the center of Phoenix, Arizona. Getting here can get tricky a little. For one thing, there are hardly parking spots. To get a parking spots, you'd have to use the meter on the side of parallel parking or hopefully find space somewhere that is allowed and walk that distance to Sosoba. Otherwise, on the outside, you can see the lime-green arch rooftop of Sosoba and full glass entry way. Their shop title is written on the window. On the inside, the shop is small, but enough to cover around 20 - 30 people. Their furnished of the shop was different from most restaurant. For instance, the walls are light creamy avocado color and if you seat at the bar, you could see different types of decals on top of the kitchen. I took the bar seat. As for the menu, you must download a QR code app or look them up on the website to take order because they won't hand you any menu due to COVID-19 safety procedure. Every restaurant does safety procedure differently. Anyway, after a couple of minutes, I decided to go with their Bao Bun (Pork Belly Version) and their TanTanMen. It took about 5 - 7 minutes for the Bao Bun and 2 - 3 minutes after for the TanTanMen.
Bao Bun (Pork Belly Version): One of the few good bun bao that I have tried. The seasoning was on dot and garnish looks full to eat. Pork bellies were slightly crispy with a nice charred to it. The mayo and eel sauce was enough for the taste and wasn't overbearing. But the fun part is the bun. The buns are nicely fried with a slight crunch, but still soft enough to melt in your mouth. My only complaint was that it was somewhat expensive for what it is. For $15, I'm essentially paying $5 for each buns. Another part was they didn't allow me to choose different types of meat on my bun for each buns. This makes it not really worth paying $15 unless money isn't a problem to you. So, my problem isn't really the food, it's more of the pricing. But for the experience, it's okay, I suppose.
TanTanMen: This dish is an inspired Chinese noodle dish of Dan Dan Noodles. And the Japanese took part of the recipe and made their own, which ended up as Tan Tan Ramen. The inspiration of TanTanMen is that instead of dry noodles, it is with broth instead. Dan Dan noodles are known for their Sichuan spice and their ground pork and green onions. In this case, I do get their very spicy chile with ground pork and green onions, but also their soft-boiled egg, menma (bamboo shoots), bok choy, and little of sesame seeds. For a person who has tried many different ramen, especially traditional ones, I must say, their TanTanMen is treat worthy to eat. The broth was nicely seasoned of tonkotsu, but is kind of overpowered by the spice of the technique of dan dan, which isn't terrible, but I tasted less tonkotsu. The noodles was slightly on the softer side, but it was also a little thicker than your typical standard straight ramen noodles. The soft-boiled egg is perfectly cooked as a soft-boiled. Menma was perfectly crunchy and soft with a good fragrance of seasoning. Bok Choy and green onions helps with the spiciness of the broth. And finally, their ground pork was just good as it is. All in all, $15 for a bowl is still a little expensive for the given portion. Don't get me wrong, it is good and I do find the quality to be, at least, decent. But $15 for a medium size bowl is just kind of unacceptable.
Overall, I rate Bao Bun/Tantanmen in quantity, a C/C for the given price vs portion and in quality, a -A/B+. I have no problem with their food quality, but I'm not sure if I would eat here again because of the expense. The portion is technically good, but with the price being so high for the given portion, it makes me wonder if it is worth it. These ingredients to make the ramen and bun bao is actually fairly inexpensive. We're not talking about black truffles or kobe beef here. So, as much as I do praise the cook for their skills, the price is just absurd. I'm paying $33 including tax and with a good tip, that is $38 - $40. For that, I can essentially eat all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ or sushi for a lot less for decent quality food. So, here is my verdict. If you are here to hang out with friends and just want to have a good time with food, sure Sosoba does that job. If you don't care about money and quality food is all it matters, then I say go right ahead. But if you are worried about paying a lot more when you can find a better or about the same quality for a lot less, I recommend not eating here. I'm sorry, but until their price loosen a bit, I probably won't find myself eating here. read more