Boom Noodle

Hmm… We did not believe the bad reviews on the Unilocal and decided to give it a chance. Ordered Yakisoba, Tokyo/​Tonkatsu/​Kimchi Ramens, and Pad-​Thai. Waitress was sweet and polite but it took us ~30 mins to get our dishes.
The Yakisoba was overly salty. Ramen soup had no flavor and way too thin. Ramen noodles were ok but it just taste like the Korean «Shin Ramen» (maybe Shin Ramen tastes better…).
An overprice place. $ 15 for a thin noodle soup. Mah. Won’t come back.

I wish I had read the recent reviews before venturing back after many months. Boom is within walking distance of my office, and today a coworker and I found ourselves craving their yakisoba dish. I believe the last time I was here was October-​ish 2012, and the reviews are correct — Boom has changed and not for the better.
I’ll allow two stars for the still well-​flavored tofu yakisoba, as the ginger and lemongrass balanced nicely. The bartender, who has worked there as long as I’ve patronized Boom, was very friendly and sweet. However, the prices have increased by about 25% while menu offerings and portions seem to be inversely proportional to the prices. Even with a «locals» discount for working nearby, one (small) plate of tofu yakisoba, an ice water, and tip came to $ 17. Even by Bellevue Square cost standards, I felt Boom had bent me over and made me her bitch. There’s no value for the price, and I won’t return.

This is an ok establishment for me as I did enjoy the Pad Thai I had ordered which was very flavorful and came with a nice compliment of ingredients. The size of the serving was just adequate for one person and not for sharing.
I wasn’t a fan of the furnishing of the place with the old dark wood look and plastic green chairs. It all just looked out of place for a supposed Asian fusion noodle restaurant. Another turn off was our table was quite close to the kitchen where you can see right into it and hear some of the chef disputing about something with another employee. Not something I care to hear about while eating my meal and also unprofessional in front of your guests.
The price was a bit spendy for just some noodles which averaged $ 13 to $ 14 for most of all the dishes. Not worth it for me when I can cook my own Top Ramen! (:
On a side note if you need to use the restroom it is the farthest I have ever gone in a restaurant. You have to climb quite a few staircases and down a few hallways before you reach it. How do they think someone in a wheelchair is ever going to make it there without even having an elevator?!

Service and setting is about all they have going for it at the moment.
For a place boasting about noodles, they were nothing to brag about.
The phở was meh — and served with hoisin sauce?
Kimchi ramen was meh. I’ve had better instant noodles from a package. The broth was way salty. The pork — usually the redeeming factor of ramen — was dried out and fatty in a concentrated manner. The fat did not lend any flavor to the broth, it had also dried out on the pork slices so it was just like biting into really dense fat.
Won’t be coming back unless it’s to check out happy hour some time

Seriously, this place has gotten so bad, I can’t take it anymore. I honestly rarely ever give 1 star reviews but there is nothing positive I can say about this place and that actually just makes me sad.
In the beginning — you can got big tasty bowls of ramen for a reasonable price. Now — you pay $ 14 for a bowl of ramen that’s smaller, the broth is so watered down it’s unbelievable — and it actually like tastes bad. I got the kimchi ramen and it was ridiculous: I got some noodles (the noodles themselves were okay), the broth was like gross — like it didn’t even taste like kimchi but it was all red, 5 pieces of small kimchi maybe (when I say small I’m talking like a half inch piece of cabbage), 3 pieces of completely overdone pork (the menu said braised pork but that’s impossible), the egg was not your normal «soft boiled egg» but like an underdone poached egg — and that’s pretty much it.
And they’ve completely changed the menu and they took away my favorite ramen salad, and they barely even have noodle soups anymore.
I don’t even know what happened to this place, did they change chefs or something?

My co worker and I decided to step away from the office and grab lunch at Boom. Sadly, this place has also changed over the past 6 months (like it’s counterpart in University Village). Friend/​coworker had spring rolls and a mizuna salad. Her meal came out to $ 20/​$ 23 w/​tip. I had pad thai and that came out to $ 14.25/$ 17 w/​tip. We both drank water (no beverages/​cocktails, or anything). I don’t know… lunch, IMO, should never cost $ 23 for 1 person. That is actually more than what you’d pay for lunch at nearby restaurants El Gaucho, Seastar, John Howie (all 3 of which are considered upscale).
My pad thai was saucy and boring but fine enough — the only veggies were onions (lots of those!) and beansprouts. Co-​worker didn’t say much about hers, so I’m assuming it was fine either way. One thing worth mentioning: my friend tried to order an app that was labeled «G» for gluten free on the menu. Oddly enough, the waitress couldn’t confirm if it was in fact gluten free, went to the kitchen to confer with the chef/​staff, and returned with a shrug of the shoulders. She recommended another item (spring rolls) «to be safe». What?! Lame.
I gave them 1 star for the cool décor and walnut Eames chairs.

Oversalted. Overpriced. Meh service. Pretty environment.
I’ve been here twice and the food has been pretty dismal both times. Today I visited with a large group of people. While Boom Noodle is a very pretty restaurant, each time I“ve had to go, its been somewhat deserted.
I ordered their Toyoko ramen. The bowl that arrived was extremely pretty: round circles of pork, a floating egg, a few shavings of something green (onion?) and a handful of shitake mushrooms. After one bite, I knew I was in trouble. The broth was salty. Extremely salty. The pork was tough and chewy. There was a nice pile of noodles below and they were ok. The mushroms were the best part of the soup. however, $ 14 for a bowl of ramen is highway robbery and for the broth to be almost inedible is horrible.
I asked for my uneaten noodles to be boxed up. and waited… and waited… and went to the bathroom (involving a long walk down back halls, turns, and two sets of stairs) then came back and waited some more. Finally the rest of my party got up to leave and I decided that it was not worth trying to flag down the waitress for a leftover bowl of salty noodles.
I do hope my group does not decide on this restaurant again. I’ve not found anything here yet that is good to eat and with the prices here, its not worth experimenting further.

Ugh. This place has totally gone downhill. Prime lunch time on a Sunday… and it was empty. We sat down at the bar and while the service was decent, the food was awful this time.
I had the miso ramen, as usual, and what’s super strange is that the chicken in the ramen was SO salty that it was almost inedible. But the rest of the soup was bland. I mixed them around and it made it a little better but still wasn’t very good. Normally they add black sesame seeds on top but I didn’t see them today.
The grossest part about this place… but there was a dude changing his baby in the lobby of the restaurant. WTF. Like, wiping his baby’s butt in public and putting the dirty diapers on the floors. Seriously, someone needed to talk to him because that is not okay. I know it’s not REALLY something that the restaurant could have prevented… but they could have at least said something to him. Someone was standing at the host stand and didn’t say a word.
GROSS GROSS GROSS!

Boom Noodle is one of the better places in the Bellevue Square area. There are a lot of options, but Boom serves as a great place to get lunch or dinner.
The food on some occasions is great, but at other times is completely disappointing. I always order the same dish (the chicken curry). 50% of the time it is amazing, great texture and delicious. The other 50% it is really thin and overly salty. I only keep ordering it because it is so amazingly delicious every other time.

Went there for lunch today. Got there at 11:35 and the place was empty. Never a good sign, especially in downtown Bellevue where some places are packed at 11:30 and you have to wait to get a good seat. Not here, it was wide open, which was a welcome surprise.
The wait staff was quick and sat us without a wait. We were there for lunch, so I don’t know if the menu is different in the evening or not, but my friend and I got the Tuna taco thing as an appetizer and then I got the Tokyo noodles and he got the Kimchi noodles. The Tuna Taco things were tasty and I could eat a whole plate of them, but the presentation was a bit lacking. It was like the four of them were just put on this plate. At this price level I would some type of extra something on the plate, maybe a dipping sauce or something.
Then we got our bowls of noodles. Basically what I got was a big bowl of noodles with a soft boiled egg, two finger sized pieces of pork and some greens sprinkled on the top for $ 14. Hell I can go down to the local Phở place and get a really good beef Phở for $ 8 bucks and have more meat and veggies than that! My friends Kimchi noodles looked like the same thing I got with some kimchi mixed in. For the prices, I expected to be really impressed and it was just meh for me! I might go back at a future date but there is so much Asian food to choose from in downtown bellevue, (Din tai fung anyone?) that I probably won’t be back for a long time…

Friendly spot, with comfy noodles.
Prices are not cheap but not expensive. sorta what you’d expect for a decent lunch spot.
The stir fry noodles were tasty and well made, although choices are a bit limited.
The soup noodles were not as good. thus going from a 4 to a 3 star. really i’d expect all noodles to be at the quite good level.
Not sure i’d frequent, but certainly wouldn’t mind once in a while. The problem is the competition is fierce, and there’s so many better places nearby.

90 minute wait at din tai fung, so we decided to try boom noodle instead. I was super excited to see several veg options on the menu. The vegetarian miso ramen was terrible. Watery soup, over cooked noodles, and plain tofu. Yuck.
The rice cake appetizer was really good though. So I’ll split the difference and go 2 stars over all.

They stopped serving Boom Noodle menu items in the lounge upstairs! :-[
Now there’s absolutely no reason for the stairs that lead out of Boom (immediately to the left after you enter the front door).
Their Ramen is alright. Noodles are tasty and the broth is fine. The smell of the pork is a little off-​putting though… :-/​
Their Phở is AWESOME. No complaints. Ever. :-D
Spring rolls are tasty and crunchy, but whether or not they’re fully filled can be hit or miss. This means you could end up with a mouth-​full of gooey spring-​roll wrap when you eat the end-​pieces. :-/​
Their Agadashi tofu is pretty good. Never been a HUGE fan of it, but it’s not horrible.
Their gyoza… GREAT. It’s perfectly complimented by the peanut sauce they serve it with.

We brought some out of town guests here since Boom Noodle offers a pan Asian fare so that there’d be something for everyone. I wasn’t expecting a lot since it’s not truly «authentic» and having been here previously, knew not to expect too much.
I got the tonkatsu ramen and the hubby got the beef yakisoba. The menu is pretty simple, nothing too extensive and each entrée is ~$ 12 (which is more than your typical Asian restaurant for the portion size, but you are at the mall). My ramen was a little better than I had expected (which wasn’t a lot) — the braised pork was good but the egg was a little too underdone. The broth was pretty tasty although the noodles were a little too soft. I know that usually ramen is pretty plain since it’s all about the broth, but I wished there was a little bit more stuff (granted there were slivers of black fungus and pickled ginger-​did not like this component in the dish)!
The hubs’ beef yakisoba was a little too salty for me although he preferred it to my ramen. The beef was cooked well although the onions were on the raw side. Most importantly though, our out-​of-​town guests thoroughly enjoyed their pad thai and chicken teriyaki, so I guess it’s a win!

I was glad I decided not to expect a lot from this restaurant because I live in Vegas where noodle soup restaurants are in abundance. Service was a bit slow due to the Saturday night crowd, but the quality of service we did receive made up for it.
I ordered the coconut curry noodle soup. I have to say I could not believe I paid $ 11.95 for a washed down curry which made it a little bland. The chicken was several pieces and came with a small amount of veggies. In Vegas, they will serve you the entire garden! LOL! I would not return,…which is too bad, as the ambience was nice though. :(

I had been planning to have lunch again at Ginza or Top Gun Seafood where I’d had some nice food
However, my Unilocal duty and underlying natural curiosity to try new restaurants drew me to try BOOM Noodle. My generic pan– Asian warning alarm had been set off by looking through the menu but a recent introduction to ramen has driven me to try it whenever I see it on a menu
I hadn’t seen salt and pepper tofu together and was curious how the soft white tofu would stand up to being deep fried. The answer is pretty well and the crust is both salty and peppery. However, with the tofu being essentially tasteless, the dish needs a sauce, perhaps something sweet to round out the flavours
Then came the reason for my visit here. The tonkatsu ramen actually looked really promising on arrival with an opaque broth and perfectly cooked egg. However, tonkotsu ramen stands or falls on its broth and this version was a bit thin and watery. More boo than BOOM
BOOM has the same owner as conveyor belt Blue Sushi next door, which perhaps explains the food, which gives enough authenticity to make it recognisable without aiming to be top notch

Boom Noodle has been one of my go to noodle places in Downtown Bellevue for the past three years. The wait is usually pretty short, no longer than 15 minutes. The service is hit and miss, it can be very slow at times, but the wait staff is always pleasant. The most consistent appetizer is the Pork Gyoza, it comes out perfect every time and is very tasty! My absolute favorite appetizer is the Edamame Purée, which comes with sweet potato crisps, baby cucumber, eggplant and a purée dipping sauce that is topped with a wasabi sauce. At times the wasabi sauce is missing and I have been told that it no longer comes with the sauce, although this changes often. When I visited on July 9^th, 2012, both the eggplant and the wasabi were missing and the dish was really bland without it, so sad!
My favorite happy hour dish is the Tokyo Ramen, ramen with braised pork in chicken broth, a large bowl for only $ 6.95. I add a great deal of the rooster sauce and it is yummy! Sometimes the pork is overcooked, making it quite tough, other times it is just perfect. The spicy beef udon is fantastic and my favorite dinner dish with the right amount of spice. On our last visit we decided to try new dishes, the spicy lemon chicken ramen (strange combo) and the spicy pork ramen and we were not impressed. They were okay, glad we dabbled in new dishes, but we will go back to our favorites on our next visit.
The restaurant can be quite loud at times, if you are looking for a quiet place to enjoy an intimate dinner, this is not it! The happy hour is great, in the bar only 4 — 7 every day and all day after 3 PM on Thursdays. Great place to get together with friends for happy hour if you have a group of about six or less. The bathrooms are upstairs and down some hallways, it is an adventure getting there.
I consider this one of my favorite restaurants in Bellevue! The restaurant would receive five stars if the food and service were more consistent.

Boom or Bust. It finally took me a bajillion years to try this place out and was sorely disappointed.
I should’ve known since I’ve tried HH at Blue C Sushi and had some of their HH menu.
All I can say is I recommend getting the starters: Edamame Purée was good — came with a handful of taro/​potato chips and some cucumber slices
but the reason for the low rating was the hot noodle soup. (weirdly salty/​bland) There were no real memorable spices/​herbs and garnishment was lacking.
If you’re a phở or ramen connoisseur, please pass on this place or you might end up writing a review like mine!

I’m not quite sure I understand why there is so much angst against this company’s locations as I’ve always had good experiences and really good food and the Bellevue Square version is no exception. The place has a really cool vibe to it with a very slick décor and lots of open space both in the dining area and at the bar.
Service has been great both times I’ve been here and had a chance to sit in both areas of the restaurant. My favorite dish is the beef yakisoba and ordering it here, I experienced no difference at all compared to ordering it at the Capitol Hill location. I love the fresh ingredients and the combination of cilantro and jalapeño in the mix which makes for a great contrast in flavors.
I have not tried any of the ramens which seems to be where most of the gripes from other reviewers comes from, but I have tried a couple other dishes like the sizzling toban beef which is outstanding and the ebi katsu was also very good.

I’ve been here a few times and I keep going back because I *want* to like this place, but I just haven’t found a reason to really enjoy going here…
I first went about a year ago and had the little ahi taco appetizer for my meal and enjoyed those, but when the colder weather hit I wanted warm food and everything I’ve had here has been «just okay» and a bit too expensive for what I’m getting. I’ve had the chicken teriyaki and some of the noodle dishes too; people we’ve gone with seem okay with their selections but never really impressed with anything in particular. I have a feeling that the appetizer selection may contain the gems of the menu just from what I’ve tried here…
The ambiance is a little dreary with militaristic images mixed with an industrial feel too.
I kind of doubt I’ll go back here actually… if I want a big bowl of noodles, I may as well go to any of the several phở places around.