You ever get those feelings like the world is telling you what you’re about to do is a bad idea? Like everything conspires to make it as hard as possible to do what you want, but you still follow through with your plans in the end, and realize you should have listened to the signs all along?

I’m sure the paragraph above will be completely unrelated to this week’s episode of…

Lulu’s Ludicrously Lacking Ramen Reviews

Today, I went to a ramen place downtown, on a street named Gay St., called Tiger + Lily. It boasts about being a mix of west and east, but honestly it’s just different flavors of noodles and rice.



A basic downtown location, lots of outdoor seating and a big window indoors.



Wait, no bathrooms? Hm... well, I guess I’ll have to deal if the food is awful, wish me luck.

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And we find ourselves indoors, of course, and honestly, I think this place is trying too hard to feel modern, it’s really kinda tacky. The chairs are uncomfortable, and I wish all these places would actually fucking invest in their seating, like what the fuck. No wonder this place is empty as fuck on a weekend.



Most egregious, there aren’t any extra condiments or sauce. Like, no soy sauce or garlic or salt or pepper or whatever the fuck. Well, hey, they must be confident in their food to not need that, right?

Ambience gets a poor score of 3/10. They really could have done better in almost every way. I also don’t like the downtown location, the window outdoors didn’t have the best view.

The service quality is a bit better. But honestly I’m pretty tempted to dock points for not providing condiments. The waitstaff wasn’t the problem, they never are, but I’m still giving a 6/10 for all other poor service.



As for the food, the most important part, it seems they’re most confident about this, it’s their signature dish after all, so let’s try it out. 15 bucks for chicken and turkey is pretty… meh, and having it go to 17 bucks for the superior pork belly sounds even worse, but hey, I like confidence, let’s go.



But first, you can’t have ramen without some of this shit. And the gyoza was actually, like, really good. Would recommend.

The edamame though... I didn’t even think it was possible to screw it up. It’s really fucking mid, and it’s literally just steamed beans! It’s got way too little salt and way too soggy.

But, we’re here for ramen, in the end, and even if their edamame is bad, I’m sure they can’t screw up their own signature dish.



Good presentation, at least, and a provided mini rice bowl is nice.



I think these noodles are way too thin, though. And… the taste was… This is way too fucking bland, what the fuck.



And the chicken was just... too fucking chewy, not at all tender.

Well, after a bit more bites, it seems that the spices with this ramen just wasn’t mixed in very well, and after mixing it, the ramen isn’t as bland as before... but it’s still not very flavorful even with that.



Definitely not finishing this broth. All in all, 4/10 on taste. Poor excuse for a “Signature”, definitely not visiting this place again.



And the price is just the added anti-cherry on top. As I mentioned, 15 bucks didn’t seem right for chicken and turkey, and after tasting it, I’m confident in stating that I was absolutely right. Honestly, I don’t think getting pork belly would have made it any better, but at least the meat would be more tender. 3/10 for the score, for sure.

Okay, I appreciate the little candy at least, I’ll bump the score up by a tenth of a point just for that.

All in all, Tiger + Lily is mid at best, with a tacky, bad aesthetic, poor customer service, and bad food except for the gyoza.

I’ll be giving this place a final score of

4.1/10

damn thats EXPENSIVE

damn thats EXPENSIVE

Yeah this, what the hell? If someone's paying that much for food it better be some top of the line shit. What's with the outrageous prices on all these ramen places?

It sounds like the cook had no idea what they were doing if they couldn't even mix the flavoring in well. I'd understand an oddball dish that not many order being a little odd to get right, but not THE item at the top of the damn menu.

Personally I don't think the place looks that bad aesthetic-wise and almost kind of like it oddly enough, but the chairs are fucking horrendous.

Yeah this, what the hell? If someone's paying that much for food it better be some top of the line shit. What's with the outrageous prices on all these ramen places?

That is, unfortunately, the norm here

that's the norm by me, too. We had one fancy-ish ramen spot called Red Light Ramen that was very like [adult swim] anime fan, if that makes sense, and all their menu was was 3 different 18$ ramen, and some overpriced appetizers. No wonder they didn't stay open. Honestly, this garrison is making me think I should start doing some kind of food tour on here, too.

$40 before tip is nuts, even with the sides. In my experience I rarely care for a ramen place's "signature dish" so if that's how you're deciding what to order, good luck