Misocool  

It is one great place for cheap lunch with standard in the heart of Central. The only problem is you have to queue forever.
Cuisine: Japanese

Food rating: 1/10*
Service: 2/10
Ambiance: 2/10
Price: HK$50pax

* Food Rating: 6/10 is equivalent to 1 Michelin star, 8/10 to two Michelin stars, and 9/10 or above to three Michelin stars

Beef Curry Rice (1/10)
It was kinda disappointing. The beef was over cooked, and wasn’t as good as previously. I loved the curry, if was rich and sweet, very Japanese style. Diners please goes with the popular dishes to avoid disappoint. It food does comes out very quickly! Even with the long wait, I am sure with will able to finish the lunch within an hour.

Give me a thumbs up if you like it!

Was feeling a bit under the weather, wanted a bowl of udon miso soup for takeaway. Never been to Miso Cool before, but why not try something different in that Stanley Street building full of restaurants. I asked for vegetarian (it is Lent after all), for miso soup base (and asked twice to make it vegetarian), and got a side of Japanese eggplant.

The dining space looked relatively clean, fast food kind of place. Service was friendly enough and they went out of their way to break a large bill (felt sorry about that). But when I got home to eat the food, I just had to toss out half the meal. The soup base I couldn't tell if it was mixed fish broth with miso, so that went down the drain, and was too salty. The noodles were ramen, not udon, and so salty and oily! I was astonished because that is not what I would have expected for noodle soup. Maybe I misunderstood and they gave me stir fry noodles with a side of soup?? The other dish, the Japanese eggplant, turned out to be tempura eggplant, but it was so soggy that it was inedible. Tossed that out, too. (Never take out tempura.)

If salt doesn't bother you and Japanese fast food is your thing, go for it. But otherwise can't really recommend.

been here a few times, all during weekday lunch time.. so not sure what it's like during dinner or during the weekends.. during week day lunch time it's friggin crazy! super crowded.

tried different soup base of ramen and their broth's tooo oily a layer of oil layered on top..

their milk soup base is not that milk, their tomato soup base's not that tomato-y.. basically most options are pretty much the same..

service is not bad, but quite hard to flag down staff.

all in all OK, if you prefer a richer oily-er broth.

It was a very busy place, went there to catch up with a friend I haven't seen for around 4 years. We got there before 12:30pm for lunch, luckily we just missed the crowd, the place got to be very busy afterwards. People had to queue for quite a while after us.

Friend ordered a chicken noodle which arrived quickly. I ordered the grilled chicken rice which took a good 20 mins to arrive. The waiter told me they made it fresh so a little patience was needed. Finally it arrived and the taste was worth it. But for the busy people that didn't have spare time for waiting, I would suggest getting the noodles which are more of a common dish.

Really liked the retro 1950s style US posters, although the theme doesn't really gel with a Japanese restaurant. Doesn't bother me though. All in all a pleasant experience but next time I'll order the noodles to avoid a long waiting time.

we had a simple quick dinner at this restaurant. If u are looking for something simple and quick. I would highly recommend this one.

The restaurant is clear and quite spacious. The food is, to be honest, quite OK (in my opinion) and the price is very reasonable.

But don't come at lunch time! It will be PACKED. Come in the afternoon or early evening.

I have been here twice, and even though perhaps some people would like a very oily broth for their ramen, it's really not my cup of tea, or bowl of ramen per se.

I ordered the tomato soup base instead of the pork soup base hoping that it would be less milky and oily, but no, there was still a thick layer of oil floating atop the broth.. so every bite of ramen I ate there was a ring of oil around my lips


Anyhoo I gave this restaurant an OK instead of a sad face since it's affordable and is quite an OK spot for a week day lunch.

When Misocool was opened around half a year ago, everyone working in Central was very looking forward to this new place for lunch! However, it is extremely crowded during lunchtime and most of of us, if arriving after 12:45, would be unlikely to get a seat in this yummy restaurant.

The scallop with egg rice was pretty good - very fresh scallops with sauce, eggs are not just going well with pork/chicken. This one is surprisingly tasty though the appearance looks not quite special.

The Squid ramen was something unique from other ramen on the menu. The soup is not dark in colour, unlike most other squid noodles in town. The squid noodles are of clear texture, not too soft while acceptable for diners. The soup is milky and the ingredients are plain, cos we didnt want to have oily food for this meal.

Drinks are the surprising part of the meal, Green Tea Yakult and Green Tea Milkshake are equally good for the meal. Green Tea Yakult is less sweet, while the milkshake is very milky. I guess this is a place for drinks too, if you don't want to go to LKF nearby!

In short, if you're haunted by the long queues at Misocool Central during lunchtime, you can come at dinner time, things are different - the cosy environment and the tasty ramen!

Given that its location in Central and during weekday lunchtime, and the fact that the seating is relatively comfortable and clean, the price and food of this restaurant is acceptable. Around $50 - $70 for ramen. They also have rice dishes as well as some snack items and sushi.

I ordered the mushrooms and vegetables ramen ($52), and I wanted tomato soup base but a wrong order arrived. The waiter checked again what I wanted and I repeated I wanted mushrooms and veggie ramen with tomato soup base. He apologized and the ramen soon arrived. However it was the right ramen but wrong soup base. They gave me the oringinal soup base instead. Oh well.

The mushrooms and vegetable ramen had plenty of mushrooms and some baby bok choi and bean sprouts. The soup base is rather oily, as I feel my ramen and veggies are coated with milky/oily soup base. Some people might like that as they feel that's "flavorful" but it ain't for me.

The tomato soup base beef ramen also looked good.

Overall fast and polite service. I like how they have water glasses for everyone ready on the table. Would come back again.

I have been here twice now, and tried the following:
Seafood Ramen w/ Pork Bone Broth
The seafood was first fried before placed in the broth, sprinkled with sesame seeds and served. The seafood wasn't great - shrimps and scallops were okay, but the octopus was too 'hard'. The japanese soft egg was also good. The ramen and broth however, are not as good compared to Ippei An in Miramar. The ramen here is less chewy and the broth is not as rich - like a watered down version of Ippei-An's.

Pork Cutlet with Japanese Curry and Rice
The pork was very crunchy and was not oily at all. The batter is coated with panko crumbs and it was fried till deep brown . The curry was not bad - the sweet japanese variety with diced carrots and potatoes but still had a bit of a kick.

Tempura with Jelly noodles in Pork Bone Broth
The tempura here was pretty disappointing. The batter was thick and not crunchy, as well as greasy. I had two shrimps, a piece of mushroom and pumpkin as tempura. The pumpkin was fried with the green skin on, which i had to take out..... not good!
The noodles were comparable to Thai glass noodles/thick vermicelli. Not bad but not tasty either.... I think the main problem is that they didnt match the broth.

Aside from the problems above, the soup base was really not bad. It wasn't rich but that means I was able to drink most of it and be content. Also, it was not salty and i liked the addition of corn, bean sprouts and spinach in the dish.

Scrambled Egg and Eel with rice
This is my favourite dish here so far. The egg is slightly overcooked for me, but the caramelized shallots were heavenly. The grilled eel was also tasty, a good balance of sweet and saltiness. For those who like eel bento boxes, this is slightly different as no sauce is drizzled on the rice, rather, you get flavour from the caramelized shallots + scrambled egg. The rice was the japanese pearl rice, although slightly bigger (grains) than the ones i am used to, they were still quite enjoyable.

Japanese Steamed Egg
Despite the good reviews on this, apart from the fact that they had quite a few pieces of mushrooms/ fish cake and crab sticks, I didn't think the batter was good. It tasted a little pasty - like egg yolk, rather than the japanese seafood broth.

Iced milk tea
Milk tea was quite different from HK Cha-Chan tengs but good. There was a distinct tea and evaporated milk flavour, and sweetened well.

Frozen yogurt with marshmallows
For an additional $20, you may add a regular sized froyo to end your meal with ($28 if you order it separately). The size is relatively small - it comes in a small rice bowl, with several tiny marshmallows. The yogurt tasted more like soft-serve ice cream, much like Crumbs, and I like either ice cream or frozen yogurt which is tart, so I didn't like their (or Crumbs') frozen yogurt.

Overall I seem to think that their rice dishes fare better than the noodles (because of the noodle toppings), but I have yet to try their other broths available, such as tomato or hokkaido milk w/ seafood. The smile is for the rice dishes and milk tea, but overall I would think they could do better with their noodles and small dishes.

Just before my lunch hour, I was craving for something Japanese for lunch and as we all know that Central has much to eat. And I came across this place that is near my work area.
Somehow I know not to expect too much out of it and thank god I didnt.
The deco was simple, nothing too fancy...
The tea set was not what I was looking for, so I turned to the normal a la carte menu and decided that I should get the fried chicken noodles (without bean sprout)...
As I was just waiting for my food to come, I glanced over to the lady next to me,there was a small insect inside her tea with milk. That is already a -ve impression before my meal even starts.
When the food arrived, I was checking for bean sprouts (which I dont eat), and there they were. So I turned to my pieces of chicken and they taste good...very well deep fried, hot and crispy. The noodles itself is really not too bad (or maybe they taste too much like those you can by at the supermarket) but the soup was a little too light, as the other ramen places I've been to, the soup is miso based. Half way into the bowl, I found another insect, really tiny one but that was the max. I did not bother complaining as I know 99% I'll not go back to the place anyway.
Over all....? Can try but no promises at all

friend took me for the first time on a friday night and with not much of an expectation, turned out i was not disappointed because they offer no plus.

the decor is bright compare to typical japanese noodle restaurant, but i personally not fancy the seating setting as it reminded me of a canteen of an university.

food was not particular brilliant as i have ordered the sashimi rice set, fish choices and freshness are not great

Today I ordered fried chicken ramen in miso soup.

We had 1 hour lunch time and my friends told us to order as soon as possible as the delivery time is long in this restaurant.

However, I did not expect that a bowl of noodles would take half an hour to cook!! That's ridiculous! I urged the waiters 3 times to follow up my order and I was very anxious as not much time is left. It's so frustrating that you see your friends nearly finish thier meals while you are still waiting for yours.

The waiter said that the chicken were freshly cooked and that it akes time. We laughed that the chicken must be very tasty because we had waited for so long!

The miso sinks at the bottom and it's getting more and more salty when you eat.

Overall speaking, the ramen is good but too salty. The most disappointing thing is the service.

Further to my first report, this is the second time I have tried this place with my girlfriend. This time I have tried the curry pork cutlet rice and to sum up, it's just average and would go to Japanese Bee Curry instead.

One point worth mentioning is that we went on a Saturday evening this time round and the service level has deteroriated by quite a bit in the sense that we have ordered the extra HKD15.- add-on once again. The extras we have ordered were miso soup and steamed egg. The miso soup did not come until we have finished everything and it's sssssoooooo salty that even a blind person will open the eyes!

Well, the conclusion is that it's cheap but once is indeed enough.

I am my girlfriend went to this restaurant last night for the first time.

The place has high ceiling and quite trendy with clean and crisp decoration. It could get a bit cramp in peak and popular hours as I can see one of the objectives being maximising the number of seats. My recommendation is to go during Sunday evenings when there aren't that many people so you can definitely enjoy the place and food.

Service is acceptable with the manager being more professional which is as expected. The place is definitely very clean!

Moving onto the food, I tried the standard Char Siu Ramen which I always believe it is one of the key dishsed to check the quality of a Japanese Ramen place. All I can say is one word, totally disappointed! The Char Siu is rough; dry; and tasteless like a pork jerky. Soup is hot (which is good) but its taste is blended (or fusion in a nice way) with no character. You could pay HKD15.- to choose 2 starters out of 5 in which I personally believe you should stick to the egg and miso soup as the rest is just hopeless plus a drink. I picked coffee which was not bad. If you are going to have a drink, pick the set cos' the coffee on standalone basis costs HKD18.- already. Otherwise, don't bother and should order other snacks instead. Having said that, there are a lot of choices on the menu and will definitely need to try a few before providing a fairer view.

As for the price, it is definitely cheap for Central but still think it's not good value for money cos' I believe quality for some other Ramen foodchains are still better. However, because of the price, I will still go back to try out other dishes to ensure no gems will be missed!