Umami (4/5) -- The broth is rich and tasty while the chashu is soft and melts in your mouth. The egg is great as well. I might like this better than tsurumen at Davis, although my friend likes Tsurumen more. The noodles are your normal ramen noodles. I think this is on par with Yume's broth because I personally like salty broths. Emmi (4/5) -- Also pretty good but I only had a small bit. I like the yuzu aftertaste at the end. The broth is lighter so I feel like I will definitely enjoy this more in the summer. For me, whatever I like more really depends on my mood. The portion sizes for both are the same, filling for 1 person. Both are $15, which is on the pricer side for ramen for that portion. Smoked Salmon Potesla (3.5/5) -- Think of like as mashed potato with smoked salmon. The potato is pretty creamy with some tiny chunks of potatoes and the salmon is pretty smoky. It's a great combo that I have never thought of before and it's delicious. However, my rating includes how easy it is to replicate that at home and I feel like I can make one almost on par in terms of taste if I buy a pack of smoked salmon and some mashed potato. The service was great and all the waiters are friendly. It was a ~30min wait 6 pm on a Friday, which is a normal rush hour but this was also a couple of weeks after their opening (which exposes how long this note stayed in my backlog). Great atmosphere and vibes. I want to come back and try their hand rolls! read more

The following review will be addressing only a few things from the menu and few elements on the restaurant overall but the score will be reflecting the ramen because that's all I personally care about. But my opinions are subject to change. TLDR: Portions overall are pretty small, so if that is not your preference keep that in mind coming into the restaurant. I might recommend taking a pass on the sushi/handroll. The ramen we had were overall pretty simple and not too much heavy flavors yet still really delicious. Currently, there is a lot of hype and no reservations (not that kind of restaurant I think) so wait times can get very high. I visited this restaurant with my boyfriend and ordered 1 appetizer, 2 rolls, and 2 bowls of ramen. We started with the karaage (japanese fried popcorn chicken), then the Unigyu handroll and yuzu scallop handroll, before finally finishing up with the enmi ramen and umami ramen. First up, the Karaage (4 pieces) was very delicious. Dark meat, presumably chicken thigh, fried to a nice crisp. Very juicy, meaty, and well seasoned. I thought an optional aioli would be nice but it came without any sauce at all. I love having sauce but the chicken was tasty without it; my boyfriend tends to like most fried chicken without any sauce and he thought the karaage was perfect. Unigyu handroll and yuzu scallop are a skip. I might extend that sentiment to the rest of the sushi/rolls, but I can't say definitively because we only tried 2 rolls. Finally, THE RAMEN! For an Izakaya type of restaurant, I think the ramen is quite excellent. Bosso is not like a traditional Izakaya but I feel a little bit of that vibe from this place. The Enmi ramen consisted of pork broth, semi-thin noodles, green onions, a few cuts of chashu, and some yuzu. I love green onion, and there was quite a large serving and that can be slightly overwhelming for some people so feel free to take some of it out at the start. Broth is very creamy and rich but not as salty as most ramen that you typically find, but the lack of a heavy tare (seasoning sauce) or plentiful seasoning results in a simple yet delicious collagen/bone flavor. I have had thicker soups but the soup in this ramen is sufficient at slightly coating the noodles and that's always a subtle detail that is not always noticed. Chashu at many ramen places come marinated and that's often very tasty. At Bosso the meat doesn't have a heavy/saucy marinade, and I love it. Very juicy, tender, pork meat flavor. Little bit of yuzu topping, not a huge fan of yuzu but the citric flavor does taste well paired with the simple broth. It adds a bit more flavor to an overall simple broth. The Umami ramen is a bit more similar to what most people expect from a ramen broth. It's more salty and consists of more flavors than the Enmi. The toppings were chashu, black garlic oil, minced red onion, green onions, half of a soft boiled egg, and some wood ear mushroom. My egg did not come out as soft boiled and also not as heavily marinated as I prefer. The biggest difference between the Umami and the Enmi is just the broth seasoning. I forgot to ask the staff for more details, but I'm pretty sure they use the same broth but the Umami has a seasoning or tare added that the Enmi does not have. The Umami Ramen has more flavors than the Enmi, still isn't too salty compared to other places I have had in Cambridge. VERDICT: Yeah it's pretty good ramen. I would rank as one of the best (best for my tastes) in the Cambridge area. read more

Bosso Ramen Tavern - Umami Ramen at the top and Enmi at the bottom - Ramen Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Great addition to the Cambridge food scene. Menu and drink selection makes Bosso a standout. Apps, hand rolls and ramen pair well with the sake, beer and wine offering. Menu changes to add variety. Service is efficient snd friendly. Reservation possible on Resy is a big plus. All in all easily one of the top finds for Japanese comfort food in town. read more

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Great ambiance and excitingly played sushi and Japanese dishes. For the amount of food served, I think the price point was a bit high. BUT, it is a high quality, highly convenient (Harvard square) restaurant that is trying to do a new take on a common style. Appreciated the service and restaurant. read more

The food was good and there drinks were really good. I got the umame ramen and a sake cocktail. The amount of broth and noodles I got was stingy even in comparison to my friend's. The servers were weird too. Before sitting down, the host asked us to eat quickly. We ate at a normal pace. After our food was taken away, my friend and I were finishing our drinks for like five minutes and were clearly almost done but the host asked us to leave in 5 minutes because there was a reservation there soon. I understand that the restaurant was busy and it's a Saturday but I've never been rushed to leave a restaurant like that. We paid to eat and should be allowed to eat at a reasonable pace. He really rushed us out when other ppl were taking their time. We were there for less than an hour! read more

Amazing food and service! The broth was perfect, savory but not salty. Strongly recommend! read more

Bosso Ramen Tavern - Ramen Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Great service and food. Tried the shishito peppers and the tomato ramen. Both were excellent and especially the ramen which was like a fun twist on a tomato soup - exactly what I needed on a cold winter day. read more

Bosso Ramen Tavern - Tomato ramen with chashu, parmesan, arugula. A grown-up twist on the classic tomato soup! - Ramen Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Don't understand how it became so popular... mas o menos food, mas o menos price, mas o menos environment, but TERRIBLE service and consumption experience. The program they forced you to use to order food is just stupid...Waited for eons for the ramen to be served. read more

You must come to this restaurant if you are in town. We got numerous appetizers - the gyoza, the sweet tofu cream cheese, salmon, shisito peppers, and fried chicken. All were exceptional: -fried chicken: wonderfully flavored with super moist meat. Comes in four pieces so very shareable with a group. -Shisito: cooked very nicely -sweet tofu cream cheese: perfect balance of sweetness with the subtle savory flavor from the cream cheese and tofu mix. The spread is soft like hummus and comes topped with grapes. -gyoza- absolutely delicious. It comes on top of some sauce on the plate, and the flavor is very well mixed. I got the spicy ramen with a beef and pork mix, fried onions, cilantro, and chili oil. The ramen noodles were thick and tasted very fresh with a good chew to them. The broth was very filling and had a kick to it which was satisfying especially on rainy and cool night. We also got some sake, and the one with the whale on it was my favorite. Service was also good, and the staff are very lovely people as well. Left with many empty plates, and I look forward to coming back many times. read more

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They cut cheap ingredients with added fat (Torotaku for example) and avoid serving you water to drive you to buy alcohol. The owner is verbally abusive and exploitative to the staff. For better food and a better experience I recommend Little Donkey in Central Square and for ramen I recommend Santouka down the street or the excellent Yume Wo Katare in Porter Square. read more

They don't post their hours online, and google / yelp says they close at 2:30 in the afternoon. We messaged them on instagram to confirm they were open on Monday and they said yes. We came just before 2:00 and they were closed despite having their doors open. Just a super unwelcoming experience read more

loved the ramen! came at 6pm on a friday and had to wait a little. It got really busy as the night went on, and was full when we arrived too. I got the umami ramen, and the spicy salmon sushi. The sushi was $6.50, which is expensive. It was good but I dont think it was worth $6.50. The ramen was really good, the umami ramen had a pork broth flavor, and the chashu pork was very thin compared to other ramen places. It was much less fatty as well. But the broth was really flavorful and yummy. read more

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Went during soft opening and there weren't many other customers. So service was extremely good, but I'm unsure how it will be with a full house. My server explained every bit of the menu and checked on us frequently. I'm going to rate all the dishes I got. Smoked Salmon Potesala - 8/10. this was smoked salmon wrapped around some potato salad topped with roe and olive oil. Very tasty. Ingredients meshed well together, would recommend. Yuzu Scallop sushi roll - 7/10. This was very fresh, light and tasty. Unigyu Sushi Roll - 7.5/10. Meat is fatty and juicy and the rice is light and soaks it up well. Unagiinu Eel sushi roll - 7/10. Eel and tamago on rice. Good, but kinda just tastes how you expect it to taste. Nothing too special. Ufumayo mentaiko- 5/10. The only app I felt was a bit lackluster. Umami Ramen: broth 10/10; noodles 9/10; toppings 7/10. There were 2 pork chashu slices that were rather thin and small, and not many other toppings. However, the broth is top tier. And as broth is most important to me, I would definitely recommend. Overall a nice izakaya and I look forward to going back to try the full menu. read more

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Fabulous restaurant experience. I was one of a party of eight and everyone enjoyed the food, atmosphere, and service. Only one of our party had eaten there before and recommended Bosso. Beautiful presentation of each item we ordered. Our server, Brianna, was exceptionally personable. Another great aspect was that there was no loud background music to inhibit our conversations. We were able to enjoy the restaurant and our friends. Thanks! Will recommend! read more

Sorry guys, this doesn't work one bit. Overly salty and half portion charged at full price. You can see for yourselves if you go, absurd portion size and noodles. This won't last long unless they turn things around and stop stealing from customers. Service was nice, good people but clearly not good owners or managers. You'll leave with a very sour taste read more

The ramen lacked any topping for the price. The char siu was a piece of pork that wasn't marinated properly, tied, or charred. Had better instant ramen soup. The chicken karaage wasn't marinated, just a salty piece of chicken. A bit dry on the inside. No sauce or lemon wedge. The pepper it came with tasted be Overall lacking most flavors besides salt. read more

Quality of ramen broth, noodle, meat, egg is just really low, especially for the price. I have had 24-hour stewed broth that is thick and flavorful, handmade noodles, an actual seasoned/fermented egg that wasn't cold in my bowl, and premium/extra fatty pork belly for $15/bowl (and a bigger portion as well). None of that exists at Bosso. Staff are friendly; I feel bad that they have to serve such low quality ramen. read more

The atmosphere in the place is great. Although the serving size isn't the biggest, the broth is delicious and hearty. Something about Japanese ramen that I don't love is sometimes the soup can be too heavy but Bosso Ramen is perfect in that it taste rich but not too heavy and you find yourself finishing the whole bowl with the soup! read more

Not special. It's kind of a disappointing ramen experience if you are into sampling outstanding ramen restaurants like me. 1. The cost for one bowl of ramen here is high ($16~18, with tax and tip $20~$23), understandable due to recent price inflation and their pricy Cambridge location. But the amount of ramen you get here is about 2/3 to 1/2 of most other ramen places. The 2 slices of pork in the bowl are as thin and small as can be. Very stingy. This place is lacking the original and most basic intention of the Japanese ramen that is to feed people well. I left the place feeling like I still need to eat some more. 2. The noodle is cooked well, but it doesn't give you this typical handmade texture one would expect from a crafty ramen place. They use this kind of noodle that so closely resembles Asian supermarket dried thin white noodles. 3. Naming a food item/ a bowl of ramen "umami" is tacky. That's like naming a drink "cold" or naming a candy "sweet". Maybe thanks to sheep mentality, this place gets good ratings and customers. I know too many better ramen places to want to come back here. read more

One of the best things that has happened to Harvard Square! The ramen we got the umami and enmi ramen) was so good I actually went the next day again to get more. Great broth flavor and noodles. The scallop sushi was amazing as well, and the dessert was great as well! A little disappointed in the unigyu sushi because there was barely any uni on it and you couldn't really taste it. If you think about it as more of a beef sushi though, it tastes great. As for the takoyaki sushi, I definitely still prefer normal takoyaki; the slight sour of the sushi rice combined with a cut open takoyaki was just not as good as a regular takoyaki. read more

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A perfect casual dinner spot for your ramen and hand roll cravings!! The ambiance and aesthetic is very cute, and the hand rolls are awesome! Highly recommend the Otoro and spicy salmon hand rolls. We were a bit disappointed by the Unigyu hand roll, as the wagyu quality was not very good. The charshu in the umami ramen was a bit tough, but the broth and noodles were excellent. The sake cocktails were also delicious, especially the Sakura Saku (though they were a bit small). Definitely interested in trying the other appetizers in the future and looking forward to coming back! read more

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Went there on Saturday with a group of friends. It was busy yet the food didn't take long and our wait staff was very friendly and attentive. We had a bottle of sake as our waiter suggestion, it was great. The chicken karage was good and not greasy. And I like their Karami ramen (if I remember the name right ). Overall, we enjoyed it and definitely coming back. read more

This is a decent, but not great, ramen option in the area. Many of the appetizers are very tasty, but the ramen, which should be the star of the show, is only so-so. Cocktails were also mediocre--better to play it safe with a beer or sake. The vibe and ambience, however, is lively and very friendly, and it's a fun place to visit. But if it's great food you're after, you would be better served by the many other ramen options in the area. read more

I am from Japan. Sub par ramen compared to the peers in Boston like Santouka, Tsurumen, and Menya Jiro.

Their instagram links you to this page (https://boston.eater.com/2022/3/24/22989248/bosso-ramen-tavern-harvard-square-cambridge-opens) They have a menu here that says they serve vegan ramen. This was very exciting to me as it is tough to get vegan ramen in the Boston area. We waited for over half an hour on Sunday March 27th to eat here, and when we sat down we were told that they no longer have that on the menu, and the menu on that website is old. They opened on the 25th so how can it be old? This was super disappointing, and while they dont have to offer vegan options of course, their social media links says they do! This is just laziness on their part to not update their social media, or they dont care, either way, avoid if vegan. read more

One of the waiter was really rude and the food was overpriced. Not a good experience. You can get better things in the square. read more

Bosso Ramen Tavern - Ramen Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Not a good experience. We were kept waiting well past our reservation time. There is no bar to wait in. You just have to stand in the doorway. One of the dishes we ordered failed to appear. We reminded the server *three times*. It eventually arrived like 30 minutes after the rest of the dishes. They apologized and said they would send us a free dessert. Why didn't they offer to comp the tardy dish? Well, the promised dessert never arrived either. It might have been worth it if the food was better. The sushi was mostly rice and the goyza was very greasy. read more

Excellent ramen and Japanese appetizer restaurant that keeps many seats open for walk ins. The ramen is full bodied and tasty. Excellent appetizers. Good selection of sake. read more

Randomly came across Bosso today and decided to check it out - one of the best decisions I've made since moving to Boston. I really enjoyed the ambiance of the restaurant and felt extremely welcomed by the staff. The food was incredible and extremely delicious. The chicken karaage is some of the best I've ever had and the Umami ramen was borderline perfect. Wasn't the biggest fan of the sweet potatoes with the ice cream, but thought that the matcha flavor was very well done. Finally, the bill was extremely fair - everything was reasonably priced. Very much looking forward to going back soon :) read more

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Creative Japanese cuisine and a true feast for the palate. Came here with a large group and ordered almost every appetizer and you can't go wrong. We ordered some dassai sake and it paired perfectly with the meal. The chicken namban and ufumayo mentaiko were my personal favorites. The sushi was also great -- the fish was quite fresh. The ramen was creative yet comforting. Umami is closest to your traditional tonkotsu ramen while enmi is in between with a fruity yuzu flavor and light broth. The sanmi was my personal favorite because the noodle was thick and tomato-based soup was different from other ramen. And finally, the dessert was great; ice cream texture was thick and the matcha and black sesame flavors were a wonderful conclusion to the meal. The sweet potatoes were nice to eat with the ice cream. Service was great seeing how well they handled our large party. Vibes were semi-casual and perfect for a date night. Would definitely return. read more

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nothing special. have had better ramen. Ramen could have more flavor, was a bit bland. charges extra for parties of 6 or more.

Our server Milton was really nice and helpful even though we came in close to close. He took the time to explain the menu to us and was v friendly. Enmi ramen was very delicious and savory but not too fatty. Would highly recommend. read more

I am still new to exploring the Cambridge area, but I am so glad to have made plans at Bosso Ramen for dinner! My friend had made dinner reservations (asked to secure a credit card/ $30 penalty for no-show) so luckily we both made it! We ordered a bunch to share, starting off with the chicken karaage and shishito peppers. The karaage was very good, tender, juicy, and crispy outer layer! The shishito peppers were dressed in a ponzu sauce, which was also good. Oh! And for drinks, I ordered the yuzu sake, and it was very good (very sweet which I like). Then, we ordered this smoked salmon appetizer that was wrapped around a mashed potato thing, and it was alright (came in three - smaller app). We, then, ordered a few of their sushi hand roll type situation! I tried the scallop and spicy salmon and both were very yummy! Did not try their ramen this time because it was very hot outside, but will definitely be coming back to try their other menu items! read more

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Great food and environment. The owner is very friendly and the staff very accommodating. We will definitely be back

Blown away by the ramen and appetizers! I didn't realize they have such a broad selection. Service was top notch too.

Lacking compassion. I visited with my daughter who has a wide spectrum of anaphylactic food allergies. Before being seated, I asked the server if it would be ok for her to eat her own food. I would order from the menu. She said yes. We sat down and my daughter started to eat. The manager came over and told us (in no uncertain terms) that we cannot do this. I attempted to explain that we had asked for permission, that it was granted, and that I would be happy to pay 2x what her meal would have cost if he would leave us in peace. The scolding continued. My daughter, who is learning to live with her condition, was reduced to tears, wondering if this treatment was her "new normal". This was supposed to be a joyous day...ruined. Serious food allergies are a burden. Restaurants like this make them 100x worse. read more

Best ramen in the square and it's not even close. Great space with great service and great food. Definitely would recommend!

Loved the food and the ambiance! The sake cocktails were unique/delicious and the apps/ramen were some of the best I've had in Boston! Definitely will be going again read more

LOVE THIS PLACE! Good vibe and just a good place to unwind after a long day and you're hungry as hell. As a college student, gotta go here!!

The broth is rich but not greasy, and the touch of lemon works so well with the broth in the Emmi Ramen. Best ramen restaurant I've had to in years. read more

Bosso Ramen Tavern - Best Ramen I've had in years. - Ramen Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts