Mi & Yu Noodle Bar

So Delicious and not too expensive. I really liked it and will absolutely return to this place. Thanks everyone.

Had an okay experience here, I think I just didn’t like the broth I picked very much (duck sambal). It was a new broth that the guy at the counter (assuming he’s the owner) recommended. It just wasn’t to my taste but the portion was decent and it was better than other ramen places that I’ve been to in Baltimore. I’ll definitely be back another time to try a different broth.

Tips:
Mi and Yu is a «pick-​your-​protein» style menu, but picking your BROTH is the most important choice — there are two spicy choices and two savory choices.
Spicy Kimchi — fermented Korean spice
Spicy Duck Sambal — full-​flavored spice
Savory Miso — subtle, classic miso
Savory Duck Adobo — full-​flavored savory
All meat-​broth-​noodle combos are good. There are no bad choices. Definitely try the tofu or pork belly.

Choice of protein, noodles, and broth. About $ 12 – 14 for the bowl depending on the protein. Quickly served from a counter next to the cashier. Seating at small tables in the front window or at a common table.

This place drew me in because I always crave ramen, but don’t want to make the hike to Mt. Vernon or Canton for it. Mi & Yu is a fairly new spot in Federal Hill, so I gave it a shot. It’s a pretty small place with limited seating. You order from the counter, and they’ll call you for your food. They have daily protein specials for your soup. I believe the day I went was Duck confit. I ended up going with the pork belly with the spicy kimchi. As a fan of spicy, I was satisfied with the spiciness and portion of the food.
I highly recommend you check this place out if you’re a fan of ramen or asian food. For the lazy, I believe they do have online/​delivery.

I’ve had ramen in New York, DC, Hong Kong. & this has to be the best tasting ramen I’ve ever had.
The ambience itself is really cute with the kitchen open in the back. Seating can get tight. There are two cute booths by the windows and hooks for jackets and purses under the table. It’s self serve water on the back side, and cafeteria style.
I ordered the short ribs (def recommend!) with spicy duck base and ramen noodles. The broth is definitely amazing. Usually with ramen I get sick of the flavor half way through but I couldn’t stop eating! The tables have Korean pepper flakes, sriracha, and soy sauce if you need to tweak your bowl.
My friend ordered the regular duck with phở noodles and he complained about the texture. His broth reminded me more of Tom yum, but also good!
Honestly can’t wait to come back. Apparently they’ll have steam buns in April?
UPDATE: beef was really stiff, hard, and dry today. Udon noodles were soggy. My guess is not order the rice noodles here? Also the beef dashi broth is really sweet which may be a poor combo with the already sweet short ribs.

SUMMARY: So good.
FULL STORY:
If you’re looking for the most satisfying, delicious way to consume 2 days of sodium in one sitting… your search is over.
Small place… maybe 20 seats? But it’s organized and has super nice staff.
Highly recommend the veggie /​tofu combination. Spicy from the jalapeños, full of tasty veggies, and steaming hot broth with the perfect amount of noodles. Not a lot of protein.
**Keep in mind if you’re one of those people genetically programmed to hate cilantro… the soup comes auto-​populated with it, so your bowl will taste like soap suds unless you ask for it without!** And there wasn’t any lime. Otherwise… sooo good. So huge — could barely finish ½ of it for dinner.
Note: TONS of parking cops around in the evening… careful!
— — — — -
UPDATE: Delivery radius must be really small, because they don’t deliver to Hopkins or Fells…

I’ve heard positive and neutral things about Mi & Yu, so I had to try this place for myself. It’s not a true ramen house, more a fusion noodle bar. Concept is pick protein, broth and noodle. They had some interesting options of broth, such as adobo duck and kim chi. While it’s not authentic, it is still tasty. Large portions and fresh ingredients. The place is small and it is community seating. The place fills up quickly, so take out is a good option.

I like the noodle. The BBQ pork belly is good. Without Unilocal,I didn’t know there is a ramen store in downtown Baltimore.

I love this place. So good. I suggest going on a weekend. Not a lot of people (seating is limited) plus easier to find parking in the street.
I got the spicy kimchi ramen w/​fried tofu and my friend got the miso ramen w/​chicken. They were both delicious. Very big portion. Worth the money. The owner is very sweet. To-​go containers are at the side. You get your own cup of water.

What a great addition to the city of Baltimore! I think that this has just become my favorite ramen place. The simple and bare architecture, with only bar stools and slim wooden tables, directs the focus to the food alone.
Price ranges from $ 10-​$ 15 depending on the type of meat desired. You can pick a meat, a noodle (udon vs phở vs ramen), and a broth. I chose the pork belly + udon noodle + spicy kimchi and very satisfied with the flavor pairing. The spicy salty of the soup went very well with the subtle sweetness of the pork belly — reminded me of korean paired with chinese noodle soup. Delicious and definitely something that I crave on cold winter days. The portions are also generous and more than enough for one meal. If it were a couple of dollars cheaper, I would want to buy it every day!

So I’ve heard a lot of good things about Mi & Yu and was quite excited to try it out. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the same experience as others here. I feel instead of focusing on one thing (like ramen) and doing it well, Mi & Yu tries to do a variety of things (like phở and udon too), takes shortcuts, and ultimately makes a mediocre dish.
Mi & Yu is a quaint shop in the Federal Hill neighborhood. The small space inside is minimally decorated… but in a good way. And I suppose normally the small space wouldn’t be an issue… but if you come at dinner-​time on a Friday night like I did, it’s incredibly cramped and crowded. Even reaching the counter to order and pay was stressful. I felt I was more at a bar than at a restaurant. That being said, the turnaround time was fairly quick so if you stood around, you would be able to get a seat within 10 – 20 minutes during prime dinner time.
In terms of food, you pick and choose things like Chipotle. You pick a protein, then a noodle type, then broth. The items came out fairly quickly. Instead of getting something funky, I decided to go more on the traditional side and ordered a pork belly ramen with the beef dashi (I was going to go with the soy miso but the fact that there was a limited amount of dashi each day intrigued me). The kitchen was very generous in terms of the amount of pork belly I received (and it was not overly fatty). The broth was very flavorful and not overly salty. However, it was also extremely greasy. For me, a good ramen (or phở or udon) needs to have a good, clean broth and Mi & Yu’s fell short. Additionally, the vegetables in my ramen were veggies found more in phở than ramen; there was a lot of pickled veggies and cilantro. The ramen noodles themselves were good though it was over-​cooked.
While I get that this is an Asian fusion joint that wants to serve noodles in a fast-​casual Chipotle-​esque way, I’m still not on board with the general concept of the restaurant. The idea of picking ramen, phở, and udon noodles and then putting them in a bowl with identical broth and veggies seems weird to me. Sure, call me a traditionalist on a high horse but to me, making dishes this way negates what makes each noodle dish special and unique. I mean, would people be okay with ordering a spaghetti dish made with lasagna noodles? So in a way, I feel it’s somewhat unintentionally insulting to the food cultures of Japan and Vietnam. I would have preferred to see an actual phở dish, an actual udon dish, and a few ramen choices instead of offering the four or five different broths that you mix and match with noodles.
I’d give this place a 2.5 star rating. The rating comes not from my issues with the concept, but rather the overly greasy broth, the overcooked noodles, and the uncomfortably cramped interior. That being said, if you want something Asian-​esque in the Fed Hill area, it’s not a bad choice.

Mi & Yu Noodle Bar is a Japanese/​Korean/​Vietnamese fusion ramen place (or as the owner insists, a ‘noodle bar’ (but has stated that it’s a ramen place in his interviews)) that is owned by Edward Kim. I was pretty excited in checking this place out, as the menu seemed to be pretty short and limited, trying to put the main focus on the fusion offerings. The interesting thing was that there are no ‘set’ bowls, but it’s more of a build-​your-​own: you choose your noodles (ramen, udon, or phở noodles); then you pick your meat (buttermilk brined fried chicken, roast duck carnitas, 5-​spiced BBQ pork belly, or the fried tofu/​veggie), and then your broth (spicy kimchi, savory miso broth (fish-​based), the adobo roast duck, vegetarian, or the beef dashi (which they’re usually out of)). I tried the ramen noodles with the 5-​spiced BBQ pork belly in a spicy kimchi broth. The spicy kimchi broth was okay, but I thought it would pack more of a punch; however, being told it was more ‘well-​rounded,’ I was surprised it was more one-​dimensional as it tasted just like regular kimchi gook. Unfortunately, I tasted a bit of soap in mine (not due to my cilantro aversion, as my hubs, who enjoys this herb, stated that he tasted soap as well), so we were NOT happy campers! The pork belly, while it was nice and fatty, was just way too sweet and seemed to belong more on sandwiches rather than in a soup. The ramen noodles were more on the thin side and overcooked (!!!). All bowls automatically come with a halved boiled egg, napa cabbage, tofu, and topped with a herbed sprout salad — however, we did not get any of the tofu or the herbed sprout salad (which the owner later admitted the menu/​website was not updated) T_​_​_​T I personally am labeling this place as a ‘FGW’ joint (an acronym I coined — ‘Fusion Gone Wrong’), as it just seemed like mismatched hodge-​podge of ingredients that did not complement/​fuse well with each other (for example, a kimchi broth, with Vietnamese-​style pork, and ramen noodles). The owner insists the place is not fusion, but I’m thinking the term is all relative! The place itself is cute, though, with its potted plants filled with veggie figurines, and I loved that the window ‘display’ areas actually had a counter for couples; just note that if you choose to sit here, the passerbyers will see you slurping down: P Edward, the owner, seemed very determined and was aggressively loud to let any newcomers that walked in know how the ordering works (there were only 2 other individuals while we were there); on the other hand, it really rubbed us the wrong way in how he was yelling and being so demeaning towards his kitchen staff (it was clear that his staff had any idea what he was trying to say with the random adding of endings to Spanish words T_​_​_​T We really felt for them, and such exchange is just totally unacceptable!!! I’m glad I was able to check this place out, but I won’t be back. On a side note: the owner totally minimizes any experiences and thinks pretty lowly of Unilocalers and all aspects of social media, as he responded with the following quote (verbatim): ‘The days of Ruth Reichl, William Grimes & such are really outflanked by social media. It is the world we live in, enough said!’ Having an ego is one thing, but at least back it up!
+the owner minimizes experiences and is NOT a fan of Unilocalers/​the social media! T_​_​_​_​T
+overcooked noodles for a ‘noodle shop’ T_​_​_​_​T
+fusion ramen/​udon/​phở place
+build-​your-​own ramen/​udon/​phở concept
+soap in ramen broth T_​_​_​T
+beef dashi is usually never available
+missing ingredients in soup T_​_​_​_​T
+not-​so-​nice/​demeaning treatment of staff T_​_​_​_​T

VERY VERY good flavor, and a variety of broths and flavors. I have wanted to go here for a long time, and I was in the area, and was SO pleased to try it. I can not wait to go back. The food is amazing… the service is as well. Healthy food with vegan and non vegan options. Simple… but the BEST things in life are simple…

Mi & Yu has noodles + soup, which may well be the best food combination ever invented, figured out. It’s a small space, so I would imagine it could get crowded during peak lunch/​dinner hours, but we came around 2:30pm on a Saturday so the place was basically empty. We were greeted by the very friendly and enthusiastic owner of the restaurant, who clearly believes in the food and really enjoys talking about it. He explained the process: pick a protein, pick a type of noodle, and pick one of their artfully constructed broths. We ordered and our food came out fairly quickly – probably between 5 and 10 minutes. Prices for all the noodle bowls looked to be between $ 12 and $ 15.
On to the food – if you’re looking for super authentic ramen/​phở/​udon noodles, maybe this isn’t for you, but if you’re looking for some great flavors, fun combos, and fresh ingredients it’s great. My boyfriend ordered the soy-​miso braised short ribs with ramen noodles in miso broth. I got the spiced bbq pork belly with ramen noodles in adobo duck broth. (The owner indicated that the most popular combination is pork belly + ramen + spicy kimchi broth, which I will certainly be willing to try soon!!) Everything was absolutely delicious, and the portion sizes were quite generous. The miso broth was simple but packed a ton of flavor in, and the adobo duck broth tasted very fresh with some fun spices thrown in – a little citrus in the front, a little heat in the back. And of course, ramen isn’t complete without a soft-​boiled egg, and I appreciated the addition of the tofu, Napa cabbage, and sprouts/​cilantro as well. The pork belly basically melted in my mouth (ugh so good) and the short ribs were really tender and flavorful as well.
Excited to come back and try more!

Take a look at the pictures: you get a huge portion for the price. You can definitely get this for lunch and eat the rest for dinner. Prices range from around $ 11 – 14 for a bowl.
If we’re talking quality and authenticity – don’t have high expectations. It’s definitely more of a «fusion» kind of taste. It’s good, and flavorful, but it’s just not going to strike you as a traditional bowl of ramen or phở or udon, for that matter.
If you want a bowl of hot, steaming noodles and broth, generous meat (they gave me 4 big pieces of pork belly, which is the most pork belly I’ve ever gotten in any ramen joint), and a helping of vegetables, this will satisfy.

The weather is getting colder, and I find myself craving soup more frequently. Mi & Yu Noodle Bar recently opened in Federal Hill so for lunch on a chilly day, a friend and I decided to check it out.
The menu at Mi & Yu Noodle Bar is designed for you to customize your dish to your liking. The first step is to choose a protein, I went with the Soy Miso Braised Short Ribs. The meat was incredibly tender and flavorful, however I wished there was a little bit more because there was a lot of broth. The next step is to pick a noodle, I went with the traditional ramen noodle. The last step is to pick a broth, I chose the savory miso broth. The broth was salty and seasoned well. It tasted great with the short ribs. I would go back to Mi & Yu in an instant and probably not change a thing about my order!
Noodle bars are slowly but surely popping up all over the city and this might be my favorite bowl of ramen yet!

This place was great! I ordered the fried tofu with the spicy kimchi broth. If you like spicy, get the kimchi broth.
Portion sizes were generous and the price was right. The music was amazing and that was an added bonus (90’s Hip Hop).
Service was good, you order and pick it up when they call your number.
I highly recommend you check it out.

Here I am sitting in my apartment in Bmore feening for some ramen so I take a walk down Charles and it appears like an Oasis in the desert: a brand spanking new noodle bar.
It’s been a solid ten years since I’ve lived in the greatest city in America, but there is still a paucity of good Asian eats to be had. So imagine my skepticism as I stroll into this simple and welcoming restaurant.
Choose your own adventure:
1) Choose your meat
2) Choose your broth
3) Choose your noodles
I had the 5 spiced pork (a bit salty, but flavorful and a touch sweet), the kimchi broth (spicy, but well balanced) and the ramen (cooked just right — not too soft, not undercooked).
I also tried the buttermilk fried chicken (which was actually quite good, but try to snatch it out from the broth before it gets soggy), the beef dashi (which was a touch salty, but literally tasted like beef was infused in the broth) and ramen (as above).
The staff was friendly and the chef was welcoming. This noodle spot will definitely be among charm city’s finest.
Needless to say I was left with a positive impression and will be returning for frequent face stuffings.

This place JUST opened a couple days ago, and they’re still getting their feet under them… but are off to a good start!
Mi&Yu is located on S. Charles Street, to the North West of Cross Street Market. It’s a small space with a large table running down the middle of the space, two eatings ‘bars’ on each wall, and two (small) tables on either side of the door (in the windows like displays).
It’s very reminiscent of what you see in Tokyo, where people can come in and grab a quick (very filling) before heading out again. Although I doubt there will be as much slurping in the US.
The main pull here will be their broth based soups, including Ramen and Phở. The ordering caught me off guard a bit, but I’m not smart. Each noodle bowl STARTS with a miso broth… but that’s where the similarities end.
Start by picking the protein:
buttermilk brined fried chicken /​11
5 spiced bbq pork belly /​12
soy-​miso braised short ribs /​13​
vegetarian bowl, seared tofu /​9
Then the noodle variety:
ramen, udon or phở noodles
Then the broth accentuation:
spicy kimchi or savory miso broth (all non pork base)
*beef dashi, the braising liquid of the beef ribs available only on a limited basis
Finally, all of the bowls will also come with nappa cabbage, tofu, shitake & herbed sprout salad and a soft yolk egg.
For lunch, my friend got the fried chicken with miso broth and phở noodles.
I wanted to do the short ribs, but their delivery didn’t come in, (still getting their rhythm) so instead I got the pork belly with kimchi and ramen noodles.
My buddy thought his was really good. Mine was also excellent. The five spice on the pork belly was a bit strong (it’s always a strong combination), so I highly recommend stirring up the bowl a bit to mix the flavors, that made everything more combined and uniform. I like hot stuff a lot, and this bowl had me pleasantly sweating.
I will absolutely go back and try more noodles and more items off the menu.
My suggestion is to NOT sit by the window. That table has no air flow, and if your sweating from the food… it’s only going to get worse up there.
One improvement the restaurant could make, is to sort out the drink situation a bit. A soda fountain would be great, or at least water. The soda fridge was a bit sparse, and the food would be complimented by something cool to drink.