Sabu

Best ramen place in Lakeland! I usually order Shoyu ramen and my husband Tonkotsu. They are both very good but I definitely prefer mine. I also prefer the fatty pork belly while my husband likes the crispy one. They overload their ramen with chives but it's OK since those can be totally or partially removed. Everyone is so nice when it comes to service. You will encounter a bit of a line to order most of the time and the food might take a second to come out, but it's never too long and it's also expected when in a busy place like that. I would definitely recommend them to anybody that wants to enjoy a good bowl of ramen.

Pretty darn good. I get the chicken based tonkatsu and spicy chicken. Great bone broth flavor. The bun is the star.
I've been three times in one month. Love bone broth. Get rice noodles as a gluten alternative.
I've never had the wheat noodles.

You know a place must be pretty decent if there’s always a crazy long line of people waiting to order, pay and devour. Sabu is one of the handful of stalls in the industrial and fun Joinery of Lakeland.

They do the ramen, and visitors seem to never get enough of the ramen. I’m so serious, this place is always crazy busy. Because of this I usually don’t even try to order here, because I’d rather not wait forever when most of the other stalls aren’t half as busy.

So when it actually had no line one day that I came to yee old Joinery, I jumped on the opportunity. I got one of the spicy ramen dishes that I am now forgetting the name of. I really enjoyed it, and I mean it’s hard not to enjoy any ramen bowl. I wouldn’t say it was out of this world, but I’d have it again happily. We got the bao buns too, of course. Can’t ever turn those sweet babies down.

Let me now get to what I would drive to the Joinery solely to splurge on: the drinks!! They have boba, yes, whoop whoop! I got the cocoa puffs cereal milk boba and it was ridiculous. Ridiculously easy to sip down so quick I barely savored it. It basically tasted like chocolate milk with soft, chewy boba that was cooked pretty well. Also, my friend got the iced matcha and that was by far the best matcha drink I’ve ever tried. I think they mixed it with some sort of sweet cream, because it wasn’t just the plain earthy taste of matcha but it was much sweeter, and I just can’t even believe how good it was. So yes, I’d come back to not even bother the ramen or bao buns, but to get a foo-foo drink from Sabu. But the ramen certainly doesn’t hurt either.

I’m late on my review because sometimes I think it’s best to just be more vigilant in the process of coming to a well informed decision.
First impressions had me initially, but consistency keeps me coming back.
Anytime I need a bowl of comfort, Sabu Ramen is my go to tried and true!