This week Connecticut-based Mecha Noodle Bar debuted its first Ohio location in the Short North at 965 N. High St., in the former White Castle space, and they kindly invited us to try it out!
The space has been beautifully redone to incorporate a long bar and a comfortable, brightly lit dining room with natural wood accents. Throughout the space, wooden architectural details hang down from the ceiling.
Mecha’s menu covers a range of bao buns, small plates, sushi, pho, and ramen.
It’s all supplemented by bubble tea, cocktails, wine, sake, and beer.
We tried a trio of drinks: the limeade, Thai iced tea, and Vietnamese iced coffee. All delicious.
Our servers were very enthusiastic, and heartily recommended a few munchies to try. All of them praised the dumplings, especially these roasted mushroom dumplings with butter miso and arugula. They weren’t wrong.
The menu leads off with a quartet of bao buns. It was a little confusing how many came in an order, but we managed to order a trio of buns in two different flavors.
The pork belly came with giant slices of the belly, almost too big to comfortably eat in a bao bun. Our server said these were small, two-bite buns, but clearly they’re much larger.
Same with the Korean fried chicken buns; the thin slices of fried chicken are generously portioned. You could easily make an entire meal out of these.
Our server recommended the kimchi fried rice as well. Again, the portions were overly generous. The rice is very nicely seasoned, and just like the bao buns, it could go as a full meal.
Then on to the main event: noodle bowls!
First up, a bowl of pho. The Pho Sizzle features grilled flank steak. We really enjoyed it; the pho broth is richly seasoned.
Same with the tonkotsu ramen. It’s loaded with flavor, especially from the tender slices of pork belly.
As a bonus, our server let us try the Pho Bo, a flavor-packed pho with rare steak and bone marrow you scoop into the broth.
We enjoyed Mecha. The food arrived in huge portions, with lots of great flavors, and service was very attentive. I hope it becomes a fixture of the Short North.
Mecha Noodle Bar
965 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43215
Web: mechanoodlebar.com
FB: Mecha Noodle Bar
IG: @eatramen