This upcoming Second Friday on Lancaster Avenue, Oct. 12, look out for Fall Market discounts, street vendors, live music, giveaways and plenty more. Little Baby’s Ice Cream Truck and Jimmie’s Cupcakes will also be there in this beautiful fall weather.

The new Ramen Bar (Facebook page) on the 4000 block of Locust Street makes pretty good ramen, but I’m not convinced the awesomeness of the broth is enough to overcome my disappointment with the experience of dining there. Certainly the place is attractive: it’s packed with young people and the wooden tables, classy utensils and open kitchen give the feel of an authentic Japanese noodle bar. The hard, clean, high-ceilinged environment (and two TVs and a loud sound system) also means you have to shout a lot, which can be invigorating. And of course the place is new, so the service is bound to improve. However, the food and the prices will probably stay the same.

My friends and our daughters went as a group of six and were seated quickly at about 6:15 on Sunday night. The bar isn’t serving yet, but we weren’t drinking. We ordered several kinds of ramen and a couple of appetizers. The seaweed salad ($5) was bright green but barely seasoned and the shrimp shumai ($6) was almost as good as Trader Joe’s frozen shumai, but not quite. I was underwhelmed by the Takoyaki ($6), fragments of octopus balled up in fried dough and served with what tasted like fast food barbeque sauce. We would have been better off skipping all three.

We chose from a variety of ramen, plus optional, separately priced toppings including Ajitma ($1 marinated boiled egg – perfectly cooked) and Chashu ($3 marinated pork – just OK, not so easy to chew). Both the vegan and non-vegan versions of Veggie Miso Ramen ($8) featured rich, deliciously flavored broth. The noodles were bouncy and filling, and the vegetables mostly great, but we thought the corn niblets were weird. The signature Tonkotsu (pork bone) Ramen ($10) and its spicy cousin Kara Kara Tonkotsu Ramen ($12) were very satisfying, and will seem even more so on a snowy winter night. I was definitely happy with the ramen, and really happy about that yummy marinated egg.

For dessert, the kids ordered ice cream; they found the green tea ice cream ($5) too bitter (though I liked it). The red bean ice cream ($5) was sweeter. In the end, five bowls of ramen, one unremarkable fried rice entree, three appetizers, and three dishes of ice cream set us back $117.76. If the food and service had been impeccable, I would feel better about the prices. But the sad, meager appetizers, random service, and especially the automatic 20% gratuity (for a table of six) made me feel like I was missing something. And I realized that what I was missing was Tampopo (269 S. 44th Street), which is less fancy but more accessible if you are looking for ramen, seaweed salad, and green tea ice cream.

Ramen Bar is currently cash-only. Lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 4 to 10 p.m.

– Jen

Don’t miss the final 2012 Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll this Thursday, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. As always, there will be tons of $1 deals from local businesses and live entertainment. Check out the map below for details.

Click to enlarge.

Related Posts:

• Photos of the Dollar Stroll
• Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll returns this Thursday
• Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll dates released

Ramen Bar is softly opening today at 4040 Locust Street and will serve lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 4 to 10 p.m. Stay tuned for our review.

The second of three Dollar Strolls this summer is hitting Baltimore Avenue this Thursday (5:30-8:30 p.m.), bringing $1 deals from restaurants, shops and other local businesses. Check out what’s cooking (and brewing) on Baltimore during the August stroll. Also, don’t forget about live music and street performances along the Avenue, from 42nd to 50th Streets.

Congratulations to the West Philly-based gourmet popsicle vendor Lil’ Pop Shop (Facebook page), which won the “Desserts” prize on Saturday at the annual Vendy Awards. The Vendys celebrate the bustling mobile food culture in Philadelphia.

In addition to their shop on 44th Street between Spruce and Locust, Lil’ Pop Shop runs a small cart, which qualified them to compete. They continued a West Philly tradition in the Vendys. Last year Gigi and Big R’, a staple in Penn’s food truck scene, won the top prize – The Vendy Cup.

This year, The Smoke Truck, which serves Southern barbecue, won the Cup.