Bone Broth in the Basement

Bite Me: Unwarranted Food Reviews — Buya Ramen

This article is part of a series called Bite Me: Unwarranted Food Reviews, where I, a lover a food and drinks, write about the lovely things I’ve consumed. Find more Bite Me reviews on my profile.

It was a dark and muggy night in St. Petersburg, Florida. After a long day of eating and adventuring around the city, I found myself confused and blinking repeatedly at my phone’s lock screen.

8:43 p.m. I had slept through dinner on the hotel room love seat with my jeans on. Impressive.

Luckily, it was a Saturday night and the hotel was in the heart of downtown St. Pete, with lots of restaurants still open for business. I found Buya Ramen just a couple minutes away and knew it would be the perfect late night meal.

Buya has a self-proclaimed “punk rock” vibe. It’s dark, it doesn’t have a lot of windows, the bar has a massive inventory on display, and it was busy, especially considering I was there after “dinner time” and during a global pandemic. The tables were spread far apart and they definitely lost some seating in order to comply with the limited capacity guidelines. I snagged the very last open two-top. Lucky me!

Even though I’d spent most of the day eating (a day well-spent, if you ask me), I was ravenous. I wanted to order all of the Izakaya Plates (Japanese tapas), but I practiced self control and just ordered the short rib bao buns.