Johnny W.
Yelp
A relatively new and upcoming hotspot for your dumpling and ramen fix! Relatively well-known in Japan and I'm glad we got to try it here! Since they opened not too long ago, I'm sure there are some kinks to be worked through and our dining experience definitely highlighted some of those kinks.
Let's start with aesthetics. The area we sat at was in front of the bright blue neon sign, which although was pretty made all our pictures so blue, as evident in the pictures lol however, once you walk further in the dining experience transforms into one that's more elegant and classy, with minimalistic designs that provides a warm undertone. Asides from the lights, the air conditioning at our area was not that strong, which was due to their air conditioning unit being placed higher than the others. Just two minor detractions here.
Now service was amazing, one of the staff was friendly and warm; he even remedied a mistake the kitchen made seamlessly! The only issue I noticed is that the waiters bringing the food didn't know what belonged to who, so for most of our 20ish orders/appetizers, they had to ask every time what went where. A easy fix is to mark the orders better in a seat format!
Appetizer:
Hotate carpaccio was flavorful but quite thin, making the bites not meaty enough to enjoy its refreshing flavor profile (2/5).
Takoyaki was relatively simple and the yuzu egg salad it was placed on didn't really add to it since it was so minced, so perhaps adding more egg salad would make it more enjoyable (2.5/5).
Tori kaarage was crunchy and moist, but can use more yuzu egg salad (3/5).
Buta gyoza was thinly crisped on top but incredibly soft on the bottom that it torn easily and the sauce stuck to the soft side and made it extra salty. My family had the spicy one and that was crisped all throughout which made it more enjoyable (1.5/5).
Aburi koro chasu don came with mushy rice which aligned with other diners. There weren't a lot of pork and some of the pieces were overly charred, making it less enjoyable and overpowered by the amount and texture of the rice (2/5).
For main entree, I just wanna say PLEASE GET THE YUZU-TSUYU TSUKEMEN! It's so fresh and combined so perfectly creamy that it was by far one of the best tsukemen I ever had! Most tsukemen is overly rich and salty because it's a dipping ramen, but this one was a perfectly balanced flavor between its salty, creamy, and refreshing yuzu flavor profile! My main concern was that for 4 dollars you get one thin slice of chasu. Most place aren't that stingy, so if anything please make it 5 dollars and give people two slices, that way people won't feel like they're getting ripped off or feel that Afuri is overpriced. The cocktail was also so small that it didn't feel impactful for the price, which you can see its comparison with the size of a fork in the pictures. Overall, the yuzu tsuyu tsukemen was the most memorable and would definitely come back again for it! I hope the other issues can be addressed, for it's relatively simple to fix them to enhance the dining experience even more! Rating this time is 3.5 stars, but I can't wait to come back to hopefully change it to 5 stars next time!
Thank you for reading and best of luck! (: