Edna L
Google
I love that when you walk in the door, you’ll be automatically greeted by the staff and brought to your table. There are also hooks on the wall next to your table where you can hang your coat and belongings. If you run out of space, the staff will help you hang it somewhere nearby. The staff here are very kind, patient, and friendly. Definitely a plus already!
However, the food could be better. We shared the following appetizers: Ika Sansai (squid salad with vegetables), Tako Wasabi, Karaage Chicken, Mentai Mayo Fries, and the Ponzu Tuna Tataki. By choice, I only had a small piece of the squid salad and the wasabi octopus because they weren’t that great. Both were too chewy so if that’s not your type of texture in food, maybe avoid them. The tuna tataki had excellent presentation but lacks a bit of taste… kind of bland. The karage was pretty good with a good amount of chicken and the lemon squeezed on top of the juicy interior was honestly the first thing I enjoyed here. The best appetizer we ordered though were the mentai mayo fries. That was definitely a favorite for the group! The fries were crispy, hot, and the paired with the mentai mayo was delicious even though I’m not a big fan of mayo (you taste more mentai than mayo here which was a big plus for us).
Speaking of mentai, we also ordered the Mentai Udon. Being a huge udon fan and since their mentai mayo from the fries were good, I expected a lot from this and was very very disappointed by it instead. This tasted like straight up mayo with noodles and I couldn’t eat more than a bite of this. I guess if you love mayo, order this? But you might as well put udon and mayo on a plate, mix it up and serve. Their presentation for this (and all their dishes) was pretty good though. The highlight was the bacon… when not covered in sauce.
I also tried the chili garlic Hokkaido and the zuwaikani pasta (snow crab pasta). Both had a tiny but very welcome kick to it. The chili garlic one was overly sweet for noodles but one of us ranked this his favorite of the 3 noodles! The snow crab pasta was the most neutral of all 3. Came with lots of fish eggs and snow crab!
I ordered the black garlic ramen to share because of all the recommendations to try it. I love garlic so I just had to try this. The ramen came with lots of mushrooms, 2 large pieces of char siu, scallions, and half a ramen egg. As this sets upon the table, all you smell is garlic! … but all you taste is also garlic. There was just too much garlic and after a while, it gets tiring, even for someone who loves garlic. Perhaps it’d be better if the black garlic came on the side and we could adjust it for ourselves.
Overall, food was honestly very meh. 3/5. The service/atmosphere 4/5.
When the bill comes, it comes in a dvd case which is pretty cute concept. This place is cash only!! Also, I’m not sure if they do this all the time, but gratuity was already included for us. It’s typical for restaurants to already have tip included for parties of 6 or more but we were only a group of 5. The staff here honestly should have said something. Usually staff at restaurants say something if they already include gratuity in the bill. Not seeing this, I included tip again… so read your bill carefully, people!!! … unless you want to give a 50% tip like I did and not realizing until hours later why the staff was so happy after the bill was collected… happy holidays to the staff!
