Kurume Ramen & Izakaya
★★★★☆ 3.9 (239) • $$
"This is a hard review to write because I really liked this place. Tonight was my 3rd visit to Kurume Ramen over the past 7 weeks. My first visit was outstanding. The service was excellent, the food was deliciously perfect, and we were treated like VIP's. My second visit, I brought along a party of 6 guests with me to celebrate my daughter's graduation. We had the same server from our first visit, and he was excellent. The food was just as great as my first visit, and my guests were all satisfied and happy. When I received my bill, I was a little shocked to see a random hefty surcharge on my bill, but I didn't ask any questions about it, I just left a tip bringing my total to over $170.00 and thanked our server. Tonight was my 3rd and likely last visit. I have been looking forward to coming here all week, and boy was it a complete disappointment. After walking in, my kids and I were greeted by a younger man. He sat us at a table and asked for our drink orders. My son and I had been drinking alot of fluids all day, so we didn't order any drinks. My daughter only ordered water. I got the feeling our server was irritated about this, so he didn't return to take our food order for quite some time. When he finally returned, he asked what we wanted then he collected the menus and walked away without another word. My daughter ordered the Monster Sushi Roll, my son ordered a side of fried rice, and I ordered the Creamy Veggie Ramen, that I also had during my two previous visits. After waiting about 15 minutes, our server stopped by our table and dropped off my ramen, this was the last time we saw him. 10 minutes later, a woman stopped by our table and delivered my son's fried rice, and 7-10 minutes after that, my daughter's monster roll was delivered by the same woman. I was wondering why our dishes all arrived at different intervals, as this was not my experience my previous two visits. It was very strange. Now for the disappointment... I dug my chopsticks into my bowl of creamy veggie ramen, and took a bite, I was shocked. My ramen was cold. So I used the spoon to taste the broth to see if it was cold too, and it was room temperate, no heat whatsoever. I debated with my daughter if I should just suck it up and eat it as is. Then I decided to taste the tofu... it was ice cold. Like it had been frozen and partially thawed out and put into my bowl of ramen. I decided I just could not eat it. I really thought the food here was fresh and cooked to order, but I guess it's not if my tofu was icy cold. When the woman came over to drop off my son's fried rice, I told her about my cold ramen bowl. She offered to heat up my bowl or have the chef make a replacement. But at $13 for a bowl of veggie ramen I didn't want my dinner to be microwaved, I could've stayed home if I wanted microwaved ramen. So I told her no thank you. She was very quiet, but kind about it. I asked her if the tofu was previously made and then frozen. She told me that she thought the tofu was made in the morning then refrigerated, but she wasn't completely sure. Either way, it was a huge disappointment for me as I had really looked forward to this meal. In the end, I was never offered an apology, no one came over to talk to me about it. No manager came over to simply say sorry. Instead, I observed the cooks and or manager in the kitchen on their cellphones. Just disappointing! Overall, I really enjoyed this restaurant during my first two visits, and if not for my experience tonight, I would've given them 5 Stars. Maybe they just had a bad night tonight. But in my opinion, there are no excuses for ever serving a customer ice cold food. I still recommend you try this place out for yourself."
"The best Sushi in town . Love love this place freshest sushi great service , we do a lots of Togo orders ."
"The food here is delicious, but plan to come here on a weekday late in the afternoon when they aren't busy. We came during the Lunar New Year celebrations when the City of Richardson was having a festival in the Chinatown plaza where this restaurant is located. The restaurant was packed!We sat in the waiting area for 20 minutes before a table cleared. Once seated, we ordered drinks and foods immediately, but waited at least an hour for our hakata noodle ramen to show up. The food was delicious, but the wait was so long, we missed the entire festival taking place outside. It was chilly inside. Our table was near the kitchen and the front door, but even when the door wasn't open, it was quite cool inside. I'm guessing they had the air circulating for the wait staff and kitchen crew who were probably hot from running around all day serving everyone. It wouldn't have been so bad if we could have received our ramen sooner so that we could warm our insides with hot broth. The food was delicious, well my spicy tonokata was delicious. It was flavorful without being so spicy that your nose started running. lol! The hakata noodles were plentiful and delicate enough that you could break them without slurping continuously for five minutes. Ha ha ha! Seriously, I was super happy with the tangled nest of noodles. There were a lot! That made me very happy. Waitstaff were nice, apologetic about the wait, good about refilling our drinks on a regular basis. Price was about $44 with drinks. Not cheap, but average for the area. I would come back, but definitely in the off season."
