Disappointing Beef Donburi and Customer Service Experience
I've visited this restaurant several times and generally enjoyed their ramen, so I was excited to try something different today.
During a previous visit, I noticed another customer enjoying the Beef Donburi. It looked delicious, so I asked what she'd ordered. Today, I decided to order it for takeout.
Unfortunately, what I received was incredibly disappointing.
The menu describes the Beef Donburi as sliced beef and onions simmered in a chef's special sauce, served over white rice. The restaurant's website photo shows beautifully coated, flavorful-looking beef.
What I received was a container of pale, grayish beef, onions, and white rice. There was no noticeable sauce on the rice, and the dish tasted exactly like plain beef sautéed with onions. No discernible seasoning, no depth of flavor, and certainly nothing resembling a special sauce.
I called the restaurant to ask whether the sauce might have been accidentally left out of my order. The employee explained that the beef is cooked in the sauce rather than served with sauce separately. I understood that, but explained that the dish had virtually no flavor and didn't resemble what I'd seen in the restaurant or on their website.
Rather than acknowledge my concern, he repeatedly insisted that he'd personally packed my order and watched the chef cook the beef with the sauce.
I wasn't calling to argue about what he witnessed in the kitchen. I was calling about the food I actually received and tasted. Eventually, I ended the conversation because it was going nowhere.
I'm including two photos: the restaurant's advertised Beef Donburi and the dish I received. Others can draw their own conclusions about the appearance, but I can speak to the taste. It was bland, plain beef and onions over white rice.
I've had positive experiences with their ramen, which makes this especially disappointing. The meal itself was underwhelming, but the unwillingness to genuinely hear a customer's concern made the experience worse. read more