We chose a time that was not during the rush hours to give this place a try. Sadly, our experience did not match up with the positive reviews they have received in the past year they have been open. Perhaps it was mostly our food choices (every restaurant has its Achilles heel), but my take-away impression was that it was simply overhyped and offered poor quality.
This is an up-and-coming chain restaurant with multiple locations scattered around So. Cal. I loved the multi-paged menu. There were many choices, ramen, bento boxes, sushi, and rice bowls.
We each picked a bento box, which usually gives us an opportunity to get a mini sample of their wares.
I love a good pork tonkatsu, schnitzel by another mother. So that was our order. I also grabbed at the chance to sample their curry gravy that I grew fond of when visiting Hawaii. And while the flavor of the crisp katsu coating was delicious, the meat was pretty tough and chewy. I was pleased by the curry sauce. Perhaps a curry chicken katsu might have been a better choice. Unfortunately, they were out of chicken that day.
The bento box included a small baby greens and tomato salad. And, oddly, that is what caught my attention. They make the pink, gingery dressing that I love. This stuff is so good I might embarrass myself by drinking it all down long after all the lettuce is in my tummy.
Unfortunately, the other items in my bento were underwhelming. One tempura shrimp. While the shrimp was fresh, the batter was too heavy. The single eggroll was stuffed with only watery vegetables and was quite disappointing. And the worst item was the sushi (4 pcs). Very poor quality. The filling was oddly fishy tasting, not a typical California roll at all, with just a whiff of avocado, all surrounded by hard cold rice. Based on that, I would not be compelled to eat any kind of sushi here. The only saving grace was the one gyoza that was actually tasty and worth ordering as an appetizer.
To further push me toward the edge, the background music that they chose was loud rap music. Odd and unpleasant, it was not exactly the most soothing of sounds you would be expecting to hear to enhance your Japanese dining experience.
The service needed help, too. While each of the servers were sweet and friendly, they were simply oblivious, and inexperienced. We found ourselves several times needing to catch their eye for simple things, like, for instance, no napkins. Once the food came out, we became invisible customers.
And lastly, the one functioning bathroom (the other was closed) appeared to be unmaintained. Not particularly clean, there were two, nearly empty rolls of toilet paper that were laying nearby while the double TP holder was empty. There were no paper towels whatsoever.
Perhaps a word to the wise would be, stick with the ramen. I would still be interested in trying some. The many offerings they listed on their menu sounded quite nice and might be worthy of a second chance before I would choose to completely write them off. Meanwhile, there is another fairly new ramen place a few miles west of them on Hidden Valley Parkway that I consider a more solid experience and good quality. read more