Ramen IPPUDO Westfield Sydney — Restaurant in Sydney

Sorry Ippudo but you have now lost us as customers.

We used to eat at Ippudo nearly every time we went to the Sydney CBD. Always enjoyed the delicious ramen, ambience and the polite, warm and efficient service. However, this time round, something in the place has changed.

The food is still okay but the rude and indifferent attitude of the wait staff has really turned me off this place. The vibe in the restaurant was that of extreme indifference and a couldnt-care-less attitude.

Management really needs to give this attention if they want to keep their customers coming.

We arrived for a late lunch around 3pm. The restaurant was not busy - at most it was a third full. We were ushered to a side table near the back of the restaurant. Menus were already on the table and we selected what we wanted. When it came time to order we tried to get the attention of a number of wait staff who simply walked past us without giving eye contact. My mother flagged down a male waiter who looked at her directly, ignored her and walked past into the staff area. Finally after about 5-10 mins of trying to get someone's attention, I stood up and walked halfway to a waitress and asked her politely to take our order. Another waitress came over and then took our order very matter-of-factly.

The food came relatively quickly and was decent. No complaints there.

My dad got up to pay the bill ($60). There was a sign prominently displayed on the counter saying that they charged 1% of the bill for Visa and Mastercard credit cards. This would have been an additional surcharge of $0.60. My dad was charged $60.72 (which was $0.12 over the stated 1% surcharge).

Already annoyed about the poor service, my dad asked the lady why they charged him a higher credit card surcharge. I get that $0.12 is very small and inconsequential BUT it was on principle that he objected to this type of poor business practice and misrepresentation on pricing. The lady responded that it was the machines fault and kept trying to calculate 1% of $60.

At this time, we asked for the manager to help her resolve this problem and she said he was out. We asked her for her name and she said rudely "why should I give you my name?!" She later said her name 'Giovanni'.

She finally couldn't explain the higher surcharge and handed my dad a 20 cent coin with a condescending sarcastic attitude. She then shoved the 1% credit card surcharge sign into the drawer. My dad thanked her politely and walked out.

As soon as his back was turned, Giovanni said 'Stingy!' loudly within our earshot. We were shocked and immediately turned around and asked her what she said. She was stunned. We told her that it was her poor attitude and sarcastic manner that we were unhappy about. She responded with a grudging and insincere apology. At this point we had just about enough of the poor service at Ippudo and left.

As a paying customer, we expect good service and good food. We don't expect to be overcharged, ignored, treated with condescension and accused of being stingy. We will bring our...

1st time and last time I am eating in this Ippudo . The Westfield Ippudo that is

Sub par ramen considering the price... I have eaten Ippudo in Japan and Singapore and this one doesn't come even to half the standards set by the original branches in Japan.

Now of course it could be difference in quality of ingredients, but the Broth was not even hot, temperature was barely acceptable for the 1st 2 mins, but after that you are eating from a cold bowl, it's doesn't satisfy you at all. I remember bowls of Ramen from Ippudo would leave you with the sweats but feeling extremely satiated.

What I can commend is the bowl arrived 2 mins after my order, initially I was impressed but after the 2nd minute into the bowl I realised that quality was compromised. I had ordered the extra 9 dollar special combi, which gives you additional ingredients on a side plate to simmer later into the Broth. As broth was not hot, the ingredients could not be heated properly, felt I was eating a lukewarm Pokebowl after a while.

I feedbacked this to the staff on the way out, who seemed like she can't be bothered, just wanting to process the check and get me out of the joint. And feeling unsatisfied with my meal, I didn't want to talk anymore with someone who doesn't care Especially when Grill'd burgers was closing in 20 mins at Galleries, I could still save the say by getting something I know would be consistently good.

Seriously, if this branch at Westfield doesn't care, neither will I, there are tons of other good Ramen joints available elsewhere...

Arriving on a Thursday late afternoon it was already fairly busy around 5. Situated inside the Westfield mall on the fifth floor this restaurant has seating inside as well as outside in the mall area.

We ordered two pork buns, a bonito ramen and a grilled unagi don (rice bowl). The braised pork of the pork bun was nicely marinated and tasty but personally I thought there could be more topping accompanying the pork that would combine well with the flavors. The ramen was nice with chewy noodles and a broth that had a very strong bonito flavor. What didn't work out very well was the grilled unagi don. Although the rice was seasoned and flavorful it was either overcooked or cooked with too much water which made the rice soggy. The rice grain structure was nowhere to be found. The unagi tasted prepackaged and had a earthy flavor to it. The yellow radish and marinated greens that accompanied the rice was a nice touch but it didn't compensate the sogginess of the rice. When commenting on this to the staff they could only inform the kitchen about it and apologize because all they had was the soggy rice so they couldn't change anything about the dish.

Overall, the restaurant has its strong and weak points. But I'm not convinced, it's quite pricey for the quality you get. Perhaps it's because of its location in a mall. Beware of the 10% added cost during the weekends!

It's not as spectacular as the average Google score in my personal opinion. The friendliness of the staff is something that can definitely be...