Ramen Bar Tomodachi — Restaurant in Bogota, Capital District

In response to the owner: I filmed for maybe 5 seconds when I entered because I liked the design of the place, it reminds me of my decade in Tokyo, where I managed a restaurant. Then my phone was put away the rest of the time. This is a tourist area and a tourist city, strange that they don't understand tourist customs. Still doesn't explain why even the woman that arrived later was staring at us, doesn't explain why a sick worker who was coughing in the back near the kitchen was there sick. Doesn't explain why the salad was wilted and not fresh as you can see in the photo, doesn't explain why the pork slices were hard and chewy. Doesn't explain why the servers were acting like that even with the family of 4 that entered after us. Thank you for your reply!

It was around 4pm ish when two of us arrived. There were two cooks in the back, one server working, another eating his dinner in front of the register and a woman who was sick and coughing sitting at a table near the kitchen. They all stared at us as soon as we walked in, it was uncomfortable, like they had never seen two people walk in to the restaurant ever before. The young server greeted us in a low voice and pointed at a table for us to sit in. There were no other diners, so he sat us at a two-seater. While we looked at the menu, everyone in the back including the cooks, kept looking at us like we were space aliens, it was strange and uncomfortable. The cooks were middle aged, but the servers and the sick woman were probably in their 20s, so they acted like they were bored and didn't want to be there. The door was left open during a cold rainy evening and when I went to close it the staff smiled like they were amused that I would do that and didn't say anything, very weird, like I was putting on a show for them. When the server took our order, and then after he left when the next server presented our orders to us, they all seemed like they had phrases memorized that they said in a low voice like they didn't want to speak and didn't want to be heard. It was unusual and not friendly. During the meal a young woman walked in, left the door open, and started putting things in the shelves, took a book out to read and also stared at us like we were from outer space after I walked over and closed the door again because my female companion was cold. The staff didn't care about that.

I managed several restaurants in my life when I was young and I would never train my staff to have strange attitudes like that, it was unfortunate.

The food was good, generally, but the cha shyu pork slices were hard and old, not fresh not tender and the greens were old, soft and wilted not fresh. Pork gyoza was good and so were the unagi bowls.

The portions were very small for the price, except the gyoza. Overall, it was an ok meal with staff that made us feel uncomfortable and had an attitude like they didn't want to be there. If I ever return to Bogota, I'm not sure I'll try this place again unless the staff changes and is more...

I researched at length ramen to have dinner and came upon the decision to try this location. When I arrived, I was treated very POORLY and not allowed to enter the restaurant! I was told there was no capacity when there was a table completely open. When I noted to the individual that there was clearly an open table, I was then given the table. This was clearly some form of hatred or discrimination against me. It should be noted and the restaurant should be held accountable for such inhumane and discriminatory behavior.

EDIT: A representative did apologize and was very friendly after my meal. The food was tasty. I got the miso gyoza ramen. The gyoza was excellent both in texture and in flavor. The ramen broth was balanced and not too spicy. The portion was smaller than your typical bowl of ramen, so you may want to order two if you have a strong hunger. Additionally there were no noodles in the ramen which was surprising, however I did not necessarily miss them from the dish. All in all a solid dining experience, aside from the initial profiling and...

First of all: the taste of the ramen and the other food we had was very good and most of all authentic. But there are a couple of things that can still be improved:

The place is rather small and therefore reservations are recommended. We tried to call them multiple times during opening hours, but nobody picked up. After trying to contact them on Instagram, we were told to call - with the same effect of nobody picking up. So in the end we had to wait for 30 minutes until a table was free (and not reserved - how the other people managed to do it, is beyond me). The noodles, while seemingly being homemade and fresh, were sadly barely cooked and sticked together to a big block. This was the case for all of us, so it wasn't a one time mistake. Waiting times for the ramen were very long. Since we got our starters after only a very short wait, that was a bit weird - especially considering my second point.

Overall I would still very much recommend it, even more if they improve on those...