Tampopo Ramen & Sushi — Restaurant in Bremen

This used to be the best ramen restaurant in Bremen but, like other restaurants, closed down during the pandemic. When it reopened I was looking forward to enjoying the same food and service. I was bitterly disappointed. The ramen chef has gone so there’s no ramen, in fact no Japanese food at all. It’s all Hispanic food but they kept the Tampopo name which is deceiving! Now it’s just formulaic, uninteresting dishes with lots of rice and salad. The service has changed (it’s got worse). If they had rebranded and changed their style I might have rated my experience higher but instead they tried to regain the pre-pandemic clientele by claiming the restaurant is still a ramen restaurant which it isn’t. A very poor experience and a very expensive one! If you like Hispanic food then do yourself a favour and go into the city centre and enjoy the same food for half the price. But don’t come here expecting Japanese food. That’s long off the menu here.

Edit (replying to owner’s reply to me): hi, owner. Actually, I DID talk to you - well, not you, but whoever was there. They just told us all the foods we came for were no longer served there anymore. And how were you going to help me exactly if I couldn’t get what I wanted? Firstly, I haven’t been to your restaurant in a loooooooong time (as you put it) because there was something called a global pandemic which shut your restaurant (or, more correctly, the restaurant you took over) for almost two years. When I did discover it was reopened there was no more ramen and the Japanese dishes were gone or fused in with Latino cooking. Just to let you know (in case you didn’t) that Tampopo is the name of a famous Japanese movie about, yes, you guessed it - RAMEN! You chose to keep the name even though you don’t serve ramen anymore. This is misleading. If you advertised yourself as a pizza restaurant or a hamburger grill then didn’t serve those foods wouldn’t that also be misleading? Why, then, didn’t you change the name and rebrand as the type of food you actually serve. I think the previous owner quit not because of the reason you gave me but because of commercial reasons - much like a lot of other restaurants. You just took over the place and kept the name to keep the reviews and the reputation it had before you took it over. You only serve Beck’s and some over-priced cocktails which are disappointing compared to what the previous owner provided. Your sushis are just rice rolls with vegetables in them. Nothing spectacular. Basically, the part of the food you are trying to serve as your selling point - Japanese food - is your weak point. I don’t need to reach out to you or talk to you. I just need to eat at a place that serves what they say they serve. Tampopo used to be a ramen restaurant but no more. But what you sell isn’t even Japanese. That’s why you get one star and a...

Edit: I have attended twice again recently, and to be honest, the quality of the Chashu has gone down tremendously. More precisely, it has half the previous radius, 1/4 the volume as a result, and it is incredulously overcooked -- not tender at all -- imagine someone baking your prosciutto crudo for five minutes before serving.

Their broth is saltier and more plainly flavoured than it was in the past, and the other toppings for the ramen are just not par for the course anymore in terms of freshness or flavour.

Even though they have experimented successfully with their drinks menu, nothing stuck, and they will, disappointingly, be getting a hard pass from me in the future. I value consistency as well as quality, at least as far as price can allow, and after discussions with the owner, I do not see them going back to their better preparations in the future.

Previous review:

I've been three times and ordered a different ramen on each occasion. I tried one of the sake selections and both of their roku gin mixed drinks.

Pros: Good service

Nice variation on broth flavours across the dishes

the yuzu juice really complements the gin and tonic variation (the alternative is lemonade which I was not a big fan of).

The vegetarian ramen was well-liked by my vegetarian frkends.

The chashu was tender and had a spectrum of textures.

Cons: They do not accept reservations for couples (it is a small establishment, so not too surprising),

The topping options between the dishes lack the diversity I would expect to see.

I felt the corn on some of the ramen dishes tasted...

Wow, that was disappointing! I have no idea why there are so many positive reviews. Maybe they’re from the previous owner and chef? A sushi restaurant that plays salsa music…okay. A bathroom that smells horrible…I’ll deal with it. But those prices in Bremen for that food?... No! €8.50 for 6 tiny salmon rolls that cost about €5-6 anywhere else. The salmon tasted fresh but I only got a pinch of wasabi with it. €18 ceviche with very little flavor. €10.50 chicken that was fattier than KFC!!! There was only about 80 grams of actual chicken in there. The only good part of it was the wasabi sauce (probably store bought)…and they completely left the sauce out of the chicken takeout order! Then there was an €11.50 vegetable rice dish (!!!) that was pretty much just rice, bean sprouts, and some tiny pieces of broccoli. It’s also a Japanese (or Latin) restaurant that only sells Becks? And… They tried to charge us €6.50 for the wine when it said €6 on the menu. The first thing I did when I got home after my €25 meal was go to my refrigerator because I was...