Takumi — Restaurant in Dusseldorf

This review is long overdue, but I was busy.

We came here after a recommendation from someone, and on the outside, it looked like your typical ramen restaurant. The first red flag I got was when the lady said that the kitchen would be closing in 5 minutes but that we could order. The second red flag was how busy it was. Loud music and a lot of people talking. But I brushed it off because a lot of people should mean good food, right... right? Well, it wasn't. But I'll talk about that later.

First, let's talk about the service. It was bad!! They either barely spoke English or were extremely rude. Pushing to order, not accommodating, and just talking down on us. Me and my friend are both Neurodivergent and we got extremely uncomfortable with the way we were treated. Especially as I didn't really get how the menu worked.

Food came relatively quickly, and I hoped to have a good meal, but no, it wasn't good. The shrimp were cold and rubbery and weren't properly cleaned. The noodles were just basic spaghetti noodles. And the broth was extremely salty. Which was extremely unhealthy for me due to medical reasons.

We tried to address these issues, but we got gaslit, talked over, and treated like little children. The manager said things like "we told you before ordering" and "no one else complained about the salt, it's just you who can't handle it". This is a blatant lie because there are multiple people in the reviews saying the ramen is salty and even the locals we spoke to (5 to 7 individuals) all said that the quality of the food really tanked in the last few years and more people complain about the salt.

It left a very sour (and salty) taste in our mouth, and we wasted €33,10 in here for just two ramen bowls. Don't be like us, don't eat here unless you like rude staff and salty ramen!

We didn't feel welcome, and it was clear in the behaviour of the staff with the way they treated us and the fact that they were cleaning and sorting things for the next day, right next to our table. Which is just rude as that sorta thing should be done àfter the customer leaves.

So yeah, this is my review. Bad food, unwelcome atmosphere, and rude staff. And it's expensive also. This restaurant gets a 1/10, and even that is a...

I ate here with two friends yesterday and it was one of the most disappointing meals I’ve ever had. All of our bowls were cold or room temperature. My friends had the Shio White and Miso Red Tantan-Men, which they found bland and unseasoned (4/10 and 3/10). I ordered the Karaage Don, but the chicken was chewy, rubbery, and overall unappealing.

The bigger issue was that the menu made no mention that alcohol was used in the cooking. When my bowl arrived, I saw that the rice had a bit of kimchi on it, so I asked the waiter whether they used Gochujang with alcohol or not due to a religious reason on my side. He didn't come back to answer my question, just came back to clean the table next to us. Only when another waitress came up to ask us if everything was fine, I asked her the same question again and she came back to tell me that the Gochujang indeed did not have alcohol, but apparently the CHICKEN and the EGGS did.

Naturally, I was surprised and disappointed by that fact , yet I was told I should've asked while I ordered as they cooked it with Sake (a Japanese rice wine). I explained that I couldn’t eat the dish for religious reasons, but instead of offering help or alternatives, the waitress argued that the chicken had “0% alcohol” because it was cooked at 90°C. That is not accurate, and regardless, the menu provided no warning or mention anywhere.

My friend finished the chicken for me as I do not like to waste food and I had only eaten a bit of the rice and 1½ pieces of chicken. There was no apology, no adjustment to the 42€ bill, and I was essentially blamed for not knowing Japanese food “always” contains Sake, as the waitress told me again when I stopped to tell her it said nothing about that on their menu anywhere and I had never eaten Japanese food/chicken before.

We will not be coming again. Between the poor food quality, lack of transparency, and dismissive service, this place was not...

Overhyped! Salty. Flavourless. Avoid if you’re looking for good Japanese food! Do not wait in line!

We waited in line from 11:30 today, on the first Friday in January, for 12:00PM opening. We were seated and our orders were taken super efficiently. We were impressed, but it went downhill quickly.

Within a couple minutes, complimentary gyoza came out. It was barely warm and obviously store bought gyoza. Not even high quality. But we were hungry and grateful for it.

Shortly afterward, the rest of our orders came out.

The karaage chicken gyoza set, which came with rice, a small spoon of kimchi, and miso soup, was a generous portion and a nicely balanced meal. The only positive part, however, was the miso soup, which was flavourful and with plenty of vegetables. The karaage was super salty, barely crispy, and not deeply flavoured. I was missing the ginger flavour especially. The gyoza was the same mediocre store bought gyoza.

The takoyaki was the best thing we ordered. But it’s super pricey at 6€ for four small balls. The octopus piece inside was generous and the dough was soft and tasty. But there was NO BONITO FLAKES ON TOP!! I was shocked.

Save your money and do not order tonkotsu deluxe ramen. Apparently 3 small shrimp, a couple pieces of the salty poorly flavoured karaage, and half and egg makes it “deluxe”? Super salty. The noodles were overcooked and unremarkable. The flavour of the soup was nice and deeply porky, however.

Finally the veggie spicy miso ramen was a very sad vegan dish. The portion was good and there was a good amount of veggies. But the flavour was so lacking, simply salty with a little chilli paste and tiny dab of miso. The noodles again were overcooked.

So sad! We came all the way from Heidelberg looking forward to this much-hyped Japanese restaurant, and were sorely...