Halal Ramen Naniwaya — Restaurant in Osaka

High level summary: nowhere near as good as it used to be when the restaurant was on the ground floor. Severally understaffed. Not worth the long wait to be honest.

I visited this restaurant when it was on the ground floor a few years back. From what I remember, they had one of the best chicken based ramen. The broth was flavorful, with a strong shiitake mushroom flavor, and the chicken was charbroiled perfectly.

This time around, one word sums up the overall experience: disappointing. At first I couldn't find the restaurant because it had moved upstairs. Glad to see they're doing well enough and have upgraded. However, it seems that even with the biggest places, they still have the same amount of staff. This seemed to be the root cause of the deterioration in quality and service. The wait was brutally long. They do not have a good system for waiting patrons. We were left just standing while waiting for a long while without any acknowledgement. The whole time, we noticed that the two staff were scrambling to take orders, serve patrons, clean tables, and settle tabs. Eventually, we got a seat, but the lack of staff continued to affect the rest of the experience. It took a while to take our order. And it took even longer for the food to come. We ordered two of the special ramen. It took a really long time just for two bowls of ramen. When the food arrived, it was easy to see that it was not the same ramen that I remembered. The chicken is now boiled, with barely any sear (refer to picture). The broth no longer has that strong shiitake mushroom flavor that you used to be able to smell. It was easy to see that the lack of staff has caused them to take shortcuts, which negatively impacted the quality of the food.

Sadly,I won't be visiting this place again. It is just not worth the wait and not worth wasting a meal when there are so many other things to...

Honestly, I'm not usually someone who post reviews on restaurants. However, this place has got to be the worst restaurant I've been in Japan.

First, the service was terrible. After we got called in from the queue, we were seated very close to another table with dirty dishes. They did not clear the table until halfway through the meal. The couple after us were seated on a table with dirty dishes and when they asked the male waiter with blonde hair to clear the table, he looked very hesitant as if he did not want to do it. Our table did not have any utensils, tissues and jug of water. When we asked the same waiter with blonde hair, he nodded but did not gave us any. It was until halfway through the meal when a female waiter saw us, then she served us the jug of water but no tissues. While waiting for the food, I saw the waiter filling up the jug of water with tap water and there were dirty dishes next to the sink! After discovering this, we felt disgusted and did not even drink a single sip of water.

Second, the place is very dirty. Aside from the dirty dishes, the chairs were filled with stains and the floor had food scraps. The utensils they provided were very sticky and had oil stains. Not sure whether they even clean the utensils properly.

Lastly, the food. It was not good at all. We ordered the wagyu rice and ramen. Honestly, dont even know if it was wagyu. There are better restaurants. We also order the fried chicken. IT WAS SALTY! It tasted like someone dumped a whole lot of salt in the batter. It was a struggle finishing it.

In conclusion, don't bother coming here and queueing to eat at this place. There are better halal...

Our visit here could have been so much better if a waiter or someone had come to tell us how much wait there still was before we could have a table. We waited for more than an hour without anybody caring. That was a little frustrating. people weren’t passing us saying they had a reservation even though I am not even sure we can make reservations in this restaurant, but the staff let them sit before us anyway. there were more waiters/waitress to serve the customers. The waitress was serving, cleaning, washing the dishes and collecting money with the other waiter and we could clearly see a lack of staff. there were more plates, bowls to serve the food as soon as it is ready instead of waiting too long for the cleaning. the waiters didn’t bring my husband’s order way before mine, he had already finished when I started eating. 3 persons who sat before us were still waiting for their order. the waiters didn’t forget our orders. We asked for 2 drinks and they didn’t come until we asked for them again after we had been served dinner. the waiters weren’t overwhelmed by their job, they forgot to bring the drinks and they seem to lose their orders in the pile. we weren’t served after a long wait even after sitting down.

the fried chicken was great, a lot of oil though and the Ramen was good but the chicken inside was overcooked. For the quantity, maybe there is a bit much, I saw that a lot of person didn’t finish there plates, me included even though I usually never waste.

They were really nice though and the food is okay, it’s quiet, but I don’t think I would come back and wait 1h for food and service if it’s not...