Tanpopo Ramen — Restaurant in Kaipātiki

I’m writing this with tears on my face. The food was good but I'm gonna tell you my true and sad story.I had an incredibly frustrating experience here five years ago due to their outdated payment methods. Despite the commonality of contactless payments, I have no bank cards on me but my phone. OK it is my bad that I didn’t bring my cards with me because I thought a good business like this should have some kind of contactless payment methods but they didn’t.

That was absolutely fine because I can still do the bank transfer. When I suggested a bank transfer as an alternative, they declined. The situation escalated to the point where the staff insisted on holding my phone as collateral while I walked home to retrieve my card. This entire ordeal took a whole extra hour out of my day, which was not only inconvenient but also quite humiliating.

I am deeply disappointed with the lack of flexibility and understanding shown by the restaurant. It’s a basic expectation for businesses nowadays to adapt to modern payment methods, especially in circumstances that could easily be resolved with a simple digital transaction. This experience has left a sour taste. What I’m trying to say is that yes going out without bringing my bank cards on me is indeed my fault, however we had a lot of other better ways to solve the problem. But the staff chose to be hard on me.

How could they treat a kid like this? It's clear that they were deliberately making things difficult for me. This is so not professional and not ethical. I will never understand why the staff treated me like that and tried to humiliate me that day. If he was a nice person or if I were the staff, I would definitely make and kind offer that I will pay for the meal and the customer can transfer the money to my bank account. Additionally he could’ve suggested that I can ask another customer to pay for me and I will transfer my money to that customer that helped me. There are a lot of better ways there yet he chose to be difficult on me and had me wasted a whole hour taking unfamiliar bus routes in a new country without any navigation or phone access. If the business owner is reading this comment, i hate you, i hate that staff, i hate your store, and i hate that day.

Back on that day i just moved to New Zealand alone TEN DAYS ago and was getting familiar with the area near me. Then I got treated like this. Without my phone i couldn't use the AT Mobile App to track buses to find my way on an unfamiliar public transport route in a country I had just moved to a few days ago! I REALLY TRULY DEEPLY SINCERELY AND TERRIBLY HATE YOU AND I WILL NEVER FORGIVE WHAT THAT STAFF DID TO ME ON THAT...

[Update 01/07/2023] Came for dinner alone. The place was busy. I get it but I stood there and nobody paid any attention. Went over to the staff at the counter who only had to say no table when asked for a seat for one. Asked if I could wait for next available and he said no. I asked how long will be the wait, he said, don't know. I said, is it all you got to say, and he says yeah. And that's all he had to say. I was speechless and offended, and walked out of there.

[Update 17/03/2023] Went back for Miso Ramen and KaraAge. Miso was definitely better than Shoyu for my taste, but chashu (pork meat) was still disappointing - too cold, dry and chewy. Wish it was more tender and juicy the way it should be, I think. Karaage was good - crispy, flavorful, and not dry. Still a 4 star until they do something about chashu.

I tried Tokyo style shoyu chashu ramen. $16. You can up-size it for extra $4 which I took. Very good portion. I wasn't super impressed though. The noodle was too under cooked even though I prefer undercooked than overcooked. You definitely get a lot of meat if you order the $16 chashu one over the $13 basic one but the meat wasn't soft enough for my liking. A bit dry and chewy. Stock and Tare weren't that impressive either. I will try the miso one next time to see if it was just me or not. They sell Japanese beer too which I will have to try...

I think I've gone past this place and never stopped to go inside. We were looking for a Ramen place and thought we'd give it a try and have now come back two weeks in a row. So far we've tried the T2, S2, M2, edamame and the katsu chicken rice. They're all very unique in their taste so you have to try and select the one that matches your taste buds. The difference between the T1 and T2 is that the T2 gets extra meat. The takeaway menu explains it all so I've posted a copy. I had the T2 and the M2. I requested for the addition of spice to make it medium spicy and they're both so good. If you like the taste of a strong soup broth, you'll love it. I personally prefer the M2 to the T2. If you like the creamy texture, the S2 is the goer. For kids, the T1 with the added corn went down a treat. The serving size is also very generous. There is a seaweed paper and we didn't know what to do and looked up some videos. I've taken a photo of what I did with mine and it...