Takeichi New Zealand — Restaurant in South Island

We went to Takeichi last week for my partner's birthday dinner. We were really excited as we both love Ramen, and had previously experienced "authentic" ramen in different corners of the world.

Upon arriving, you have to enter through the side door of the building as the front entrance door is not yet hung into the frame correctly and doesn't open or shut properly. There are signs everywhere that state the limited amount of Ramen they will be serving that night, which translates to, "if you don't have a booking, you can't have Ramen." Surely the RAMEN restaurant should be able to serve its specialty to all paying customers, not just those who have made a booking.

The wait staff were all friendly but seemed to not have had much training. We had to pour our own water after the bottle was plonked on the table, the bowls and plates were carried by the rim not from underneath (this might be a minor detail but we didn't appreciate fingers near our food), and we also had about four different wait staff come to our table through out the evening which made it hard to connect with any of them.

The food, to say the most, was average. The picture attached is how my bowl of ramen looked before I touched it. Where are the toppings? None of us received any spring onion, corn, or other basic ramen staples that we were looking forward to. Not worth the $14 for a small bowl with no toppings. I ordered the Shoyu ramen, which is meant to have a soy sauce based broth, but it tasted so bland, I think they gave me the wrong one. We also ordered some Edamame beans and Karaage chicken and curry as sides. The edamame was brought out when we had almost finished our Ramen, and the karaage chicken never actually arrived until I mentioned it to the waitress. (She took the chicken off our bill at the end which was very considerate). The curry, as a side, was twice the size of our Ramen bowls. Maybe in the future it would be nice for either the sides to be brought out first, or all food to arrive at once, as my partners Ramen also arrived before the other peoples'.

Our overall thoughts are that it seems like Takeichi opened a month too early. The limited menu and unorganised feel of place was uncomfortable to us as customers. We want to give them another chance in the future, but will not return unless ALL customers can have Ramen at any time, and the recipes are taken under reconsideration. It's not difficult to add some vegetables on top...

Edit after months later: well done Takeichi! Your ramen has improved VERY significantly. The vibe is also much better! Good job!

TL;DR: Needs time to improve, will go back again just not anytime soon.

The noodles are actually quite good, not much to comment here. The broth is quite bland, lacking the chicken taste and smell as one would expect from a torimen. Shoyu overpowered everything, all the scent of the broth (as tasted in shio ramen, which is already pretty weak) is covered up by the shoyu. The 2 pieces of chicken bit is not very impressive, it tastes like it's just boiled chicken, maybe its more than that but I wouldn't know since I don't have enough to taste it.

Given all this, this is quite expensive for the price. $14 for a subpar ramen when I can make one at home for better and cheaper is not very impressive.

One of the thing given to customers alongside the menu is the customer etiquette. I find this to be amazing as some people here may not know the etiquette well, and will find it interesting to learn how to eat ramen the Japanese way.

On that note, i find it odd that the restaurant gives the customers an etiquette sheet but doesn't seem to teach the staff the etiquette. On entrance, staffs say "irasshaimase" as expected, yet instead of bowing (which is fine) or initiating help, they stood there and wave. This is not a big deal, just something I find a little odd.

At one point that I am eating, one of the staff has to collect something deep in the counter so instead of 1) walking around the counter; or 2) asking someone behind the counter to help, she decides to jump with her belly on the counter and feet far from the floor, to collect the thing.

Another etiquette point I find to be lacking is that the staff carries a bowl of noodle with 1 hand while another hand is totally free. This kind of gives off a sign of lack of caring for the noodle.

I...

NOT WORTH THE HYPE. NOT WORTH THE WAIT. NOT WORTH THE PRICE.

Paid $20 for a bowl of Nouko Shio ramen with special toppings and realised they used canned bamboo. I know this because I could literally taste the can juice from the bamboo, like at least give it a rinse?

They only offer chicken ramen, none of the authentic and traditional tonkotsu ramen that you can enjoy at any Auckland ramen shop for max $16. It was just severely disappointing for the price.

My friend ordered a clear spicy ramen and the broth just tasted like spicy water - no flavour at all, or salt. When she ordered an Aji tama, the waitress looked at her with a really blank look and we had to point to the menu for her to understand that she was trying to order a seasoned soft boiled egg. I hope that the staff can learn their menu better as they also had a bit of trouble comprehending the types of ramen we wanted.

Can I also point out that it also cost an extra $2 for the egg because it is NOT INCLUDED in the already expensive ramen. The bowls/portion sizes are pitifully small as well.

They use every opportunity to claim that they are ‘authentic’ even though….well. As soon as you walk into Takeichi, the staff say "irashaimase" but they also wave? Apparently, they don't bow because they are still a 'casual' restaurant? They only provide disposable chopsticks which is quite cheap looking for such a large sit down restaurant in Dunedin because it’s ‘authentic’. They also said it's normal to have long wait times outside good ramen shops in Japan (emphasis on good), even though in reality it's because Takeichi has a logistics problem.

In summary, good effort, but I wish Takeichi would stop claiming how authentic it is. It is SO OVERPRICED, I would rather just go to Yuki as it offers a better ‘authentic’ experience without shoving it in your face. Also far...