Robata Gensan — Restaurant in General Santos

Ate here for lunch, which is also my first time eating here. A friend of mine recommended this restaurant for having a decent ramen.

I ordered the Pork Ramen and the Basil Peach Yuzu, and Japanese rice on the side.

Their ramen is "good enough", but I wouldn't call it "decent". The soup, while rich, isn't savory. I didn't taste that rich pork flavor you'd get from tonkotsu ramen, it was...bland and soul less. The pork slices were thick and tasty, although it wouldn't hurt if they also put some bean sprouts, menma, or kikurage instead of that sad looking mushroom. It's very out of place for a pork ramen. Maybe for vegetable or seafood ramen it will work, but for pork ramen, it's presence there is forced. They could also offer to add more green onions; or a little bit of minced garlic, in my opinion, would have added a bit more flavor and soul to the soup. The noodles are okay, soft, but still has that chewiness in it.

The pork ramen comes with the option of regular or spicy. But I think this shouldn't be offered as options. Instead they should put chili flakes on some shakers and let their customers decide if they want their ramen spicy or not.

The yuzu was nice, though, and the Japanese rice was indeed a Japanese rice, so it was money well spent. LOL!

The price point is reasonable. Was I disappointed? A little bit, seeing that this place has quite the high rating, my expectations were a bit higher. Will I eat here again? Maybe, if they put some changes in their ramen.

P.S. Even with three air-conditioning unit operating in their small space, the temperature is still a bit warm. Maybe they should clean those AC units or replace them with...

Every thing we ordered was made to perfection and each ingredient is in perfect harmony. I am taking off one star because: 1.) The Ramen was served first and the other dishes took ages to come to our table. Don’t get me wrong the food is excellent, but the expediting of the food from kitchen to table was not well executed. 2) Ramen are supposed to be served hot. But in our case, the broth is on the warmer side. 3) Lastly, please make it a standard to use cherry tomatoes onto you Kani Salad. Regular tomato is just too watery and doesn’t look that appetizing and also it doesn’t justify the price it looks cheap.

Room for improvement: 1.) Their service staff tends to get rattled when the resto is at full capacity. Tolerable for us that time because we’re not in a rush but I think Robata itself will benefit if their service staff receive more training and exposure. 2.) Special requests are difficult for them to accommodate. During my second visit, I requested to make my Tantanmen spicier since its not that spicy for my liking. I thought that since they agreed, they are able to accommodate it. Our order came and it was still the same as usual, not spicy at all. 3.) Lastly, please add Pork Tantanmen to your menu. I feel like Pork will be perfect for your Tantanmen broth.

Overall, Robata is worth to visit. Highly recommend. They may have negative points but still can...

Compared to its Davao counterpart, we could definitely say that this is the authentic Robata because the taste stands out!

I dined here together with my mother, sister, niece and nephew, and all of them liked the food very much compared to other Japanese restaurants that we went to. They really liked the Robata Roll, Skewer Platter and Buttered Shrimp in Truffle Ponzu. My mom specifically is a picky eater because she knows how to cook, so knowing that she really liked Robata means a lot. My niece and nephews rarely like restaurant food but they enjoyed their meal here so that was a delight.

As for me, I like the Tantanmen in this branch compared to Robata in Azuela Cove. The taste could not be more different like sweet and sour different.

Other than the food, I hope that they could improve their location cause we had to seat outside the restaurant because they can no longer accommodate five more persons and it was kind of sticky that day because...