Kyuramen x TBaar- UCF — Restaurant in Alafaya

Came here one day for lunch. Saw some great stuff on social media, so my interest was peaked. And then it got an honorary award in a local periodical I read, and I was sold. So we popped in with empty stomachs and went to work. Ambiance was out of bounds, man. Lanterns everywhere, paper walls, bamboo looking stuff, it was very reminiscent of Japan, which I was lucky enough to visit last March.

We got seated on a private little booth with curtains for privacy, very fun. Spices are on the table with cute little spoons. And if you need anything, there are buttons on the wall that call your server over to you. Very neat. Service was also great. Very nice folks who do a really good job at the omurice presentation.

As for the food, it's complicated. The menu items are diverse, varied, and different from your run-of-the-mill Japanese restaurant. The items would probably be five stars to someone who's never had them before, but compared to the gold standard, they were pretty ok. Not to knock anything they're doing here. I'm glad they're doing it.

I started off with a classic Thai Iced Tea. It was sweet, it had a little bite, it was served in a branded, trendy little glass cup. Very good.

We opened up with the Honeycomb Platter (Chilli Garlic Edamame, Lobster & Chashu Salad Ball, Tamago Egg, Shrimp Tempura, Eel Unagi, Scallops, Seaweed Salad). Edamame, good. Tamago egg was a lot of fun. Another brand upon it. This place markets so well. Delicious eel. Fun little scallops with that amazing sauce on them. These are all over Japan, and I ate about 2,000 of them.

One of the main events we had was the Tonkatsu Omurice (Fluffy omelet egg and Pork Tonkatsu on top of chicken fried rice, topped with your choice of Curry Sauce or Demi Glace). This was wow, so fun. Perfect texture to the egg, cooked juuust enough, slathered in that amazing curry sauce. Rice was ok, but it was definitely needed here. I really recommend this dish.

Another app we ordered was the Yakitori Platter (Negima (Chicken Thigh w. Leek), Gyu Harami (Beef Skirt), Butabara (Pork Belly), Baby Scallop and Zucchini). Everything was good here. This was a five star dish. Please get this. Especially those scallops. So good.

We felt frisky, so we ordered a couple more items, including the Eel Avocado Rice Burger (Eel, Cucumber, Avocado, Eel Sauce). This was a lot of style, but not a lot of substance. The rice was not a good vehicle for the eels and avocado, slipping sliding everywhere. And it was just so bland. The eel was good, though. I will eat pounds of this eel.

We had just a little more room, so we finished off with the Okonomiyaki (Japanese Style pan-fried pancake topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, bonito flakes (katsuobushi), dried green seaweed (aonori)). This was not a good okonomiyaki. I recommend you skip this.

Overall, I was very happy with my visit here. Some things can definitely be improved, but some things are definitely perfect. I will come back after my requisite five year waiting period and see how they are...

4/9/24: My friends treated my birthday lunch here and the quality has changed. The fried purple sweet potato wasn't fully loaded and tasted over-fried. The fried potato shrimp is now filled with cheap imitation seafood filling instead of real shrimp. I will not be coming back. If quality is not kept up, then it's just a waste of money.

3/6/24: I meant to take my kids to Ice and Bites next door but we stumbled upon Kyuramen. I didn't know they have a location here. So in we went. It's one of the Japanese restaurant I have always wanted to visit in Georgia and Texas and now so glad they have a location so close to home. The kids (and I) got so excited to be able to sit inside the "honeycomb".

We ordered the following: Takoyaki Octopus Balls $8.99 I love it. It's now one of our preferred places for Takoyaki. There's actually an obvious big piece of octopus inside when we bite into the Takoyaki. The texture overall has that thin layer of crispness follow by the softness of the inside then hit with a slight chewiness of the octopus piece.

Fried Potato Shrimp $8.49 I was kinda hesitant to order this appetizer since the server confirmed it's just made with shrimp and regular potatoes. But oh glad I did have it a fry. The potato wrapped around the shrimp was shredded into a thin noodle string wrapped around the shrimp so when it's deep fried, it gives the fried shrimp and extra crunchiness. I like the the texture when I bite into this fried shrimp appetizer.

Purple Sweet Potato Fries $7.49 I hardly comliment french fries. But wow! These fries were just perfect for the ideal fries I would happily put my money for. The fries has a thin crispy layer of tempura batter, and I mean very thin, just enough to give it that crunchy tecture. What I love about these fries is how they feel fried it with the crispiness on the inside without having that greasy oil seeped into the fries like so so many other places deep fry their fries. I HIGHLY recommend trying their purple sweet potato fries.

Sapporo Miso Ramen Non-spicy, my kids and I enjoyed this bowl of ramen noodle. I love the bouncy chewy texture of the ramen noodle here.

Matcha Pudding with Red Bean This came with the combo. It was different, a refreshing dessert that is definitely light on the sugar with a strong matcha flavor. My daughter and I was so happy when that little man took a nibble and said he doesn't like it. Good, that just means one less person to share the dessert with. 😂

Thai tea

Passion Fruit Tea Loaded with lots of fresh fruit and real passion fruit flavor

Chicken Bao This came with the combo I ordered. Sorry. I can't review this. We were all so stuffed to even take another bite after eating...

I went here with my brother and we were blown away by the design. I wanted to try one of the honeycomb tables but we opted for a private booth

I dig the choice. To be out in the open, traditional seating, and private seating.

As for food, I'd rate it first.

Pan fried gyoza Omurice Match Tiramisu Ying yang Ramen bowl Prok belly skewer.

The pan fried gyoza was rather nice. Different from fried, they kept the bottom of the pan which heal a lot of flavor. Soft and easy to take your time to.rrally enjoy the flavor. The best tasting dish there.

Omurice was good. In fact, it's nice to see a unique item I don't normally see on menus anywhere. I am a little disappointed by the amount of rice. More so the omelet was great, but it spread out on the plate well past the rice. It didn't give you as much to really have a good mix. It felt more 3:1. That is just a personal choice, had I known I'd have asked for more rice to eat with it. We also ordered the pork cutlet with it. However, it looked larger on the picture, comparatively it looks like about the size of the omlete, where as what we got was maybe 4-5 bites about half the size of the dish itself.

Matcha Tiramisu was rather good. But we had a couple issues, eating out of the wooden box they give you is a little difficult with a spoon. I kind of wish they gave a square spoon to easier eat it.

As for the Ramen, it was a little bit bland in my opinion. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. It would've been nice if the staff spent a little time to explain there was spices at the end of the table to use with the Ramen. The only one I recognized is cayenne. It took a little experimenting to figure out what was what. I'm not against it but it didn't seem that great either. The spices definitely made it more palatable.

Lastly the pork skewer was disappointing. At first bite, it was a very fatty piece. I tried again, but it really needed to cook more or have some salt or something to cut through the fat. Honestly it was the least liked dish we had tried.

Ultimately, the dishes did have some flaws. But the staff did check on us frequently. They did spend time to explain a few things. The presentation with the Omurice was fantastic.

I think the only qualms I really have is just the entrance going by a Boba bar is a little odd, the food could be better with instruction and portion sizing. Honestly I'd go back just because the ambience is really nice. But it is a lot to work to get there.

It's all something to ponder. I got to try omurice so I believe I hit my bucket list item. But I don't believe there was anything else other than esthetics that would...