Jinme Ramen & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Auburn

Jinme is always good. Definitely the best fresh sashimi in the area. Their Ramen is also excellent. Great covered outside seating and digs are welcome. We go out to eat a lot and probably a third of the time it is Jinme.

Updated 6/4/2024

We've been coming here on average twice a month or so for the last many years. They have a good selection of ramen, Korean specialties and Sushi/Sashimi. My wife is vegetarian and their selection for her is quite decent given the many tasty tofu options. In general I would say that their Ramen is excellent as is their Sashimi. I find that their sushi rolls have entirely too much rice. The fish has always been excellent quality in my experience. 3 stars is a very bad review from me, particularly for a place whose food is otherwise very good. We were there a couple of days ago on Tuesday. We sat outside because we almost always have our extremely well behaved mini Aussie with us. We have been there often enough that he is well known by much of the staff. Part of the reason we choose this place is that they enclosed and started conditioning the patio with some minisplits mounted in the patio area. They have stopped doing that and took down some of the clear sheathing that had enclosed the patio. That's understandable since it must have cost quite a bit to keep doing that with no insulation to speak of. The reason for the bad review is that service was terrible. They tend to be slow with drinks anyhow, but it was worse than usual, and the server got the order wrong. We were the only ones sitting out at the patio given how hot it was, so perhaps that was part of it. I had to go inside to order my second beer. Our water glasses were empty. We had to go and grab a water bowl for our dog and had to fill from our glasses. Our server informed us that our dog couldn't sit on the chair. I am sure this is a California regulation and I wouldn't have cared except that that has never been an issue here, and as I mentioned the patio was completely empty, so it just seemed petty. Not unique to this visit but they always ask if you want ginger and wasabi, OR, sometimes they forget it. To be clear, YES, I ALWAYS want ginger and wasabi with my sashimi. I am pretty sure that is not unique to me. Generally this place uses the method where a server will take your order and someone else will deliver the items. I HATE that. Contact with the server is when I can place additional orders. It's a false economy on their part. Because of the poor service, I ended up tipping 10% I literally can't remember the last time I did that. Years for sure, likely well over a decade. Again, I recommend their food highly except for the sushi rolls. Those aren't "bad" just way too...

This is a tough one to write. I think the management of this restaurant are not doing their jobs. They certainly don't appear to be taking care of staff.

Here's why I think this.

First the lady behind the counter was wonderful and kind. She really tried to be helpful. If I received food or even a manager in a timely manner I wouldn't be writing this review.

I wanted to save some money so I drove to Jinme to order food. Unfortunately there was some sort of problem and tons of door dash orders got placed in front of mine. I paid via my card.

After waiting 35 minutes in the restaurant I checked on my order. They didn't know when they would be able to get it and prioritized door dash orders instead. So here am I sitting in their lobby for 35 minutes and have no idea when/if I will get food.

I ask for a refund. Their first offer is a gift card. Honestly at this point I'm starving and I can tell they are all stressed out. I ask her to have the manager refund me because at this point I just want to go somewhere I can actually get food. I'm polite and kind. I don't want to worsen anyone's day.

Finally after another 6ish minutes she refunds me cash and the manager wages to say sorry on the way out.

Over 40 minutes of my life just completely wasted (not even counting drive time) and I could barely get a refund.

Now I'm also frustrated and hungry and just wanted some ramen because my throats been sore.

I'd be very cautious about going to this restaurant. It would have been a different experience if they had tried to make it right. But they didn't. Now I have cash I don't want and I'm off to hunt for some other food.

Hopefully the next experience is better.

Management team, you need to have a crisis management plan. You need to prioritize orders that come in before door dash orders, before door dash orders. And in the future if this happens again, ask if you can make the ramen on the spot. I would have waited a bit longer if I had any sort of idea if I would even get food but I had nothing except the idea that you got more door dash orders that came in long after me and were...

If I could give this place zero stars, I would. I live locally and have tried to like this place so many times... I won't ever eat here again. The last time my partner and I dined there, we waited 15-20 min for our server to approach the table (young blonde woman). When our server did arrive, she didn't greet us, no smile, asked us 'what we wanted.' Now I get that everyone has bad days, but the same server was previously at another table near ours where she was smiling, laughing, friendly. Not sure what the issue was when she got to our table, but she was not friendly at all. She briskly took our order, and then we literally never saw her again. Never checked back in with us--in fact no one did. I had to flag someone down for utensils, plates, and wasabi after our food arrived. Food took a while, which was surprising cause there were like 4 other tables in there. Edamame arrived and was still super hard, like it hadn't been cooked. My partner's ramen was absolutely flavorless, with zero umami flavor. It seemed like it was just cloudy water broth, not tonkatsu pork broth. My roll has the texture of glue, since the rice was very old and overcooked. I couldn't even get past two pieces. The roll was also not cut all the way through so the roll got pretty destroyed as I was trying to eat it. This has been a common theme with their rolls since they opened. I don't think I've ever received a roll from them that was cut all the way through. The piece of hamachi nigiri I also ordered was SO FISHY. Like bad bad fishy. Couldn't put it in my mouth. So incredibly disappointing. Prices are outrageous for the experience provided. There are too many other sushi restaurants that serve better ramen, have a better attitude, and serve fresher fish. Hard pass on this place. I hope they read this and DO BETTER...