Darumaya — Restaurant in Banning

This place is almost like a "secret find" in that it is so good yet almost invisible. Tucked in to an otherwise non-descript shopping mall that caters to several nearby "gated, secure senior housing" developments, Darumaya is tiny but delicious. The dining area has only about eight tables. It appears that they have a robust take-out trade. The service is quite good: Accurate, prompt, and deferential. But, the star of the show is the food. It is marvelous. I am not a habitual Japanese cuisine fan -- the appeal of raw fish is beyond me. But, as indicated in several of my other reviews, I eat fish every Friday, so I am always on the look out for those good sources of Omega-3's. I found an ideal candidate in Darumaya's Teriyaki Salmon plate (see my photo). The fish comes in a generous portion, very hot, perfectly cooked throughout, drizzled with luscious Teriyaki sauce, and garnished with chopped green onion. It is accompanied by steamed white rice and a scrumptious mix of field greens with chopped tomato, covered in a delicate white dressing. I also order the vegetable tempura appetizer, which is supposed to serve several, but it is so good that I polish the whole thing off by myself. The veggies are served with a bowl of broth for dipping and I like to infuse the rice with soy sauce. Last time, they served me a bowl of miso soup that I did not request and for which I was not charged -- go figure. To top it off, they end the meal with a complementary single scoop of ice cream (their choice of flavor). All this for Fifteen Bucks -- You cannot beat it! This place is a gem and I highly...

We ordered 2 pork ramen bowls- #1 and #2, and ordered extra meat. #3 pork ramen has vegetables. But Both ramen bowls came back looking alike with beef! Not pork! No vegetables!

I told the lady we ordered the pork ramen #1 and #3 ..she responded with "What do you want me to do about it?"

Shocked that she responded that way I replied uhh can we get what we ordered? Then she continued with "oh! We ran out of pork"

Wondering why I EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN I told her that she should have just told us but instead she lied and tricked us. Some people can't have certain meats and giving them what they can't eat behind their backs is unacceptable, scary service! Just because you have 4.5 stars does not give you guys a reason to fool customers that way. They must think their customers are idiots who cant tell the difference between pork and beef.

Didn't eat the meat and of course we still paid for our food like civilized people.

Not coming back...

We decided to try this place out rather than drive to Redlands. I got the chicken ramen and he got the chicken miso. The server was very nice and answered questions and was happy to explain the menu. I thought the broth was great but the noodles were a little heavy but itherwise the soup was tasty. However it was hard for my boyfriend to get the spice level up on his miso ramen after even adding plenty of chili paste and Sriracha. For this he stated the place in redlands near sprouts was better. Would be great if they had a spicy option for their ramen besides Sriracha and chili paste. For me the only other thing that would have made it better would be some other add ins and a change in noodles. Otherwise i recommend giving this place a shot. The sushi looked good although we didnt try any. Portion size was great and with tip and 1 soda and 1 water we were out the door for 30 bucks. I would...