IKKO Japanese Ramen and Sushi — Restaurant in Birmingham

I pulled a non-Karen today and asked for the manager. I explained to her how amazed I was at their food and how utterly fantastic it is.

I ordered an unagi poke bowl and a salmon Maki roll via GrubHub, then I went there in person and ordered the unagidon and salmon roll, and today I ordered the steak teppanyaki, salad, seaweed salad (OMG - seriously? BEST I'VE EVER HAD), and got the tonkotsu ramen with menma.

She remembered me from my order today and when I was there last week.

Let's talk about the salmon roll - absolutely fresh and filled with thick pieces of salmon and perfectly cooked sushi rice. The rice was a compliment rather than the main to the roll.

The steak? Chef's kiss. perfectly seasoned and tender with amazing veggies. Serving size? Goodness, well deserved of the price.

The seaweed salad? OMG. usually, I'll get a teensy bit for the same price. Here, you get a good chunk of it but it's served over romaine lettuce with chopped cucumbers. It's definitely a true salad.

Now, let's talk about the tonkotsu. The chasu pork is seared perfectly and absolutely delectable. It's also served with green onions, an excellent half of a shoyu egg, and I added menma (bamboo shoots). The broth is excellent and you can tell it has been carefully taken care of (a tad garlicky, but that's fine with me), silky, and says "I'm your comfort food" over and over again.

Lastly, the service shows how much they care about their food and their customers. Like I said, I pulled a Non-Karen and spoke to the manager and sang praises for their food and service.

I now have my favorite Japanese spot now that I'm back in Birmingham.

PS. their unagidon is...

I have got to say, this was a disappointing experience. Met a friend at Ikko for lunch at 1 and have only just now left (3:10). Initially placed our order with a very apathetic female server after being asked (rushed) several times. Food came quickly and we chowed down. Very tasty poke bowls... the only positive to this experience. I finished my food quickly and wanted to order a boba tea. Our server never returned. A different server later came to ask if we were ready for our checks.....ummm, I guess, sorta wanted to order a bubble tea. Ok, he goes to check on my flavor and brings me popping bobas to taste. Great, I plan on ordering it when he returns....which he never does. So a third server finally comes over and says, have you gotten your checks? What the heck? No, but I have been trying to order a drink for the last 10 min. She says, "oh, I'm so sorry. The server that was waiting on you went on break, she didn't tell us; she has done this before." Ok, so I basically say, forget the drink if it hasn't been added to my ticket so far and let me talk to the manager. Manager comes over all apologetic, "so sorry, we are new, your server had an hour lunch break, the other servers are supposed to fill in, blah blah blah." I explain the there was clearly no communication from the first server to the other two for them to fill in.

TL;DR: this place has tasty food, but management and communication between the team members NEEDS MAJOR WORK. May try again, but it will definitely not be...

Ok I have never written a review on a restaurant but I really felt that I needed to share my experiences with this restaurant. Now before I start I must say that the food here is good because honestly that is the lone reason that I came back. However, the customer service is by far the worst I have ever experienced hence why I am writing this review. My first experience when I came with my girlfriend everything was fine. However my second experience when I came alone for the first time they took my order but I guess never put it in as I waited for over an hour just to have the waitress approach me and take my order again. Now at the time I thought it was just a mistake and though it has never happened to me it’s still not a big deal and I got my food and went about my day. Now today was a completely as I was completely ignored and a was skipped when it came to seating. After I had Waited in line for about 20 min I finally got to the front only to skipped for a group of three behind me. I was only trying to get seated for the single person seating in the back but I was completely ignored my 3 different hosts and mind you I’m 6 foot 6 and 300+ pounds so I’m not an easy miss and for the entire time while I waited in the front of the line to be seated I was completely ignored until I got sick of...