Kurobuta-Ramen & Katsu — Restaurant in Carrollton

Have now been twice to this place. Really wanted to like this place as it is close to my new house but both experiences were pretty lackluster. I saw the owner has been replying to other reviews saying their service and kitchen staff have improved. This was not our experience as of 07/17/19.

Greeting: The first time we came was for lunch - the restaurant was not very busy (~25% full) and we were standing around for a couple of minutes before anyone greeted us. The second time we came was for dinner - the restaurant was very busy (~90% full) but this time we were greeted immediately by the owner.

Food: The tonkotsu entree here is actually really good. The pork was pretty juicy, well-seasoned, and their tonkotsu sauce is great. The side salad was also good. I thought the Udon combo add-on was pretty "meh" though The curry sauce is really lackluster and is not worth the $2 addition. The consistency is not thick enough to stick onto your tonkotsu properly and it lacked any kind of flavor. Additionally, the curry is not poured onto the tonkotsu but is served as a side dipping sauce. The sweet chili wings we got as an appetizer were also really not great. The flavor you select comes as a dipping sauce and not a marinade for the wings themselves. The wings we received were pretty dry. The ramen is OK but nothing to write home about. There are a lot of better ramen places nearby.

Service: The waitstaff were well-meaning enough but honestly this place is significantly understaffed. For the dinner rush there were only two servers working as combo greeters/waiters/busboys, and this showed in the lack of attention paid to customers. In both visits, the food itself took a really long time to come out (30+ minutes). When we ordered wings as an appetizer they actually came out AFTER our entrees. This is likely attributed to a lack of kitchen staff similar to a lack of service staff. Our water was consistently empty and we had to ask several times for them to refill it. The waitstaff never checked on us during our meal or asked if we needed anything. We actually didn't even know where the utensils/napkins were and were not told by any waitstaff until we saw a nearby table open the tray connected to the table itself. When the check came we asked for a take-away box for our leftovers which was never given, I eventually manually just grabbed one.

Overall: If you stick to the tonkotsu you won't be disappointed by the food, but the service and food delivery here is agonizingly slow due to being severely understaffed. If the owner reads this PLEASE HIRE MORE STAFF. 1 Star for overall disappointing experience, extra star for great tonkotsu. Next time I will go to Munchiez next door which has never...

The portions are very generous and the prices are reasonable. I ordered the spicy tonkotsu ramen and the cheese katsu. The ramen was slightly salty but it was still incredibly delicious with the bouncy noodle texture and the soft boiled eggs. It came with 2 pieces of chashu and although they were not tender, the charred flavor of the pork really came through. The spiciness of the ramen was just hot enough and wasn't completely overwhelming. The cheese katsu came with 6 big pieces of pork filled with melted mozzarella cheese, tangy dipping sauce, a side salad with dressing, and a bowl of rice. The katsu was very crispy and the sauce complimented it very well although rice was not necessary. However, it is still nice that rice was complimentary and I felt that the rice went well with the creamy salad dressing that had a strong flavor. It is also nice that each entrée comes with a side of spicy pickled radish to cut down on the fattiness.

The service I had were incredibly accommodating and excellent too. The servers continuously checked on us throughout our meal and payment is made very easily through their handheld devices. The ramen came to my table very quickly (about 5-7 minutes) and the cheese katsu took 15 minutes, most likely because they prepared it fresh to order. Something small I liked as well is how the water we were given was in a tall glass bottle that we could refill ourselves and the napkins/chopsticks are held in a drawer attached to your table. There was not really much to say about the atmosphere because it felt like a standard rustic ramen shop. However, I didn't feel like this detracted from my experience because the food really shined and the décor of the place was kept simple. The only issue I really had was that the music playing while I was dining was a bit too loud and the prices on their website are outdated. Overall, I could see myself coming back for the simplicity. I definitely would come back to try their other ramen options because they had some interesting options like seafood ramen...

Overall Kurobuta is a fine establishment. I think I would go back, with some adjustments.

First with a positive. The cheese Tonkatsu is very good, I highly recommend this dish.

Now onto the fun stuff...

I made one specific request about a very simple food accommodation (no egg in my Ramen), and lo-and-behold my Ramen comes out with the egg's slapped right on the top. This was even after clarifying it with the server as he took down the order, in which I stated probably 2-3 times NO EGG.

My wife then placed an order for 2 cokes with the same server. We never received these cokes until flagging down a DIFFERENT server (because ours was very absent from the area we were sitting in), she promptly brought 2 canned cokes over within 60 seconds. At this point we were already midway through our food.

Based on these 2 misses, it really felt like the server just didn't care and/or wasn't paying attention. These are some very basic requests to be made and both were neglected.

The final point I have which was an extreme disappointment was the staggered delivery of our food. It was just 2 of us, my Wife and I, so naturally we want to enjoy our food together. My Ramen was delivered then we waited about 10 minutes for hers to show up, which showed up in a strange V-shaped bowl (not like a normal Ramen U), which caused it to overflow and spill onto my wife's lap as it was adjusted post being placed onto the table.

If I went back and these issues didn't repeat, i'd happily bump this review up to a 5-star as everything...