Yama Izakaya — Restaurant in Charlotte

Not a big fan of ramen but my sister and boyfriend really wanted to try it. I ordered the chicken ramen because The popular pork one never satisfy me no matter where I’ve tried it. I must say it was the best ramen I’ve ever had. It wasn’t super salty like the regular pork ramen. I tried my boyfriend’s pork broth and I’m glad I didn’t get it. It was salty like all the other ramen places. We also got the octopus balls and the squid. Octopus balls had good flavor but it was really really soggy. The squid was a little too fishy for me.

The appetizers does not affect my rating though. The reason why I’m giving it 2 stars is because the service was severally lacking. There were over 4 waitresses and waiters and it was NOT busy at all (3 other tables and two tables outside). Somehow I could never find my waitress and noone else came to check on us all though they were standing on the back of the wall just chit chatting. It took forever to get my waitress to come take our order. The food arrived quickly but after that she was gone again. I needed more water and she was no where to be seen. We finished our food completely and looked for our waitress to ask for the check. After that long wait, we had to wait some more for her to print out the check. I laid down my credit card and she took it and went MIA again. We waited and waited for our receipt to sign. There was noone at the register. She just took my card and left it at the register. I know they know we were getting impatient. Can’t miss how my hair whips each time I look for our waitress. It takes longer to get out of here than to order and eat our food. This place has good ramen but only come here if you have more than 2...

I'm posting to give my take of the tonkotsu ramen, as someone who has visited Japan and eaten a LOT of it there. I finally went to Yama Izakaya yesterday because I had heard they had "authentic ramen." I've been disappointed by many other restaurants who make the claim, but have terrible ramen. Authentic tonkotsu ramen is one of the best foods I've ever eaten. It's the Japanese comfort food equivalent of the cheeseburger to an American. I'd recommend anyone to try it.

Back to Yama's tonkotsu (pork) ramen. Overall, I'd give it an 80-85 grade, relative to ramen you would get in Tokyo, or a city with a large Japanese population like LA or Seattle. It was solid ramen, although it didn't blow me away in the same way that it did in Japan. The flavor was there, the ingredients were all there, and were all done well. I'd personally prefer the broth to be creamier though. But different places make it differently. I even experienced this in Japan... that each restaurant made it a little different, sometimes more watery, sometimes thicker. I'll probably go back to have it again sometime. I'm glad somewhere in Charlotte actually does it reasonably well.

My only major drawback on it is that it's pretty dang expensive. I remember going to LA to have ramen, or even in Tokyo, and the price was around $8-10 tops. I think it was about $13 for the ramen without adding anything in addition (although it comes how you would expect it, but you can add more pork, etc). If the ramen was $8, I'd probably go there every day to have it. At $13, maybe once every couple weeks.

The restaurant itself was a cool place. Make sure you have a pint of Asahi beer with your Tonkotsu ramen. That's the only...

I see everyone posting about how good the Ramen is, so maybe I should have tried that. Seems hard to mess up Ramen, but whatever. Anywho...This is the second time I have visited as it is very close to my humble abode. The service from the standpoint of bringing you your food and taking your order is marginal, which is to say they at least do that but it is the attitude that is amazing. I realize we all don't have great days but at least smile and act as if you are interested. When you can't look at a child and smile taking their order, something is wrong. IMO. Then there is the guy at the door who was on the phone when we walked out. Maybe a "Thanks for paying double the price and come again soon" would have sufficed. Just oblivious to what it means to run/work at a restaurant. The owner should hand out Paxil or something for goodness sakes.

You should not pay $50 for an adult and 2 kids and be hungry afterwards. The Salmon Nigiri I ordered looked like a cat had clawed it to pieces in the back(leaving remnants after it was full). I could have counted the individual flakes of rice it was placed on as well. Then for the actual rolls we got, my gosh. They definitely could use coffee cup plates to put the rolls on. That is how small they were. Again, if you are going to bend people over on price at least make the food proportional to that price. Two thumbs down. Don't waste your time here, just head over to Sushi Guru. However, bring earplugs but the food...