Kyuramen x TBaar - Downtown Chicago — Restaurant in Chicago

One of the worst experiences I had in a restaurant for a long time. I don’t normally give 1 stars but this place earned it. My wife and I were on a small getaway in downtown Chicago and we thought we can try out this place before we catch our train back home. Restaurant opens at 11:00 and we were there 10:55, second customer to arrive. Our waiter came to our table and since we already knew what we want, I place our whole order right away and I told him we are in a hurry so we can catch our train. He did not write anything down but some people have great memory so I did not think much of it. When he brings our wrong drinks, he said he wants to double check on our order, and I repeat it back to him. Here is where the nightmare starts. We ordered 3 appetizers, omelette rice and Tonkotsu shouyu ramen. We were excited to see other waiters serving ramen to other tables but 20 minutes later, not one dish was served to our table. We mentioned it to our hostess because our waiter was not around and still nothing. Finally our waiter came around and I was already very irritated and told him none of our dishes was here and we are trying to catch a train. Later even the manager came over explaining there are some equipment issues and they are trying to work on our order. At this time, there were at least 8-10 tables of customers and all of them have their ramens, how come their orders are fine and not ours? Around 11:40 is when our first appetizer was served and after all this, they still forgot our ramen after they served everything. Both the manager and waiter apologized but not because they made a mistake but blame it on the equipment. I do want to mention they took off 50%, but I told them they don’t need to and just hurry with our food. Finally about the taste, fried squid batter were too thick, popcorn chicken and omelets rice with Demi glazed sauce were too blend. Only the ramen and pork bun were OK. After this, I won’t come back again but I hope they better train...

After all of these years traveling and living in Japan and have been exposed to all of the different regional cuisines in the country, especially ramen, I can say that I have never had very good experiences at Chinese owned Japanese restaurants anywhere, nor Japanese owned Chinese restaurants. So when I learned that Gary Lin is opening up a Ramen joint in Chi-town, I waited until after the hype died down. Here are the pluses, great decor, roomy, they definitely put some thoughts into those wooden cubicles on the wall. The private stalls in the back have a nice Japanese touch in case there are business dealings. Service was lightning fast, I think the food started too pile up before the server took the order and went down stairs. Food were served at the right temp. The pork bao was ok, the spicy mayo was a good spin on the traditional item, tender pork. The takoyaki was on point, plenty of octopus in it, not very doughy. They sold out of the Okonomiyaki, I could've had a field day with that. The Ramen noodles were perfect, soft boil eggs, and the surprisingly tender Tonkatsu was awesome. Now the downers, the rice omelette was not ok, at all. While the egg was acceptable, the fried rice was not. The traditional fried rice in the omelet should be done with some colorful veggies or sometimes with some small chunks of meat or sausage and cheese, and most importantly, ketchup!!! The coloring gives the contrast to the egg and the glaze/curry. But the fried rice here is just some brown sauce stirfry. The only thing they got right was the butter. The biggest disappointment was the curry sauce, on the omelette and in the Ramen, unexpectedly bland. Not in terms of saltiness but flavor. Now I wonder what the soup base tastes like. Next time I will try the Tonkatsu or the Soy Sauce base Ramen and see. I will not try the Miso, nobody does it better than Misoya in the Chicago area for traditional Miso...

I’ve bee to Kyurman in River North twice now, and both times had an excellent experience. First, they have a great selection of Japanese food other than ramen. In Chicago, it’s hard to find Japanese food outside of Sushi, ramen and few assorted appetizers like gozya and takoyaki, but Kyurman has many other Japanese dishes. For example, I love that they have omurice. I will admit, I don’t have a frame of reference for good omurice, but the time I had it at Kyurman, I liked it. Second, the food is delicious. On my most recent trip, my wife and I ordered curry ramen with Kastu tonkatsu (Japanese curry, katsu and curry ramen are other harder to find Japanese dishes in Chicago), Sapporo Miso Ramen, two pork boa, brown sugar boba, shrimp tempura and match pudding with red bean. I loved the curry ramen and the katsu was crispy and delicious. The rest of the food was excellent, but the other highlight of the night was the shrimp tempura. It was fried perfectly, and despite sitting on our table for a while before we ate it, it was still crispy. I also so recommend the brown sugar boba. Be warned, however, is very sweet. If you don’t like sweet things, this is not for you. The decor and atmosphere is amazing. I’ve never seen anything like the decor at this restaurant. From the ema hanging on the tree in back to the honeycomb booths stacked on the wall, the decor is super fun and totally marveling at it is worth the trip alone. My wife and I sat on the top level of the honeycomb booths and loved the bird’s eye view of the restaurant. Third, the service is amazing. Our waitress was fast and responsive. You should take note of the buzzer system to call the waitstaff. This a way of calling your server that is relatively common in Japan, but not here in US. So, understand this is the way to get the attention of your server.

In sum, this is a fun and must visit ramen...