Ima Noodles — Restaurant in Detroit

Disclaimer : before criticize this restaurant I'd like to point out that I have a relatively higher (or just different) standard about ramen than most of the American population would have. I have traveled to Japan several times and tasted many of renowned ramen restaurants in Tokyo, Hokkaido, and Fukuoka. Therefore my criticism is gonna be my very honest review about the foods I experienced from this place but soley based on the standard that surely is different from what average Detroit population would have.

Firstly I was very impressed by their improvisation of Japanese noodle culture, and how well the chef understands of umami taste. However I really should point out that the broth is using too much of dashi (possibly dried anchovy broth or seaweed broth or both) for their ramen noodle soup. Dashi components are amazing sources of umami yet when it's too much it's gonna overlap other flavours and eventually ruin the whole balance. For instance, I ordered tori paitan (literally means chicken broth white soup) but the whole soup was very overwhelmed by the smell and flavor from dashi. Even another noodle ordered by my wife had same overwhelming dashi taste. I am not American (but a legal alien) and I don't know what kind of taste an average American person would expect from Japanese noodle restaurants, but I can tell the noodles I had are not even close to what they are supposed to be, and that could've been the reason why this place wasn't populated with east Asian people. Tori paitan should taste more like tori paitan.

Second thing I want to point out is the cubed meats. Of course there is no correct answer for foods, and I believe this place had their own reason to cut those meats into cubic shape. But Japanese ramens are usually topped with thin slice of meats and one of the reason is thin slice of meat can mingle a lot better with noodles and broth than a cubic one. I guess American people never slurp and that is the one of the reason they don't really care about mingling of meat, broth, and noodles, but you guys should really try slurping when it comes to Japanese noodles! They are not spaghetti :D

Chicken Karaage was good!

Nevertheless, I was very impressed to try some sort of Americanized ramen noodles in...

Left my first Ima Midtown experience disappointed. I'm a huge fan of the Madison Heights location/menu (Corktown too but the space and menu are smaller). At Midtown I ordered the Fried Japanese Yam, Spicy Tuna w/ Taro Chips, Spicy Karaage Fried Chicken, Yaki Butter Udon, and Spicy Tori Ramen. The new appetizers were fantastic and a good addition to the menu. The sandwich had excellent flavor but the way they decided to plate the protein was really odd. The sandwich had two very small cuts of chicken thigh fried. If I had to guess I'd say each piece of chicken was roughly 2-3oz of meat. Even though the sandwich had great flavor neither I or my fiancee enjoyed eating it as there was too much cabbage/slaw compared to chicken, and because the chicken was served in two small pieces one piece kept wanting to fall out of the brioche roll each time we took a bite. Again, excellent flavor, but overall a disappointing chicken sandwich, especially for $11. The Better Made chips served with the sandwich seemed entirely out of place as well so we just tossed the bag of chips. Moving on to the noodles, the Yaki Butter Udon was fantastic and probably our favorite course of the night. I'm a huge fan of the Spicy Pork Udon from the Madison Heights location so I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the pan-fried Udon without broth but it was delightful. Lastly, the Spicy Tori Ramen was just alright... it REALLY fell short of the Spicy Tori Ramen served at Madison Heights. Maybe it was the worker that assembled our bowl, maybe it's the small tweak in ingredients (no Koji-Kombu, no Ginger-Garlic Oil) but the flavor was just off. Also, the Ginger Beef is completely different from the Madison Heights location which was very sad to see. I'm sure the Midtown location will do well, but I don't plan on returning as it's a step in the wrong direction from the excellence being served in...

Tried Ima for the first time after being curious for months about Japanese style ramen. First of all our server showed little to no interest until he learned we were first timers. He switched gears by attempting to “explain” the menu, which we didn’t need because we were ready to order. It felt forced and unnecessary (working for his tips I guess). Even with 1 hour till closing, the food was presented nicely but looked crammed into the bowls and the karrage chicken was good but didn’t taste much different from home fried chicken and the portion was NOT worth the price. My bf and I ordered the tori ramen with chicken after the waiter suggested we change our original plan from shoyu. I wish I would’ve listened to my original plan instead of his suggestion. The waiting time wasn’t bad, food came out hot at least. The bowls looked very packed and crammed with ingredients that imparted no flavor to the ramen. The noodles were like the .50$ packs in the grocery store and sorta stuck to the bottom of the bowl and each other (noodle globs). The soft egg was more raw than soft boiled, the yolk was way too runny. Out of the whole experience, the broth was the worst. Granted I didn’t have much to compare it to but I’ve been cooking/baking for 20 years and I know about the complexities of homemade soups and stocks...THIS WASN’T IT!!!! Every bite tasted like there was way too much dashi. Mouth full of sea water is what it tasted like. With all that being said this was our first and last time trying them. We ate our food because there was no way the money was going to waste, it’s not authentic but a decent fusion style spot. For the price and portions, this was a terrible experience for the both of us. NEVER AGAIN.....it wasn’t...