Taro — Restaurant in Houston

[Original review September 2021] Service was excellent and food was delicious!

Went here for lunch on a Sunday. Our waiter, Tiger, was friendly, attentive, and thoughtful. It was our first restaurant outing with our 7 week old baby, and Tiger and the other the wait staff made it go so smoothly, setting up a space for the car seat, even making sure my food was hot after I took a break to nurse the baby.

We ordered the Taro Special #1 and the Tonkatsu Original. Both were good! The meat was cooked well, the flavor was good. One note: I don't think the taro special #1 was advertised as spicy but it was just a tiny bit spicy. We also tried the sweet potato creme brulee and it was just the right amount of sweetness.

Overall I'm really glad for a good ramen place so close by! I'll definitely be back.

UPDATE April 2024: 2.5 years later, Taro has seen a lot of changes. We had been many times and gotten to know the wait staff and gotten to see their menu evolve with some really unique and delicious dishes. Recently though, a lot of the wait staff have turned over and the menu has changed as well. The service is still excellent, the food quality is still good, but it's noticeably different. The unique dishes are gone, and what remains are somewhat typical "Japanese restaurant in America" dishes. They added an AYCE option where you order off the menu. I believe they're trying to add a Japanese BBQ option soon as well. We will probably still eat there from time to time but we have not been going back as...

Aesthetically, this restaurant is really pretty! It's like a hidden gem. Not sure how long they have been there but I've never seen it the few times I'm in the complex. They have tables and booths.

Service was good. Our waiter checked on us multiple times.

FOOD AND DRINK: They have all you can eat for $30.99 per adult.

For drinks, we ordered house sake and a lemon drop. The sake was served at room temperature. The lemon drop was very good. Not sweet or too strong, but a good balance.

The taro ramen lacked flavor and was warm, not hot. I was told it's usually full of flavor and steaming hot.

The Rock shrimp was mildly crispy and good flavor. Served very warm too.

The golf sushi roll was good. It was 8-10 pieces. Deep fried Shrimp tempura with cream cheese and jalapeno.

The pork gyoza was ok. Could use more flavor.

For dessert, we shared the vanilla Ice cream and shrimp tempura oreo, which surprisingly good. The oreo was deep fried and had chocolate drizzing on top which a small side of whipping cream and a cherry. The ice cream was 1 or 2 scoops.

Ratings: House Sake - 3/5 Rock shrimp - 5/5 Taro ramen - 3/5 Golf roll - 4.5/5 Lemon martini - 5/5 Gyoza pork - 3/5 Vanilla Ice cream and shrimp tempura oreo - 5/5

I will definitely return back to try other ramen options...

Update: We came back here a couple weeks later to find that the menu had been changed dramatically. The dishes we enjoyed were either removed or changed/restricted. The prices on everything went up a pretty significant amount, and they removed the option to add rice+salad+miso soup to any dish for $3, which was one of the things we really liked. Since the part of the menu we liked had been mutilated, we all tried different ramen bowls and were all disappointed. For the price, there are many better ramen options. Also, the receipt discreetly added an 18% gratuity to our receipts for being a party of 7. For what it’s worth, the staff were still very friendly.

Really bummed because we were so happy with our experience last time we came and were looking forward to this being a regular place for us.

Original review: Wish I had come here sooner! The atmosphere is contemporary and upscale but still casual and friendly. Our server, Phong, was incredible - very attentive, knowledgeable, and friendly. His service was fantastic. The food is very reasonably priced; I had the curry with chicken cutlet, miso soup, and house salad and it was like $15. And everything was really good! Also, the location is convenient and close to the medical center. Will DEFINITELY be coming back here...