Tsujita Artisan Noodle Westchase — Restaurant in Houston

They were hosting an event for October and November that my son wanted to attend. They were offering special character themed dishes and drinks on certain days, and throughout the event some collectibles for purchase. We were greated by several employees around the restaurant welcoming us all at once wich is nice, but you couldn't hear or understand some, so it just sounded scrambled. A server came to the door and asked how many in our party, asked us to wait a second so he could clear off a table for us, and was back in a second. He proceeded to seat us at a nicely cleaned off table, and someone else brought a small tray with napkins, spoons and chopsticks for all of us. We looked over the menu to see what was available, and settled on Calamari and Takoyaki as appetizers. The appetizers came out quickly. You get 4 octopus balls swimming in sauce. Nice and hot and tasted good, except for the overabundance of sauce. The Calamari was super tiny, the images show it with what looks like a lime half, but don't be mistaken, it is a tiny little key lime with no juice. Very disappointed in the size of the Calamari for $10.95, but not just the portion size which looks to be 2 table spoons, but the size, like little baby squids the size of the tip of my pinky. We then were made aware by our server, that they will not carry some of the promotional items, and the ones that they will have will be made available mid November towards the end of the promotion, so my son was disappointed he could not get a collectable. Really the only reason we decided to dine at this place, but we were already here, so we decided to follow through. We ordered the rest of our food, one 3 piece Tsujita buns, one regular size Chicken Ramen bowl, one Chashu Pork Belly bowl, and one Pork Katsu Don. After 10 min they brought out the 3 piece Tsujita buns. 6 minutes after that they brought the Pork Belly rice bowl, 14 min after that they brought out the Pork Katsu Don, and 20 min after that they brought out the Chicken Ramen bowl. If you are keeping track, the ramen took 50 min. The 3 piece Tsujita buns were good. It was comprised of one karaage chicken which tasted good, one pulled pork which was mid, and one fried shrimp, which tasted like egg salad. The Chashu Pork Belly bowl was a dud. It was literally a bowl of rice with boiled pork Belly topped with green onions, nothing else. Rice and pork were very dry. The Pork Katsu Don was mid. I've had better at japanese convenience stores. Pork breading was falling apart, egg was over cooked, and rice was bland. Now for the star of the show. The Chicken Ramen bowl, yes the 50 minute chicken ramen bowl. The noodles were good, the menma was sweet and delicious, the egg was cooked beautifully, the chicken broth was hot and tasty, but the chicken tasted under cooked even though it looked fully cooked and as an added bonus the hairs in the bowl with the root still attached. Yes there was hair in the soup. Looked like a fresh plucked eyebrow or nose hair. Not just one, but two, yes two. The server took it away, and asked if we wanted a new one. First, I didn't want any more hair in my food. Second, I didn't want to wait another 50 minutes for food. The server was nice, and did his job well. They removed the ramen from our bill, but still yuck. Server apologized, but this wasn't his fault, this is when the manager should have stepped in, but they did not. Would not recommend, may give them a second chance in the future, but the whole ordeal was just...

dust off Google Maps account

Tsujita Artisan Noodle has the most technically-correct advertisement I've ever seen from a restaurant. It has artisan noodle alright, but the artisan is too pre-occupied with making noodles to do literally anything else.

First off, let's give credit where credit is due. The ramen noodle is beautifully cut and delightfully al dente, while soaking up the broth in the tsukemen set pretty well without losing its consistency. Some of the best noodles around. The tsukemen broth was also fine. Savory stuff with no obvious things to complain about.

The miso broth on my friend's ramen, on the other hand... tasted straight up like peanut butter.

And no, I don't joke.

It's good for them that we were East Asians and hence don't do allergies, but it could've gone very South if somebody ordered the miso ramen thinking it would be made of soybeans like any reasonable miso would be. At least you can be confident it's homemade, because this home seems to have used the wrong beans altogether. Soybeans are one of the top U.S. exports. Factories ain't gonna let that fly!

As is customary with Japanese cuisine, we had some appetizers and they were mostly pretty good. The fried tofu was light, crispy, interesting, and EXTRA HOT (as in, the temperature. Japanese places don't really do spicy unless you go to a challenge ramen thing which Tsujita is just not). The toumoro corn was presented in a "corn rib" form which annoyed me a little bit, but otherwise pretty nice. The calamari was firm and crunchy and was the high point of our dinner before we went to the 99 Ranch nearby and saw that exact form of calamari in a frozen package without batter.

But one thing I've got to complain about is the dadgum mayo they keep spraying on everything that reeks of cheap apple cider vinegar or whatever it is that Heinz loves to put on their mass-produced stuff. Guys. You literally buy calamari from a 99 Ranch. The good Kewpie mayo was RIGHT. THERE!!!

The calamari tasted better without the sauce. Much better.

Anyway, back to the thing that matters which is the tsukemen set. My deluxe tsukemen came with a good helping of nori, ramen egg, negi, and menma, with Taiwanese pork belly, deli meat, and pulled pork comprising the proteins. read menu Oh sorry, I meant chashu, pork shoulder, and pulled pork.

Texas just can't ribbing resist, huh?

There was also some braised beef in the wari (broth). What is this?!

(And no. I didn't think I'd have to spell this out, but BBQ pulled pork and ramen do NOT go together.)

Other than that, it was alright. The usual ramen fixings weren't anything too exciting. Menma was a bit cold.

The one thing that broke my heart the most, though. The one unforgivable thing. It's the rushed, unenthusiastic East Asian style serv-

No. Who cares about service?! The collab ended 3 weeks ago! Why did you have to tease me with a giant picture of Amelia as I was coming in?! Why did I have to eat pulled pork and ramen with posters that say "Orange Soda" and "Boba Milk Tea" right over my head? WHY DID YOU STAND IN FRONT OF ME WITH THE ENTIRE BACK OF YOUR SHIRT PROMOTING HOLOLIVE MYTH?!!! Have you any idea how hard it was to keep professional and not go full "Baka Mitai" over this?!!

TL;DR GIVE ME MY HOPES AND...

My fiancé and I have been wanting to try this place since it opened! We visited Tsujita for a late dinner on a Thursday night. Before we walked in we could see how beautifully the restaurant was decorated. We were seated immediately and the design on the inside was very modern and minimalistic, but still had wonderful warm lighting. Our server Tom was very sweet and checked on us just enough to make sure we had everything we needed throughout the evening, but also left us plenty of time to chat without getting interrupted. Tom kept our waters full and made sure we had a great experience answering our questions!

We ordered the Gyoza Pork which came with a spicy szechuan chili oil. The gyoza were fresh and juicy and filled completely with pork. The chili oil was perfectly spicy with that good slight mouth numbing experience from the szechuan peppercorns. My fiancé also ordered an Asahi beer which was light and fruity! Tom brought out a chilled glass for both beers he had!

For our entreés we ordered the Tsukemen Deluxe and the Spicy Tsukemen. This was our first time trying dipping ramen and it was such a wonderful experience! We have been wanting to try a place with the perfectly chewy and fresh noodles and this was such a hit! The noodles were perfect for grabbing up the thicker and salty soup! The soup was super flavorful, hot, and had lots of pork in it, in addition to the toppings we had. The ajitama (marinated egg) was the perfect addition to break up all the porky-ness and the additon of lime juice was the perfect acidity to cut through the rich pork flavor! Once we were getting full Tom brought us some of the Wari (broth) which thinned out our dipping soup, heating it up and making it more drinkable towards the end! We loved Tsujita and will definitely be recommending it to friends/family to try and visiting for more date...