Yoba Ramen Poke — Restaurant in Kalamazoo

My wife and I are disabled and seldom eat out. We went here to buy lunch for our grandson, a cook moving away to Texas. So we were incredibly disappointed with the food, atmosphere, and checkout. When we ordered, cashier did not bother to ask what size drinks we wanted and charged the largest ones at the top price. My wife wanted a glass of water and got sold a $2 bottle without her knowledge. Cashier did not quote total until credit card was billed. Not cool. Bathroom was out of order. Wife needed it but was stuck. Her chicken fried rice had chicken that was, according to my grandson, had chicken that was previously cooked in old oil, set aside, and reheated in a skillet with more nearly rancid oil. Grandson complained his chicken was tough and hard to chew but the Ramen was fair. My poke was OK. But Ingredients were not exactly generous. Wouldn't order again. Wife got stomach cramps and diarrhea a few hours after taking fried rice home and eating some of it. Several months ago we took grandson to AI CHEF on Westridge in Kalamazoo for his birthday. Food was light-years better. Larger portions. Lower prices. Fabulous service and internet discounts besides. I mentioned AI CHEF to show the difference between them and YOBA like day and night. Will never go back to Yoba. Went there in the first place because of their reviews, but the staff must be writing them. Going there is a nightmare...

I really wanted to like this place. Fantastic service and atmosphere but the food left a lot to be the desired.

The beef fried rice just lacked flavor overall. I like the concept of having the things that are typically mixed into the rice being given separately on top, but ultimately the flavor was still missing in action on all the separate pieces. Even adding salt is not going to save you here sadly.

The beef was thinly sliced and minimalist, not juicy. The fried egg was dry and may as well have been chopped up and mixed into the rice. Shredded raw carrot.. ok.. odd.

My husband had the spicy ramen and he said it was nothing to write home about.

Mind you, the total bill for the fried rice, a ramen and 2 boba drinks ran us over $60 including tip. All that for no flavor, no juiciness, no richness. The rice barely even seemed "fried" or at the very least sauteed.

The one good thing was the crab Rangoon. Which like.. ok, most likely they are bought frozen and fried so there's not much credit I can give there.

I will say the boba teas and Thai Iced teas were great! If anything, I would come back...

Edit 11/14/24: Updated service and overall to 1 star after owner replied to my review in a condescending way. (Screenshot added). This is not how you do business and treat your customers. There are plenty of other ramen and boba shops that I can spend my money at. Original review: Food was pretty tasty and portions were great. There was a lot of meat in our ramen bowls. My daughter really liked her poke. The passion fruit tea was delicious.

We came in and we were given menus and told we can sit at any table. So we thought this was going to be a sit-down restaurant with a server. But nobody came to take our orders. The menu had a QR code to scan and order online, so we thought that's what we had to do. Eventually one of the workers asked us if we were there to pick up an order, but we told them we just placed one online but wanted to sit in the restaurant to eat it.

Looking back, I'm thinking we were supposed to go to the counter to order our food, which isn't a bad thing. It was just a...