Kyuramen x TBaar - Knoxville — Restaurant in Knoxville

Had to give this new Japanese spot a try! The outside aesthetic is beautiful, and the inside design with kanji, torii gates, and lanterns is just as eye catching. But as soon as we walked in, we were met with a crowd standing right at the doorway waiting for tables. You’re not greeted by staff, instead you check yourself in on a giant iPad and get a text with your spot in line. We arrived at 5 PM, were 4th in line, and ended up waiting about 20 minutes. The front area feels cramped and a bit awkward with people constantly coming in and out. They have 4-5 stools as their waiting area against the wall which was merely not enough for the crowd. Plus foot traffic to the connected drink shop, Tbear.

While waiting, we grabbed drinks at Tbear. I got the #3 Fresh Passion Fruit Tea, which was tangy and refreshing with chunks of fruit I really enjoyed it. My partner’s grapefruit tea with aloe was smooth and sweet no tanginess, and we also tried a strawberry lemonade with tapioca (though they forgot the tapioca at first and I had to return the drink for them to add it). Drinks came out fast, but the price was surprising, two larges and one medium came to $27.06 after an automated 20% tip that you have to manually remove so keep an eye out for that. The drinks were tasty but definitely more of an occasional treat than something I’d get every visit with the price point.

For food, we ordered three ramen bowls. The Sapporo Miso Ramen with Chashu Pork was solid and great for pork lovers, with a rich, flavorful broth. The Shoyu Chicken Ramen had nice presentation and toppings but could have used a bit more depth of flavor. Each bowl comes with bamboo shoots, corn, wakame, scallions, nori, and half a marinated egg. They also offer spice levels or seasonings on the table side, which I skipped this time. For 3 bowls it’s $16.99 a ramen bowl, the bill came to about $55.00, which is okay for ramen. The ramen overall was decent. If you’ve had authentic ramen, this isn’t close. But if you’re just in the mood for good ramen, this will do it for you.

The biggest downside was the service. Our ramen was dropped off while our server was present, then she disappeared. She never checked in on us to ask how the food was or whether we needed anything. We had to flag down another worker just to get to go containers . The server reappeared only to collect the check, which made the experience feel a little flat. The checkout process is the server presenting a keypad to you to check out on the spot and tip. We definitely would’ve tipped higher had the service been better.

Also, they only have 2 stalls. The non-handicap bathroom is very compact.

Overall, the atmosphere is fun and unique, the drinks are creative (though pricey), and the ramen is good but not something I’d drive a long distance for. If I were in the area and craving ramen, I’d stop by, but the crowds and service made it a 3 star...

In summary: A lot of style, not a lot of substance. Decent food, abysmal service. Just learned that this is a brand new establishment, so it's understandable that the dust hasn't settled quite yet, but they need to iron out some serious kinks.

We arrived on a Tuesday evening and the place was busy. Staff were primarily quite young. On the whole, they seemed completely lost, overwhelmed, and even surly. The hostess looked like she was ready to pass out when we declined to sit at the bar and asked to wait for a table. Service itself was confusing and scattered—we had about 4-5 different servers running food and bussing our table. Our actual waitress, who I guess was assigned to our section—it was difficult to tell—took our order and then pretty much disappeared for the next 45 minutes. We had to flag down 2 different servers to inquire after my ramen, which still hadn't come out 25-30 minutes after my partner's food arrived. The taller guy we spoke to seemed genuinely irritated with us for asking about it, and explained in a fairly condescending tone that the ramen kitchen was backed up. It happens, you can only do what you can do, but it would have been great if somebody had stopped by to let us know earlier. (Also, if a ramen prep station gets that backed up... you probably need to optimize the workflow.)

The interior is fun and makes a big impression. Some people may enjoy a noisy and bustling atmosphere, but personally, I found it overstimulating—overly loud music, no noise dampening, harsh lighting. (Or maybe that was just my low blood sugar...) We got to sit in the honeycomb, which again was fun and cool, but the servers were visibly harried by having to run up and down the stairs with trays and avoid traffic jams.

Food-wise—pretty decent. Tasty yakitori, only a smidge overcooked. The omurice was a treat and whoever prepared it was well-trained. We were impressed with the texture of the tonkatsu and the curry sauce, similar to curry tonkatsu we had in Kyoto. I enjoyed the passion fruit tea, which was fresh, tart, and floral.The ramen, when it finally came out, was just okay. If you know authentic ramen, this will not blow you away, but it was perfectly serviceable and the noodles were firm and glossy. Overpriced, however—$17-$18 for a bowl of ramen is egregious.

Overall, the food was pretty nice, but the dining experience was unnecessarily hectic. The slow service, lack of attentiveness and bad attitudes kind of spoiled our enjoyment of everything else. We certainly would have tipped higher had the service...

We arrived for a Monday lunch at around 1:00 or so and it was semi-busy but with a few open tables. We were told we had to join the wait list and wait a few minutes. For twenty minutes we had to look at a completely cleared and cleaned table before we were eventually notified we could sit at, surprise surprise, the clean table we had been standing next to the entire time. We had two kids with us who of course started getting squirmy but ok, it's a new restaurant so let's give them some slack.

We then sat down and were entirely ignored for 20 minutes. Nobody came with menus, drink orders, etc. We eventually had to flag down someone to let them know that nobody had served us despite having multiple waiters standing near the entrance to the kitchen just chatting casually and laughing. It was at this point that the table next to us informed us that they too had to ask for menus and that their service was also quite awful.

Ok so all of that happens but let's hope that the food makes it all worth it. My wife ordered the omelette rice, I ordered the spicy pork Ramen, and we got a gyoza appetizer for the four year old. My wife's food comes out in about 15 minutes and it looks great - we are all starting to feel optimistic that this is going to turn the lunch around. Except she gets her food and... we wait. And wait. And wait. It's egg and rice so of course she starts eating. She is on the last few bites of her meal before my Ramen is eventually brought out. Then of course five more minutes goes by while my four year old (who is of course the slowest eater of the group) is salivating and watching everyone eat but him. We again get the manager (the third time we have had to do this during the hour and a fifteen we had been there so far) and they go check on the appetizer. Eventually they bring his out and it's alright at best - kind of cold like it had been sitting out for a while.

At no point in this lunch was the absolute uphill battle of getting seated, ordering, and expecting to all enjoy a meal together worth it.

If you want to eat good Japanese food, save the several hours and frustration of dealing with this place, and go across the street to Koko's or head over to East Japanese.

We were really, really excited to like this place and really gave it several chances to make it worth it but this was the absolute worst restaurant experience I have had in years. The food was nowhere good enough to save the...