Kiwami Ramen — Restaurant in Louisville

I never complain, and I’ve never left a bad review. I already feel guilty but here it goes… I chose this place for my birthday dinner with two girlfriends. We walk in, and the place is busy but not slammed, and we are the only ones waiting to be seated. The server walks up who I believe was the manager and says “three?” And we said yes. She said “well I don’t have a table right now but you can sit at the bar.” While she is speaking a couple gets up from a table to leave so I asked if it’s ok if we waited for that table. She rolls her eyes and responds quickly “I don’t have time to clean right now.” The three of us were stunned. We all tend to avoid conflict so we quietly follow her to the bar. Not two minutes later another server cleaned the table so I leaned over and asked politely “Is it ok if we sit at that table? We just sat down, but would love to have a table.” She smiled but then paused smile fading and said “I have to ask Genie.” She asks our server on our behalf and comes back and whispers “unfortunately since we already sat you we cannot re-sit you.” And she hurried away. Again. Stunned. This simply cannot be a thing. My friends assure me “the food will make it better” We later get our meal. I love ramen and was really looking forward to trying this place. The noodles were a good thickness and flavor, the egg was perfection (I wish they gave a whole instead of half) the pork was perfectly cooked. The broth ruined it. Entirely too salty none of us could drink it and had to drink tons of water. Also no spicy at all as my bowl was advertised. My friend’s chicken curry was thick like paste, so we didn’t finish our meals. (More guilt because I normally finish a whole bowl of ramen including the broth.) our server comes to take my friends curry away and asks if she wants a box. My friend says no thank you very politely and the server looks at the bowl and back at her and asks bluntly, “Was it gross?” All eyes go wide. She told the server “no not at all, just wasn’t my taste.” She comes back to clear the ramen bowls and asks my other friend if she wants a box because she had noodles left. She politely said no to which Genie (I think her name is) asks AGAIN, “Was it gross?” We all look at each other. “No just wasn’t my favorite. We paid and left. We laughed and agreed “At least we got a story out of it.” I will never go back. On to other...

If you love ramen, this is the place to go!!

It is a bit pricey ( probably on par with any other mid-tier casual dining place) but so worth it.

I ordered the Takoyaki Apppetizer (the best if you like calamari + small additions), Chashu Bowl, Spicy Curry Tonkotsu w/ a bunch of extra additives, and a strawberry milk tea with the brown sugar crystal boba added. All of it was top-notch delish! ( The ramen bowls are huge by the way, you could easily split one between two average appetites.)

I had the best solo experience here 10pm ish on a Friday night- they had a variety of adult mixed drinks ( which I didn't get this time, but next time will try the Tokyo Mint Julep)

My waitress Genie (like in a bottle she said) was very present and attentive throughout the whole thing, and very helpful in explaining any menu questions I had.

Seated at the counter area next to the kitchen, I heard the cooking staff keeping up quite an animated and motivating volley of chatter and banter with each other, which I maintain only enhanced the experience.

Having cheerful staff makes it more inviting to keep coming back to a place!

And it was a cherry on top of the whole thing when they all said 'arigato gozaimasu!' as a group when guests left! (I can't spell translations well but I believe this means 'thank you very much' in Japanese)

Thank you all!

I'm not from here, but I will definitely come back (with friends) when I'm the area again =)

( I got so excited about the food, I completely forgot to take pictures of the current menu, which has pictures next to all the...

I am really disheartened to have to leave a review like this but being a culinary foodie I always believe in constructive feedback. Kiwami once open became one of our favorite Friday night date spots! We frequented often but due to a let down experience last time we had not been back for a couple months! Yesterday evening Friday 08/29 we decided we wanted to go back! We always opt to sit at the bar. The food was delish we ordered gyoza, chicken karate, number 2 & 3 ramens with some changes. The waiter a younger guy seemed distracted - we waited 10 minutes for ours drinks to be told they were out of clean glasses. My boyfriend ordered a Sapporo beer that we ended up cancelling because we waited so long. We asked twice for extra mayo with our chicken karage and never received it. I asked for a side of the crispy fried shrimp with my ramen - the waiter said do you want the appetizer? I said no the side. I received my ramen with shrimp dumplings in it instead of the fried shrimp and his response was “oh I thought you said the dumplings we are out of fried shrimp?” But never told us that when I ordered it. They did remove the beer and shrimp from the order but this made for a poor dining experience and honestly even with the food being good as usual makes us hesitant to return. We are really sad to see the quality of service...