Ima Noodles — Restaurant in Madison Heights

Food was fine, I would even say it was pretty close to good. We order some happy hour food and drinks and my son quickly ordered the Miso Ramen which we were surprised he wanted because it’s a vegan item and he doesn’t like tofu or mushrooms. The server returned after less than a minute, I heard the POS system printing the order in the kitchen, and we asked if we could change the order. Obviously they hadn’t started making the dish but she just said ,”alsorry I already sent it in”. We just thought fine whatever I’ll order something he will eat and I’ll have that one. None of that is really so bad, just poor customer satisfaction skills, the problem here lies in shady billing practices and potentially bordering on purposeful false advertising. We arrived at 5:15 to take advantage of what looked like a nice happy menu. Happy hour menu says “all beer $5”. There are 3 beers on the menu, one of which is a cider. I asked if there were other beers and was told only those so we ordered the 22oz can of Sapporo. Regular price $8. We also order a house Sake which was listed on the happy hour menu for $5, regular price $8. The bill comes and right away I see the beers are being charged at $8. The server comes back and I say aren’t those $5 and she says no but I’ll discount them. I said the menu says all beers so that’s super misleading and confusing. Sever returns with new bill and has the handheld payment thing and tells me the total and I’m trying to tell if the bill is correct but she keeps putting the device in my face so I just tap my card and leave the tip and she leaves. I then have a minute to look over the bill and, of course, the sake was charged at $8 and not only that, they add a 3% “service fee” in lieu of “raising prices”…the ramen is already $17… how much more could you charge???. Unreal… not only will we never come back, we will ensure everyone we know won’t go either, or at least if they do, Check-double check that bill!!...

This was our first visit to Ima in Madison Heights. We came here because the original Ima in Detroit, one of the Detroit Free Press’s Top Ten Detroit area restaurants in 2017, is one of our favorite noodle restaurants and we wanted to see if this was as good as the original. We were not disappointed, in fact, this site may be a tad better than the original site. The food is the same but the menu has been expanded and the layout and seating are a bit more conventional then that which is in the original Ima. This is an informal restaurant, you order at a counter, pay, and are given a number. When the food is ready, it is brought to your table. And this led to a minor problem, if you want one of their “to share” items as an appetizer before main plates are served, it may not come that way, as happened to us because you do not order from a server to whom you can tell how you would like the meal brought.

The food was wonderful. We had the steamed edamame which is served topped with a mild spicy house-made chili sauce. On the recommendation of the person taking our order, we also had the smoked salmon potato salad. It was a combination of potato salad, smoked salmon, and salmon caviar. Their tacos are one of their many fusion items. They were served in a jicama shell with mainly Asian ingredients. They were lighter and taster than then typical Tex-Mex hard shelled tacos. Finally we also enjoyed their steamed clams. This was another fusion item as the broth in which they were steamed was Asian. At this point beer and sake were not available. However, it was indicated that they would be coming soon.

We highly recommend this restaurant for someone who wants to enjoy an Asian fusion noodle house with very upscaled and creative items. It is family friendly with several items on a “Kids” menu. They also have gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan...

I never do this because, first of all, I have full respect for the people who work at restaurants. But here we go: I love Ima, I love their food. I went yesterday with my wife for a quick dinner. It was late. This was the first time at this location and I am afraid it will be our last. We ordered an entree and two ramen, one udon and one pho. We had to wait for our food a lot. Once the main courses finally came, mine was acceptable but not very hot. My wife’s was cold. We called the waitress and let her know the problem, she apologized a told us she was going to fix the situation. We wait and wait, again. The waitress came to the table to apologize and told that my wife order would be out soon. My udon was getting cold while waiting. We wait for about 20 minutes for my wife’s plate to come back to the table. By then I almost finished mine, it was this or let it go cold. When my wife’s pho came back, to our surprise, it was totally destroyed, just reheated in the microwave, over-cocked. No flavor at all. By that time it was 9:45pm. I asked for the bill and told the waitress, very politely, this was unacceptable. She apologized, once, and again when she came back with the bill. To my surprise, they charged us the whole dinner, even if my wife's pho was barely touched since it was inedible. I did not want to make a scene because it was late and annoyed. I payed. I find this very unacceptable. I am not the one who has to tell a professional chef how to do things and a professional waitress that she should not charge for a totally ruined dish. I payed and even tipped the waitress (I respect the work and working people, even if this was bad). But I founded this situation absolutely disrespectful. I do not understand who a professional can charge for this bad experience. I am afraid I would never go back to...