Kami Ramen Bar - East Memphis — Restaurant in Memphis

When this place first opened, the food was really good. Then, the wolfchase location opened.. and I went there. The food was great as well. I always go to the wolfchase location, because it's closer to my house. I decided to go back to this location because the atmosphere is better inside the restaurant than wolfchase. Thinking that the food would be good... I thought wrong. I ordered my usual kami tonkatsu with spicy squid and kimchi. Let me back track... came into the restaurant and was greeted and sat down pretty fast. About 5 minutes later the same person who sat us asked the server hasn't come by yet? We said no and he got our drinks. My wife ordered hot tea and I ordered a lemon martini both on the menu. 15 minutes later we get our drinks. Hot tea was cold and martini was subpar. A lady finally comes by and asks for our order. We didn't know she was a our server since she never introduced herself. She walked by our table several times. She even took an order next to us from customers that came after us and got their food and left before we got ours. Anyways, we got our food almost 30 minutes or so since we ordered our food. Now, let me tell you that the food was made so poorly that my wife and I did not like it. We were so hungry and still didn't eat it. Food was bland, squid tasted like it was just boiled and dipped into some sauce.. not spicy. The broth taste like it had no seasoning and added hot water to it. I eat at Kami all the time at wolfchase, but here it was not worth it. They had no love for cooking their food. I complained to the guy that sat us down about the food. He said that they can recook it. I said what will that do? The food is bland and I don't want the same taste in my mouth. Then, the server that only came by 3 times the whole night said she can bring salt to season the food. Lol I couldn't help but laugh because she was serious. Next, the guy who sat us down said he will take off the squid off my ticket. I told him that I didn't care about paying for the squid. It's just that the food had no love to it. What happened to the kitchen staff? Then the lady server tells my wife and I that she has been getting a lot of complaints about the food today. Well? How come you guys have not fixed the problem or shut down services tonight? It makes no sense to serve food bland and people complaining all night. Anyways, we still paid about $50 for our meal and tipped regardless of our service. We left and went to wolfchase that same night and ordered the same thing. We were hungry and craving kami ramen. It was 100% better and still paid about $40 for our meal there. I think this location needs to change their whole staff otherwise this location will not get much business anymore. Horrible service and food. I posted a pic from my snapchat account that night. I had people commenting.. "that doesn't look appetizing." "Don't eat it, looks like you will get sick after eating it." Well.. I didn't get sick, because I barely ate it. But does this look appetizing? ....My recommendation is "DO...

Second experience with a group of six or more receiving poor service. The first time was obviously forgivable but today our group was confronted by a staff member quite aggressively. Had a group of 6, two of us didn’t order food. And two of us never received our appetizers. 15 minutes after we received our entrées we received our appetizers after asking about them more than once. I asked for a glass of wine & never got it. Then my boyfriend ordered sake and didn’t get any glasses to go with it. Server was busy and said so, so a member of our party went to the bar to ask for an empty* glass or two. He said the woman behind the bar asked for ID, & then said she wouldn’t give him glasses, & to ask our server. For empty glasses. He did make a fuss to our server when she came over about how the woman had treated him over asking for empty glasses *against our advice. She retrieved them. We all paid after telling our server, again, what we ordered individually, 5/6 in cash, and all tipped extremely generously 22-35% because we are restaurant workers ourselves and are understanding that maybe our server was a little new & she maintained being nice and polite at least. After we all paid the lady who had refused to give my coworker the empty glasses came over after giving us dirty looks from across the room, aggressively confronting us as a group, about my coworkers complaint to our server about her attitude & unhelpfulness. It resulted in the two of them cursing at each other before she walked away. They were talking over each other & the woman was repeatedly cursing in the middle of the dining room. The rest of us were completely uncomfortable & silent. She spent the next 15 minutes sitting at the bar staring down our table until we left. Absolutely bizarre experience. I for one would never confront a guest this way especially considering we didn’t have a good experience with our service, we’re very patient, & still tipped generously. I won’t be returning as much as I...

A decent spot to hang out and grab a quick meal, the atmosphere is cozy and reminds me of other ramen shops I've visited, but the food left something to be desired.

The first thing I noticed at the table was the placement for condiment jars: generally you would have chili oil, extra tare, soy sauce, vinegar, etc. but only chili oil was available, so the empty slot on the tray was a little odd. This was disappointing as I found that both the tonkotsu and even the shoyu bases were very lacking in tare/seasoning, where normally they would be some of the most savory options. They just needed more tare so, so badly, and I have to admit that it was really the most bland shoyu I've ever had so far.

The noodles also did not appear to be freshly made, or at the very least made to order. Instead, they felt pre-cooked and possibly frozen since they were already quite soft by the time the ramen made it to the table, and the noodles in my bowl were left in large clumps, indicating that the starch in the noodles had time to sit and cool in the open air or some sort of container and making them stick together. A clump of noodles in ramen is just not pleasant to eat at all. I will say, though, that I didn't have to order extra noodles like I normally would since the portion size for noodles was quite large, but this also means that the noodles will only get more squishy and fuzzy-feeling the closer you get to the end of your meal, and it's a little off-putting.

The karaage was fried a bit too hot, leaving the outside chewy instead of crunchy despite how it looked, and if it weren't for the dipping sauce, it would have just tasted like hot oil. The takoyaki suffered from a similar issue, but luckily was still nice and soft in the center.

The customer service was awesome. They took great care of us and we still had a good time, but I'm not entirely sure I would consider going back solely because the ramen was so...