Kinya Ramen - Meridian — Restaurant in Meridian

I don't know when this joint officially opened up. I saw that it was open on social media so of course I had to come check it out. My girlfriend and I planned out lunch date here. We both checked out the menu the night before so we got a general idea at what was all served here.

My friend did arrive before me so she got some gyoza started. She was also given a complimentary basket of fried wontons with a side of sweet chili sauce. I arrived shortly after the gyoza was dropped off. We were given to go containers of the dumpling sauce. The gyoza was good. They were pre made quality so they were pretty basic. The sauce did add a nice element to the gyoza. The gyoza was bigger than the to go cup of dumpling sauce so it was interesting trying to dip your dumpling in it without having to cut it up into a bunch of tiny pieces. I don't know why they just couldn't put the sauce in a ramekin and serve it on the same plate as the gyoza.

I ordered a pineapple lemonade to sip on while our food was being prepared. I do appreciate the size of me lemonade. Your getting a lot of bang for your buck. It would have been nice to have the syrup mixed into my lemonade. The straw didn't mix the syrup cause it didn't reach to the bottom where are the syrup was at and was too flimsy. I ended up using my chopsticks to mix the thick syrup. It was a decent lemonade for pre mixed lemonade with pineapple flavoring.

For lunch I ordered the general's chicken and my friend got the Mandarin chicken. I really wanted to try the ramen but I over did myself on fluids yesterday so I couldn't have the broth today which was a bummer. Our food came out hot. We got a nice amount of chicken in our dishes. I appreciate how much sauce was on the chicken. Not every piece was coated so it left some crunchy pieces.

When I think of general's chicken, the words tangy and spicy come to mind. Mandarin chicken, the words sweet, orangy and bright. As much as I would have loved to use those words to describe today's lunch, those words would not be it, especially the Mandarin chicken. Both sauces were dark, the Mandarin sauce was even darker. There was a little heat to the general's chicken. The sauce didn't really give off the sweet, spicy and tangy taste like general's chicken would. The sauce was good but I wouldn't describe it as General's chicken like. And honestly, the Mandarin chicken tasted like the general's chicken but without the heat. There was no difference in both chicken dishes. The chicken itself was tender and was fried nicely but other than that it tasted the same.

Service was nice. We were our server's only table so she checked up on us quite frequently. A few tables did come after us which gave her more interaction besides our party of two. We were still eating our lunch when our server brought our bills. Nothing like getting your tab when your still eating. I get dropping off bills when maybe our forks are down and we have pushed our plates to the side. But dropping off bills while your guest is still eating has always bugged me.

I don't know, this place is clear on the other side of town for me. Was the food and service good enough for me to want to come back? Probably not. Will my curiosity about the ramen here bring me back? Maybe. The food and the service was a complete flop for me. So I don't know if I'll come back when there's other local joints...

Friday night my family and I came here to have family dinner and I was very impressed with how cute it is! Everyone is so kind and the food looked incredible, my kids and husband were thrilled with their dishes. One thing I would have changed is that they market “gluten free” which is the reason we visited. I should have just gotten sashimi because I have celiac disease and I have severe allergies on top of that. My allergies are wheat and dairy, which I had our sweet waitress check on. There were two dishes I could have the almond shrimp and chicken. I chose the shrimp. I wanted the ramen since they offer gluten free options there, but unfortunately the broth does have regular soy sauce mixed in and the seasoned eggs also are brined with soy sauce. I was fine ordering the almond shrimp but a different waitress brought out the food while I was In The bathroom. They set food down in my place and never being there before I thought it was what I had ordered, I asked before eating if they were sure it was gluten free before I took a bite. They all reassured me it was. I took a bite and unfortunately it was the chicken, not what I ordered. The waitresses eyes got big and told me it wasn’t my food so I spit it into a napkin and another ran out with a bucket. It got hectic and I rushed to the bathroom and rinsed my mouth out with water repeatedly. I didn’t swallow any but I did have it in my mouth And so I broke out in boils inside my mouth within minutes. My tongue swelled and my entire mouth had a horrible reaction. Turn of events I’ll be down for a few days. PLEASE DO NOT MARKET GLUTEN FREE SAFE if you are not entirely certain all ingredients are safe. They did give us a discount, but we did need to rush out for me to get medicine into my system. They place will be a great experience for people that do not have celiac or gluten allergies, unfortunately I have both. It was kind of a dramatic and dangerous situation. Please attend to your allergy precautions to add...

We just left the place.

We got in 8:20pm. We were sat down almost immediately. The host asked if we wanted anything to drink, so we said water for now. No other information was given to us, i.e. what menu items are no longer in stock etc. After that, my family and I looked at the menu. We waited for a server to approach us to take our order and we noticed that a couple more tables sat after us and the server took their orders already.

The person who sat us down approached us, gave us chips, and then asked us “did someone took your order?” We politely said “no” and then she left. A couple more tables were sat down, and they too got their orders taken. At this point we have been waiting for 20 minutes to have our orders taken.

I approached one of the staff, and told her that we have been waiting for a while now, and we haven’t had our orders taken and that there has been several tables who sat after us and had their orders already taken.

She then proceeded to tell me that “oh maybe she gave your table to me but I haven’t able to”. She approached our table, we gave her our order, and then she told us that they are sold out of Chashu.

If we had known this at the start, when the initial server gave us our water, then we could have avoided waiting and wasting almost half an hour waiting for nothing.

We told the server we will just be leaving, since we are already frustrated, and hungry. The server told us “oh it’s not my fault”, absolutely no ownership. An apology, and a statement to do better would have stopped me from leaving this review. I dislike people who do not take ownership of...