Ramen Takumi — Restaurant in New York

I am both old and an avid user of mood enhancers which boils down to on the rare occasion I leave my apartment I never dress appropriately for the weather. I live in a typical old school NYC sauna style apartment with a radiator that spends several hours a day hissing and pissing scalding steam. The fact that a light shirt and leather jacket is not sufficient for winter is an idea my CBD brain refuses to process. As I walking across Washington Sq. park where I literally intended to sit down and eat a bagel I bought in Inwood. (Rainbow bagel, toasted buttered bliss.) If I am feeling the force I will ignore my history of terrible snaps and add some. As a Chihuahua sized rat darted in front of me I looked up and saw Ramen Takumi on the NE corner of the park. (Actually I first saw a man walking his primped Chihuahua which turned out to be smaller and frankly not as casually glam as the aforementioned rat. I wondered what this frankly effete man would do if the rat snatched his dog for a tryst or snack. The insouciance of his walk compared to the potential danger made me believe he would be snatching the cabinet's taffeta and embroidered coverings and the matching shoes out of the day's jaws while screaming if anyone could help the micto-mutt. Of course I then flashed on Mighty Mouse coming to the rescue. Drugs. Underrated.) But you know what's not underrated? December Chill! I peeked in and saw a really beautiful Afro haloing an Asian man. The sexy looking Black womyn Asian male repast sealed the deal. Table for one. I ordered a $15.95 special Nagasaki something Ramen and divine is the real understatement. I NEVER go out to eat especially good food because I cook everything I eat at home poor (and content.) But to avoid a Dr. Zhivago in The Park mashup I am so happy my poll worker coins arrived yesterday. 2020 - terrible with rare and appreciated moments...

I’ve been to Takumi multiple times and HAD great service every time but this night left a bad taste in my mouth. I was with my two other friends and we were seated. As we were talking and looking at the menu, we were approached by the waitress who asked us if we were ready. Since I was the closest to her, I was gonna give my order but I forgot the name of what I wanted. I was trying flipping through the menu to find it, but she just gave us a look and left right there and then.

My other two friends looked at me in shocked and we didn’t know what to do. We didn’t want to make a scene and leave so we decided to wait to see if she would make a loop and come back. She never came to take our order. Instead, my friend, who had full view of the restaurant from her seat, said that the waitress continued to look around the whole restaurant but our table and completely ignored us.

I waved down one of the male waiters and he was kind enough to take our order. She never came back to us until we finished our food and gave us our check. We asked if we could split the check and she took it back begrudgingly. We were sitting for about 20-25 minutes waiting for our own separate checks.

I grew up with parents in the restaurant industry and I know what it’s like with tipping especially since my mom is a waitress herself. She has always told me to tip them well as this is their income. Never have I ever tipped so low as I did that night. We were wondering why we got treated the way we did and to note, we are all college students so I’m under the assumption that she saw us and assumed we were not gonna tip at all and decided to ignore us.

My friends and I have always tipped well when we go out but that night, there was no justification to give her a decent tip. I understand that there are people who won’t tip/treat the employees badly but we were just trying to have a...

I walk past this restaurant going to and from class and decided at long last to try it. My partner and I went in later in the evening, and that was perhaps the causative factor.

The server was an absolute delight to begin with. She had a phenomenal sense of humor and it was a delight to have her.

We started with a course of gyoza, which was house made, fresh, and bursting with the right amount of crunch and flavor. I would definitely recommend it as a quick bite or a starter.

I then ordered the Nagasaki Jjampong ramen, and my partner ordered the Sho yu tonkatsu ramen. I'm a huge fan of spicy ramen as well as sea food, and unfortunately this ramen ended up being a disappointment. There was no spice or heat to speak of and the prawns were overcooked. It was not without its merits however. The octopus was done almost perfectly, and the clams were also delicious. I also asked for mushrooms to be added, and unfortunately they did not improve the dish because they were canned and flavorless. All things being equal, my ramen wasn't bad per se, it also just wasn't good.

I did not sample my partners ramen, so I can't speak to their experience.

There was an awkward first date going on at a table next to ours, so that added some delightful entertainment. It is probably a bit telling that at one point, one of the people on the date asked the other, "so do you just enjoy trauma dumping, or?..." Suffice to say it definitely added to the atmosphere. If you stop in for a bite here, you won't not be disappointed, but I also can't guarantee an awkward first date either. All told, our first experience here wasn't much to write home about. I am going to give it a shot again though, earlier in the day, to see how that affects my...