Samurai Mama — Restaurant in New York

We'll talk about the food first then the probable infection I got from this place.

We ordered the Seafood Curry Udon, Spicy Bukkake, Nabeyaki Udon, Uni tacos, and Salmonavo. The broth for the soup based dishes were really flavorful. I would have given the broth 3.5 stars. Overall the udon dishes were on the salty side. One good thing is that they use a lot of ingredients for the seafood and Nabeyaki. However, the shrimp was majorly overly cooked. The Bukkake is just alright. I rather pay for the cheaper version in chinatown. The udon itself was a little al dente and not really chewy. I could be wrong but I thought they were supposed to be more chewy and soft., especially it being made in house. Overall, the broth is much better than their noodles.

Another issue I had was the "tacos". They really didn't invent anything new here. I was extremely disappointed. It's basically sushi sitting on a square piece of seaweed and the seaweed acts like the shell of the taco. First of all, the proportion of sashimi to rice to seaweed is way off. Too much rice and seaweed. Surprisingly I had no issues with the salmon itself but I also think the guacamole on it didn't help it much. Instead of putting the citrus in the guacamole, I could have just directly added it to the fish and it would have tasted the same. Then came the Uni tacos. Same issues still apply. However, the uni by itself is good. Not bitter but unfortunately, not sweet enough.

Onto some side dishes that came with some of the meals. The tempura. Don't get it here. Batter sucks, overly fried and the tempura vegetables stuck together because I bet they just grabbed it by the handful and just dumped it into the fryer, and just let it all clump together. You can tell that the tempura got no attention from the cooks.

Service was really poor, especially when trying to take our order. Two waitresses didn't really know the menu very well at all and couldn't even tell us how many pieces we get for each taco or could we split it half half, like 2 different types of tacos as one order. It was a fiasco.

Lastly, onto the infection. Our group was sitting at the community table. When you walk in we sat in the back right corner, near the restroom and kitchen window junction. We think I got the infection here because I rested both my forearms on the edge of that table and the next morning, I had huge urticaria patches on both ventral sides of my forearms. It was in such a strange geographic distribution that it could have only been from that table. However, I can't prove it because I don't have swabs/cultures. I strongly believe that I got erysipelas from them and am now on doxycycline for 10 days. So far, the infection is subsiding. This could have been a freak accident but people should be aware because it might suggest their suboptimal cleaning practices.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to recommend this place as the service and quality of udon...

Good ramen! Generous portions of noodles with a half an egg! Came with scallions and bamboo shoots. The whole shebang! Very rare to see in ramen shops in NYC. Didn't feel like I was getting nickled and dimed on handfuls of scallions.

Tonkotsu Ramen was excellent. Broth was robust and flavorful. Came with scallions, red ginger, bamboo shoots, and half an egg. Like twice the amount of noodles compared to the other ramen places. Excellent bowl of noodles 🍜 by any means.

The garlic fried chicken cam out hot and crispy. Garlicky and tender on the inside and super crispy on the outisde. Great to start the meal and generous portions for two!!

Had two tuna rolls and were of good quality tuna. Good portion per person if you have a sushi craving.

Didn't make a reservation and waited about 35 minutes on a rainy Saturday night. Which was not at all terrible. Sat by the bar in the back which was a tad cramped and stuffy. But again not terrible.

Service was okay. Seems a tad short handed from the looks of it. But adequate overall.

I personally do not like communal style seating. There was a massive communal style table in the center of the small restaurant and it looked cramped. The bar seats in the back was also a bench and was a bit cramped. Overall great meal, acceptable service,...

Easy to miss due to non-explicit signage, we almost missed our chance to eat at Samurai Mama (not because of the signage though)... Arriving at 9:15pm, the waiter informed us their last service was at 9:30pm and they had no more tables available (Covid-19 outdoor eating hours I presume the culprit for their limited hours). We accepted our fate and prepared to find another option. At the same time as our acquiescence, an ornery customer barked at the mild-mannered host for not offering a speculated availability he deemed as HIS. The host detested this patron's behavior and skipped over to us to offer us the table. Wow are we glad we got this opportunity!

The dishes from Samurai Mama were understated, but supporting the simplicity of their construction were fresh ingredients, ingenious presentation, and muscular flavors. A punchy pork broth accompanied our chewy udon, each slurp louder than the last. Their seasonal sake was a warming complement to the dishes. While the promised "black edamame" was indeed your standard green, we could forgive them of this transgression. Most surprising were the sushi tacos, which substituted the tortilla shell with a piece of seaweed and your standard taco innards with a hefty nigiri.

Despite the initial drama, Samurai Mama was a meal worth...