Takumen — Restaurant in New York

UPDATED: they add a 20% tip on pickup orders you place with them, if you simply tap and forget to select a tip amount.

My cc got charged for $101 for an $84 order. I called them to rectify this, but was told that “you must have tapped it bc we can’t edit the tip after.” Manager insisted they can’t refund me and that it was my error. The kicker was the: “Oh, so, you don’t want to tip then?” statement w/ the slight tone of condescension and perplexity I got from the manager.

This was after THREE phone calls, over TWO days, waiting for their callback, and I get this amateur hour attitude.

After some words were exchanged, the manager finally said they will call toast to reverse the amount. I got a callback immediately saying Toast approved it. All that grief that could’ve been resolved with a simple 1 minute phone call to your payment provider. Oh and this 1 star review wouldn’t have existed either, you’re welcome.

What happens if the customer forgets to tap the numbers on the tip page on the tablet, which leaves your staff to have full reign to tap (or accidentally press) on a 20% tip? Honestly, what a “coincidence” the staff tapped on the standard sit-down 20% tip amount, huh?

Besides, the dishes here are so pricey already for the small (japanese portions) meal you get. We were left pretty hungry after this $100 pickup meal for two.

Also, I called to place the pick up order so they could avoid the 15% pickup order fee that Uber Eats and Doordash charges. But ended up having to deal with a much bigger headache and a waste of time. No good deed goes unpunished huh? Guess this is exactly why these delivery platforms are so dominant and customers avoid going directly to the restaurants.

To the owner’s response: I did not leave the review bc I didn’t receive the refund. I left the review because I had to deal with not one, but THREE phone calls, over TWO days. And the amount of back and forth, push back, and attitude.

Cherry on top for not one single “sorry” in your response or over the phone, even if you don’t mean it. C’mon! I worked at a restaurant for 10yrs- this is basic customer service 101 buddy!

Side note: When you buy warm deli food at the grocery store do you “tip” the kitchen staff? No. There’s no option to do so. Same thing. I’d be happy to tip $5-$10 for a pickup order but don’t you think nearly $20 for absolutely zero service is egregious? That attitude and feigned perplexed tone when I asked for a refund was extremely obnoxious on your part.

All you had to say was, “I’ll look into it, will call our payment provider and will update you.” End of story. Not this whole “oh no you must have tapped 20%. No we can’t edit the tip after. I dont think Toast will let us refund. Blablablaa”

By the way, as a user of Toast or Stripe you should know that customers paying with Apple Pay will have a DIGITAL card number which is different to the physical credit card number. If you or your staff during our 3 phone calls knew this and asked me if I used Apple Pay, I would’ve known to look up my digital card number to tell you, instead of being multiple times what my physical credit card number is, which big surprise, wasnt in your system. After I peered thru my transaction history page I realised that it was an Apple Pay purchase, and looked up my digital card number in my wallet app. Can’t believe this isn’t user-knowledge 101 for merchants using these POS. Amateurs.

Updating the review from 2 to 1 star...

Love this concept, the ambiance, but the food could use some work. I've eaten here multiple times over the last 3 years. This is a place where the appetizers are usually better than the noodles and rice bowls. However, the shio nori potatoes have changed, they used to be chopped smaller and fried up crispier, and now they are softer and less crunchy because they come in big wedges. Seems like it is a time saving measure and it does not reflect well on the dish. One of our ramen bowls came out barely hot, and we requested for it to be heated up. The other ramen had super overcooked bok choy and the noodles were too soft. The cilantro chicken based ramen is kind of bland. I think they must be training new chefs because the quality control is not there. Lastly, the $10 melon ice cream float is delicious but it comes completely packed with ice cubes. For an item with ridiculous $$$ margins like soda and a tiny squirt of soft serve, it's very disappointing to still be given a cup of mostly ice. There’s so much ice that you can’t even put the straw in the glass. If you order a $8 ice cream float at Shake Shack, you're getting the actual things you pay for. It’s sad to see when a restaurant is penny pinching on things like this. Our server also forgot to check in on us even though it was a really quiet evening. Minimum tip suggestion is 20% even though the service is mediocre. So all in all, I didn’t feel like my money was well spent here. There’s so much room for improvement and I hope the management takes note because it would be a shame to lose...

I so wanted to love this place! Such a nice beautiful comfy setting. I would of left two but we spent 100 dollars and not one thing was really good… service was nice … bathroom had a bidet so that’s cool if you’re into it… We Ordered three apps and two ramens. Here is the breakdown.

Chicken Karaage - Seemed like partially dunked in batter and fried , then someone accidentally spilled soy sauce all over it. Too much soy sauce. Overpowering / over seasoned

Thai Green Curry Wings - Flavor was so overpowering. I felt like I was chewing ginger. Literally left me with a bit of a sore tongue for a couple minutes. So far everything is overly seasoned. Less is more !

Tuna tartar and guacamole - More is better! Could of used a dash of salt. #underseasoned And for $17 I would expect a bigger portion!

Wanten Ramen - salty dashi type broth. Average nothing amazing. The wantons were great.

Spicy Goma-Miso - the better of the two ramens. Still lacked flavor, nothing too special. Broth seemed dense ( hint of sesame oil? Inconsistent spoon by spoon ) Also paired with Szechuan oil… I would recommend pairing with togarashi instead ( suggest you add to menu ) weir adding Chinese spice to Japanese soup.

Addons - eggs ( hard boiled cold eggs )

The one thing I will say … is everything seemed fresh! Which is great!!! freshly ground Ginger in Thai wings. The wontons in the soup seemed to be handmade and fresh.

Again I really wanted to love this place! Maybe I’ll come back in a year and update but right now it’s a 1 star! Drove 1.5 hours to try...