Tamashii Ramen House — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

Locale: Enjoyable experience, good food!

Small locale, soft lighting helps mask how small this restaurant really is. 3 tables outside for 4 customers each table. 12 tables total inside, capable of sitting a family of 4 maybe 5. Additionally they have a bar with 12 stools. A little noisy, almost similar to a Waffle House atmosphere, where you can also see the chefs in action. Clean and presentable for its target customer base.

Staff: Friendly, attentive, and all wearing clean uniforms. Chefs were clean, careful and abide to all food handling expectations.

Beverages: Cold water as soon as I sat down. Good Japanese alcoholic beverage selection including Sake (cold and hot). Coca-Cola products fountain. Clean glasses, napkins and silverware.

Food: My appetizer of choice was the Gyoza (pork, cabbage dumplings). Loved them. Slightly toasted on top, perfectly season l, just enough salt in the mix. The soy sauce to dip them in however, was a little too strong for my taste. They tasted great without the sauce however.

I sampled the Ninniku (Garlic) Tonkotsy Ramen. The garlics blended well, I'm not a lover of Chashu (pork belly), but it tasted good. The Negi (green onion) was whole not chopped which may be a different experience. The Menma (chopped bamboo) was my favorite part, they absorbed all the juices and flavors and actually were a very enjoyable part of the dish. I was not a huge fan of the Nitamago (seasoned soft-boiled eggs), personal preference. I noticed after my dish was cooling for a little that the fat began to solidify at the top, very fatty dish!

I also sampled the Garlic Fried Rice. It was a little burned at the bottom. The rice sits on top of eggs cooked over hard. The green onions were chopped this time. Did not taste incredible garlicky at all... as a matter of fact I purposely drank plenty of water to see if my taste buds were saturated with the garlic from the Ninniku... still no garlic flavor. After tasting small parts of it, I stumbled on small chunks of rice that had the garlic imbedded. I was slightly disappointed, because those little chunks tasted great.

Bathrooms. The males bathroom lock was broken, they posted a sign that asked to knock before entering. Very clean however and up to date. There was a single window with 8 squared glasses... only 6 were shaded for privacy, the top 2 were not shaded maybe something to consider when thinking of privacy. There was a random barstool sitting in front of the only toilet...I don't know what the purpose of it's existence in there was.

Overall an enjoyable experience. The previous noise comments were valid. A little noisy for a date or "quiet dinner". Definitely too noisy if needing to focus on...

TASTE Food evaluated: Minniku (garlic ramen) [ ] Unbelievable [X] Excellent [X] Very good [ ] Good [ ] Nothing too special [ ] Not good [ ] Avoid. Comments: Definitely a good balance of fatty and savory taste. Broth was thick, noodles were al dente, the seasonings were great. The chasu though felt tasteless, though the broth and other compliments of the noodle did help it quite a bit. Overall though, the lacking chasu did not necessarily take away from the ramen itself.

VALUE [ ] Ridiculous [ ] Overpriced [ ] Above average [X] Appropriate [ ] Underpriced Comments: Considering the other downtown food offerings here in OKC, this definitely falls within the price range of being appropriate/fair. I paid $11.68 for the Minniku ramen w/ a glass of water.

SERVICE Attentiveness: [ ] Above average [X] Average [ ] Below average [ ] Unacceptable. Mannerisms: [X] Polite [ ] Indifferent [ ] Rude. Wait time (arrival time 2 PM): [X] 0-5 minutes [ ] 5-10 minutes [ ] 10-20 minutes [ ] 20 minutes [ ] … forget it. Comments: Almost always sat down at the bar where there is an immediate opening as I generally come alone. If with parties, you may want to reserve a sit in advance before coming here as there is a limitation to seat availabilities here. Waitresses were great and attentive. They do have a habit of shouting Japanese dialogues as you arrive and leave, probably as an effort to make the place seem more authentic - however seeing as that all their waitresses were non-native Japanese, it comes off as slightly fake. You’ll get used to it if you come in often enough.

AMBIENCE/DÉCOR/MUSIC Cleanliness: [ ] Spotless [ ] Grandma clean [X] Average [ ] Below average [ ] 3rd world standards. Ambience: [X] Lively [ ] Calming [X] Conducive to talking [ ] “Can’t hear you” [X] Suitable date site [X] Authentic [ ] Not authentic. Comments: Aside from the waitress comments as above, the entire place seems close enough to capturing a homey Japanese ramen restaurant.

Conclusion: If you enjoy any bowl of ramen, I suggest you come by over here. This is only one of the few Asian restaurants that can competitively compete against California’s sort-of authentic Asian restaurants. This place comes second to Ajisen Ramen from Fremont, CA in my books. Have been coming by here almost every weekend since moving to OKC.

Disclaimer: I am by no means a food connoisseur nor a food/restaurant critic. Food/restaurant review as above is my opinion alone. I am not paid by the restaurant as above. I do not derive any monetary benefit from this. I am bored, accidentally bought an iPad Pro w/ a keyboard, and I do not simply have better to do.

Sincerely, a...

This was my first time in Oklahoma and my first experience with a restaurant here, with a decently high rating I was expecting an enjoyable experience.

After waiting nearly and hour during a rush, our hostess mentioned that she had “forgotten to text us” about our reservation. I understand the wait time behind the rush so I would not focus much on it.

After being seated, we were not given any menus but were still able to see one because of the QR codes on the walls, after being seated for nearly 10 minutes of waiting and other tables had been seated and attended, we decided to call over another server to order and shortly our table’s server had come around after the extensive wait only for us to have to tell her that we had already ordered. After waiting for an even longer time, our server came back to inform us that the other guy that we ordered with had FORGOTTEN to give our order to the kitchen and we were waiting for nearly an hour at this point. Our server explained that the kitchen would try to expedite our orders to accommodate for the hassle.

Our food still took a bit of a while to come out especially some of our appetizers such as the gyoza and the chashudon, coming out nearly 20 minutes after our main entrees. When our gyoza had arrived, only one side of the dish was seared and let alone is was seared so harshly that almost all of them had charred or burned on the edges while the other sides of the dish were completely untouched by any sear, seeming like the dish was possibly undercooked.

My entree of the mazemen came out fine but unfortunately I didn’t not like the flavor much, that is, if there were much to be, although it was a dish without broth, the meal was very bland as well as a few of the other dishes including the gyoza.

Ultimately, our server was very apologetic and sincere and very obviously nervous about the given service but we appreciated her willingness and attentiveness to helping us obtain a proper and enjoyable service; her alone possibly raised my review by one star, if not i’d had given this a 2 star rating.

The prices were not bad, for three people including three entrees and two appetizers, we paid only $65 and received a free dessert as...