Chicago Ramen Palatine - Japanese Izakaya — Restaurant in Palatine Township

I don’t usually leave reviews, but my experience here was so disappointing that I felt I had to.

I arrived at 5:30pm and the restaurant was completely empty. The only employee in sight was in the back, on her phone. I was hoping that the door shutting behind me was enough noise to notify her that I was there but it took a minute for her to realize I walked in. When she finally did, she muttered a quick “hi” and vaguely pointed to the tables instead of seating me, offering menus, or even water (which I was waiting for, since it was hot outside).

My friend arrived a few minutes later, but it still took around 10 minutes after that for the employee to come take our order. When our appetizer came, no small plates were provided. We ended up eating over napkins, I know she noticed and still didn’t offer a plate. I was hoping the ramen would make up for the service, but unfortunately it was extremely oily, the noodles were chewy, and the portion sizes between different ramen options were inconsistent.

During this time, the employee did not come over once to see if the food was to our liking and if we needed anything else. Just a reminder — we are the only table here.

A couple came in around 6:30, and oddly enough, they were brought their check before us, even though we had finished eating long before them. The employee only returned to our table when she passed by after giving them their bill, asking if we were ready for ours after she saw me staring at her. It seemed like she couldn’t care less that anyone was there.

We were there from 5:30 to 8pm, and the lack of attentiveness made it very clear why the restaurant was empty. Don’t waste your money here. I’d rather go to a place with horrible service like this but have amazing food. It is safe to say I will never...

CHECK YOUR BILL. The food was ok, about a four out of 10. However, when we got the bill, we were shocked to find out that we had been charged over $50 for a bowl of Ramen and an appetizer. The waitress did not give an itemized receipt and just handed me the tablet with the tip screen. When I refuse to sign until I received an itemized receipt, she tried tapping the screen in the confirm area. To me, it seemed like she was trying to charge my card the full amount without my consent or signature. After I told her I was refusing to sign until I got that receipt, she walked away for several minutes into the back of the kitchen. At that time, another staff member approached us and asked if everything was ok. We explained the situation and she said there was no reason we should be getting charged that much when our waitress finally came back. She kept saying something about giving us the bill for the wrong table. However, for over 20 minutes we had been the only table. Our bill ended up being $25. I hope this was a mistake but there are too many coincidences that it seems...

If you have never had ramen or a decent bowl of ramen, then this place might be decent. But before even getting to the food the place screams cheap. They are playing free Pandora music with ads, they have wooden chopsticks, metal napkin dispensers you’d see at a cheap truck stop diner and the table I sat at initially was sopping wet. The lady at the front took 10 minutes to come over and take my order even though I was the only one there. I ordered the shrimp wonton ramen and it was a mess of toppings and was 60% bean sprouts mixed in with the noodles. The “wontons” were two soggy, flat noodles pressed together with a nickel sized filling in the center. I spent the first 10 minutes piling the bean sprouts into a mound in a separate bowl so I could find the noodles. Even then I had to dig through the mush of soggy onion straws, mushy spinach and raw cut onions to get to the noodles and broth. Trust me when I say you can find MUCH better ramen...