Cha-Cha Japanese Cafe — Restaurant in Royal Palm Beach

A very tiny hole in the wall, that you wouldn't have noticed unless told about. (That's how we found out about this place.) Upon arriving, there was no seating and had to wait for something to open up for a party of 4. There are 6, two people tables and 1 round table for 4 ppl (max). They can't accommodate large groups (anything over 4ppl). (We finally we're told that two tables had opened up and we sat at different tables. We waited until the party next to our friend's table left and had asked to move next to them). While this happened we got our drink and food order.

First we ordered appetizers, takoyaki and oyster fry. Takoyaki here is made with pices of octopus, vegetables & batter like pancake mix, they look like donut holes, but on the savory side. Ours came with 5 pieces, drizzled with mayonnaise, (I believe the other sauce was ponzu or something so sauced based) and Dashi flakes. (Made the dish look like it was alive.) The batter outside was nice and spring hwoever the inside seemed a bit undercooked, so it made the texture a bit slimey/gooey for me. The fried oyster was 3 whole oysters that was battered in panko, fried golden, served with mayo and soysauce on the side. They were fried delicately and had just the right amount of crunch on the outside and the oyster was tender inside. The other party had ordered O-nigiri 🍙 (rice triangles with a sheet of seaweed) Takoyaki, and Gyoza (pan fried meat dumplings). Our friends enjoyed the O-nigiri (as he put it, "anime, made it taste better"). They also didn't care for their order of takoyaki, but enjoyed the Gyoza. Our main course was the Ramen, since this is more of a ramen shop. They have rice bowls but opted for ramen. I got the "Cha Cha Cham pong" along with my guest, the other two got beef sukiyaki ramen and the spicy Cha Cha shoyu men. (This was the only thing not a "special", the rest were specials of the day.) The beef sukiyaki ramen and the spicy Cha Cha shoyu men came out very quickly. The party who ordered it said they enjoyed their bowls of ramen. A few minutes later, our Cha Cha cham pong came out. Mine was in a larger white bowl since I had ordered extra noodles. The specials list said it was "Verry spicy" and I had asked the waitor on how hot this was. Comparing to different types of hot peppers. To me it wasn't very hot. If you can handle Sirracha, you can handle this. It wasn't that spicy, and the noodles were nice and chewy, like true ramen is supposed to be. I didn't care for the broth as much, it tasted a bit burnt/smokey, and couldn't describe it. The seafood that was in it, could have been better, and there lacked of (only a few mussels, chewy octopus, looked like american bacon [not traditional Asian pork belly], and bits of Napa cabbage pieces, along with other veggies. The pork belly slices on the "shoyu ramen" looked much better, not to mention they were huge! I tasted the broth on the Cha Cha shoyu men and would recommend that instead of the Cha Cha Cham pong. We didn't get dessert but they do have green tea cheesecake, tempura cheesecake, mochi ice cream and ice cream sandwiches from Asia. Overrall, for a little place, the prices are good and lots to choose from on the menu. If you have more than 2 in your party, it's recommended to call ahead and try to get reservations there. I wouldn't say I love it, but it's alright, and I hope that it will grow on me. I hope you...

(Edit)

New Review: I changed my review because they have entirely different staff & chef now. They are way more polite than the previous staff, and because this new chef was an understudy to the previous chef, the food still tastes just as good. They are very accommodating to allergies and other health concerns now.

Old Review: I'm rating what was once my favorite place only one star because the chef treated me like my allergies were an inconvenience. The chef said he refuses to make anything without the ingredients I’m allergic to. The chef reluctantly withheld raw carrots from my ramen with veggies for a few months because I'm allergic to them but he finally decided he's had enough of it and told me I must either order other dishes that don’t come with vegetables, or get it with vegetables including the carrots I'm allergic to and I can pick them out myself (except I can’t even touch them without a reaction). I don't like ramen without vegetables so they were essentially asking me to forget my favorite dish from my favorite restaurant because they have decided to stop accommodating for the people out there with allergies. A restaurant should never turn away a customer for their health problems. A restaurant should accommodate for their customers' health problems and/or dietary restrictions. There's a thing called customer service. That chef could learn a thing or two about that. What's worse is that my little sister is allergic to carrots too, my favorite dish is her favorite dish as well, and this place was her favorite too. It's practically where she wants to go every time it's her birthday, so now for her next birthday I have to tell her that she can't get her favorite ramen at her favorite restaurant which is usually her only birthday wish, all because they don't care about our allergies. They told me if I’m not happy with their decision, go elsewhere, because they can stand to lose a customer or two. They have plenty more customers to where my unhappiness makes no impact. The chef made a grave mistake because I've introduced over 20 people to this establishment and he repaid me this way. I was going to introduce my huge family to this place (have about 30 cousins here in Florida) but that will not be happening anymore ...and I will let everyone I've ever brought to this place know what...

Normally this place is good, but the last time I went there for dinner things were very different. Usually there is a long wait, but tonight on a Tuesday evening got in without any wait and placed our food. I noticed the owner sitting at a table with her friends, hanging out laughing giving her undivided attention to them. I ordered a beef sukiyaki with a (tamago) egg on top. When our food arrived I was thrown off as my beef sukiyaki had next to no broth in it, which normally has a lot of broth. Since I liked this place so much, I didn't complain about it and started to eat. I grabbed half of the hard-boiled egg, took a bite, and heard a crunch of shards of frozen egg yolk ice in the middle. The worst thing you can ever imagine biting into. The egg was cooked previously and left in a freezer till it was time to make the order and dropped in the bowl. Upon complaining to the waiter, he got the owner to leave her friend's table and told her what happened. She had the audacity to tell me thats the way the egg is supposed to be in the ramen which is total bs. Instead of trying to make their customer satisfied with their meal, they made excuses and did not offer ANY type of resolution or help. For the rest of the evening, they awkwardly avoided us, not even making eye contact unlike a normal restaurant where the staff asks how you are, how everything is, etc. The waiter then even confirmed my suspicion of hard boiled eggs being kept frozen til the are needed. Not only did the owner insult my intelligence but she refused to take it off my bill. Any other respectable place wouldve apologized and removed the egg from the check no questions asked, but this lady who would rather hang out with her buddies than take care of her customers, felt losing a loyal customer was better than removing a measily egg from the bill. After biting that frozen hard boiled egg, I asked for my food to be put in a box and sat there naseous until the check was brought to the table. Let's hope I don't get salmonella. This place really...