Tajima Ramen Mercury — Restaurant in San Diego

COVID-19 review (outdoor dining)

4.5 stars 100% recommend for outdoor dining or take out for you favorite Japanese dishes or ramen. We love this location on Mercury because they offer a larger menu than just ramen.

Ambience/outdoor dining - 4 stars There is a small side parking area they have converted for outdoor dining. Pretty nice with string lighting, umbrellas, fake grass, table numbers, and music. Due to proximity to Montgomery Field there will be older biplanes that fly overhead (loud), but they can't control that. Some tables are close-ish to the driveway and some are close-ish to the dumpster. Staff could try better to ensure the dumpster enclosure doors are closed (-1 star).

Food - 5 stars Tajima is our go to for ramen, both dine in and take out! We tried something different this time due to the heat wave and were super happy with everything. Chashu Pork Fried Rice was great, came with a full slice of chashu pork belly over bed of fried rice and red crispy garlic on the side. Combo Special with chicken teriyaki and spicy tuna, also great. Really nice pieces of chicken used for the chicken teriyaki, not just a breast cut into strips like some other places. Shrimp Tempura had a nice light flavor, not overly greasy at all. Served with grated daikon to add to your dipping sauce. Vegetable Tempura was also a hit. Chicken Katsu Donburi, my brother said it was the best donburi he has ever had and thats saying something. Sashimi appetizer was plated so nicely! Served with daikon spirals and fresh lemon slices. Chicken Karrage was on HH special with $2 Sapporo. Get it!!! Not your 100% traditional karrage - but BETTER!

Service - 5 stars Kudos to the staff for working and keeping us fed. Outdoor dining was like counter service (order ahead/pay and then sit at assigned table number), but the staff was still attentive when bringing everything out. High five

Covid compliance For those wondering this experience was great. They checked everyone's temperature (wrist) before we ordered. Full party ordered together at the indoor entrance, plexiglass partition between staff and customers. Contact less payment. Food brought out to your assigned table. Staff wore masks and gloves and sanitized tables after a party left. We ate outside but they did have limited seating available inside in compliance with the current...

Taken from my yelp written on June 20, 2017. Came in around 21:45ish (9:45pm) on June 19, 2017. We quickly got a seat for five of us. I got unlucky and sat on the edge of the table. As for the order, I got the Tajima ramen with chicken and thin noodles. Out of the five of us, my food came out first. I wanted to wait for my friends order, but it took another 7-10 minutes so I got started eating. The ramen I had was okay. I can say everything tasted fine on that ramen except for the 2 pieces of chicken. It just was a bit too salty for my taste. One of my friends was disappointed in the portion of the order that he got. He got some fried rice and it was only about the size of a small bowl. He was not full. As for the service, I think it was average. I can not recall the server (on the receipt it says Carrie) smiling once, I felt she either had a bad day (if that is the case, I hope next time she smiles) or did not enjoy herself working there. The service is slow near closing hour. The server wasn't really around to check on us except maybe once to refill the water. So the service is average to me. At the end, we noticed that there was a charge on an item that we never received on the receipt. We were able to get it taken off after flagging down our server. However, they were generous to give it to us for free, but it is probably because it was 22:30 (10:30pm) which is their closing time. I felt they gave it to us because it would be a waste if they threw it away. Still, the service is average. Maybe everyone just wants to go home on a Monday night. Overall though, it is an okay place. Nothing was out of the ordinary for me, but my friend was too generous so he tipped 2 dollars more than what we all wanted to tip. I would try to avoid coming an hour before closing as service just becomes average. Maybe next time will be better for me. That...

Tajima is one of my favorite spots but after today I've been utterly let down. Each time me and my father come we order the exact same thing and this time it just wasn't the same. To start off we had ordered edamame which took a while to get to the table but it was busy so we understood but what we didn't understand was why when our edamame got to the table it was only half full. Since it was a 7 dollar appetizer we wanted to ask if we could just get a bit more to make it even and if that wasn't possible then we would understand but rather than giving us an answer our server disappeared and went on lunch without even checking in with us. Even when we got our meals and even after we finished them not once did we see him. Speaking of our meals when I received my tonkatsu ramen all of the THREE pieces of pork were almost all fat with the smallest amount of meat attached. I was so sad and disappointed that our night out was let down like this. I still hold so much love for this place and just would like some answers and to fix this situation. Down below I attached a photo of our edamame shells (don't mind the stuff we put on top) which is clearly a lot less then what the other tables had even if there just shells.

Update: we were taken care of by a lovely server who was also taking care of the host stand AND pouring his own drinks. He explained that it was short staffed and listened to us and discounted our bill in compensation. Though he also heard us out that our server had disappeared and never came back and agreed that it was...