Menya Musashi Tsukemen & Ramen （Capitol Hill） — Restaurant in Seattle

Customers, beware of your food. Today I ordered the Tantanmen. Taste wise, it was alright, nothing special. As I was a few bites in and chewing, I found a very long strand of hair. It felt gross having to pull out some random hair from my mouth. The hair strand was so long it was like I was doing some kind of cheese pull. And it was definitely not my hair since the length of my hair is shorter ( I have a men's korean mullet hairstyle, so at most my longest hair strand would be about 5 inches. Plus, I was wearing a baseball cap). This strand of hair I found was a length that would be way past your shoulders. I have to mention this to make it clear because I know that people might just assume that it could possibly be my hair. Additionally, this hair I found was like pierced through a portion of a single noodle like some kind of bead on a necklace. That's how stuck the hair was to the noodle.

I notified the waitress of this. They apologized on behalf of the restaurant and offered to get a new bowl of Tantanmen for me, which I accepted. When the new bowl of Tantanmen was brought out, everything seemed alright, at first. As I was almost done with it, I was using my spoon to scoop up some of the broth and the bits of meat and noodles that were left over. I then saw a short piece of hair in the broth on my spoon. I was stunned. Like you have got to be kidding me. Again?

A different waitress cleaning the table right next to me noticed that I had found something. Before they looked at my spoon, they suggested that perhaps it could be a bean sprout. But once I showed them my spoon up close and personal, and even pointed directly at it, they knew that it was 100% hair. They apologized for the incident and then took my spoon with the hair to show to the kitchen.

The real crazy thing, though, is that the waitress told me that this had happened to them before. Apparently they had a prior incident in which a customer had found hair in their ramen, 2 times in a row, like me. The waitress said that they thought the customer had planted the hair purposely into their dish. But after witnessing this happen to me, they realized that the issue was genuinely real.

I am not mad, just disappointed. I do think that they handled the situation well since they 1) Apologized, 2) remade my order, 3) Comped my order so I was not charged for it, and 4) The waitresses were kind and attentive. However, I think that this restaurant should still be held accountable, and others should be made aware. To whoever plans on eating here, please carefully look at each bite you are about to take, to make sure it isn't contaminated. To the kitchen, please work on the hygiene. The fact that I am not the only person to find hair in their food back to back at this place is wild. Also, I just looked at some of your reviews right now. I saw one from 4 months ago where someone found a dead fly in their dish. All these incidents are unacceptable. Seeing that these issues have repeated says a lot. I wish I took a picture of the hairs, but I was honestly just so disgusted in the moment, that my mind did not think to take a picture. The only picture I have is of my food before I ate it. I'll post it here to show the food I ordered.

Please yall, maybe wear hair nets in the kitchen if you're not doing so already. Food safety is extremely important. I will not be coming back here because I do not have trust in the hygiene of this restaurant. Please look into the preparation of your veggies, noodles, meat, and broth to determine where the hair is falling into, and prevent it from...

Some positive but a mostly negative experience my girlfriend, sister and I had at Menya Musashi, with lots of opportunities to be had.

The positive; the curry ramen was delicious, especially the broth, as was the texture of the hot and cold noodles. Bathrooms were clean and the overall atmosphere was pleasant.

The negative; Service. The general waitstaff was cordial, but our server was cold and hardly amiable. We were denied ordering drinks and appetizers first, with her stating that she 'generally takes the order at once' and would come back when we were ready. If this is the restaurants prerogative, so be it, just something I can't see that would make guests who value the option of more than one course want to return.

Now for the food; it came out timely in about 15 minutes but staggered, with one ramen hitting the table a few minutes before the other two, then the side order of the katsu chicken with tartar and octopus balls a few minutes later still. To be fair I would rather get the ramen asap while it's hot, which we did, but an opportunity nonetheless.

As for the side dishes, the octopus balls were soft, soggy and a bit undercooked. Very underwhelming. The Japanese style chicken with tartar was also undercooked, leaving a few thicker pieces of the chicken quite pink and very soft and slimy. When I pointed this out to a staff member passing by, presumably a busser, he said 'it's not undercooked that's just the cut of chicken we use' without so much as a quick glance at the chicken. Now I've worked in a kitchen for over 7 years, I know the difference between a pink thigh and a raw one.

Finally the pork belly. Every good tonkatsu needs to be accompanied with great pork. The portion was ok, about 3.5-4oz. The texture was good but the flavor overwhelmingly tasted like a grease fire, or like it was seared in burned oil. If you sear something with hot oil, try not to let the oil catch on fire. It may look awesome but when over done it will come out with an inedible taste, like ours did.

Our server never came to check on us, in fact no one did after dining for over an hour. After getting the attention of another staff member we were finally cashed out by someone else, never to see our server again.

Ps the chairs were the equivalent of sitting on a pressure treated wood plank. I remember school chairs being way more comfortable than the ones at...

Another great ramen place in Capitol Hill, but probably most well known for their tsukemen! I like that they have something called the "hybrid", which is a mixed broth of their red and black broths. Overall, great noodles and ranks as one of my favorite ramen places in Seattle. Whenever somebody asks me for tsukemen recommendations in Seattle, I always refer to Menya.

Food I got the black ramen because I love the garlic taste in ramen! Be warned, the broth is pretty heavy though (which makes it more delicious) and a little on the salty side. But these two factors make the noodles taste amazing. The pork belly is seared perfectly and there is a good ratio of meat:fat on it. Highly recommend getting extra if you like pork belly.

My girlfriend got the hybrid tsukemen because she wanted to try both the red and black flavors and our server let us know that the hybrid is fairly popular. The tsukemen have wide, flat noodles that make it so easy to pick up and dip in the broth. In addition they are so tasty!

The takoyaki has a lot of fun sauces that you put on top and is a lot of fun to choose from! If you can't choose just one, then go for the half & half. We got the mentaiko and curry, and personally I liked the curry one more! I wish they would lay more of the sauce on top of the takoyaki balls.

Atmosphere A casual spot that has a lot of paintings and drawings on the walls. Nothing too fancy here and it feels a little too decorative with the paintings and swords. That being said, it's not that noticeable since they are high up on the walls and you will be looking down at your yummy food.

Pricing Standard prices for ramen in the Seattle area. I would come again since the food is so good for the price. There is some happy hour options that are good deals.

Service The service here is excellent and the server was very nice and checked in frequently to make sure everything was okay.

Other CARD ONLY ESTABLISHMENT!!! They do...