Youta Ramen — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

So we've been waiting more than 2 years for this place to open. Finally!

So we went on a Thursday right at 5pm when they open. They open for lunch, then again for dinner.

The atmosphere is confirming and actually more traditional\authentic than most of the stale \sterile ramen places. The staff is very accommodating and polite. Menus are digital from a QR code which I'm not a fan of, especially when CloudFlare failed on my first 3 requests.

The menu is pretty simple, a handful of appetizers, a bun, salad, a few rice dishes and a few ramen dishes.

We got the traditional\original Youta ramen, the black garlic Youta ramen, karaage Tori, char shu and assorted tempura.

Clearly everything was fantastic. However I need to remove 1 star for the ramen noodle itself. As the broth is really delicate and truly something to comfort, they paired it with a type of white noodle which was too stiff to be served. If they poached the noodle a bit longer it would release starch into the broth so wrong noodle.

The right noodle would be the yellowish ramen with more punch in the bite. I did enjoy myself very much but the right noodle makes all the difference.

Please note that the broth they serve is tonkotsu or vegetable (yuck). Of course I got pork broth (come on vegans let's dance).

Again this place deserves 5 stars for everything about it, but I feel they need to change their noodle as it doesn't pair well with such a delicate broth.

I will return many times.

EDIT: Been about 2 years since our last visit. Menus are printed (no longer QR-based), menu expanded a bit and food is just as good if not a bit better. I am upping them to 5 stars because they stuck to their format and barely budged. I didn't see the vegetable broth (yay) but they did add a few things which are exciting to see. They sacrifice nothing! For what they are, they deserve my extremely rare 5 stars. I complained about the stiffness of their noodles and they did not listen. Why does this deserve 5 stars? Because integrity matters! They have it and...

The food here was fine, but the service was the worst I’ve experienced. After seeing this restaurant on social media and all the positive reviews, I drove over an hour to try this place out. I came here for dinner with two other people and was seated at the counter. While the servers weren’t rude, they basically forgot we existed.

We sat down around 5:50 PM, ordered at 5:55, and received our appetizers within a few minutes. We finished them around 6:20, but then waited over 30 minutes for our ramen. Meanwhile, the table behind us, a group of six, was seated after us but received their appetizers, ramen, and even dessert before we got our ramen. In fact, they had finished eating and their table was cleared by the time our ramen finally arrived.

We never received any compensation, explanation, or even an apology for the delay. The only acknowledgment was a "Your ramen is coming" after we had already waited 20 minutes—yet it still didn’t arrive. Another 10 minutes passed, and we saw other tables (who were seated even later than us) getting their food before we did. Only then did we get another update: "It’s coming in a minute." It did not come in a minute.

It wasn’t until we were awkwardly sitting there, making eye contact with the waitress and bartender, that they finally checked on our order. Their response? "It’s coming now. They’re adding the toppings."

I understand that service can be slow on a busy Saturday night, but there should have been better communication with our group. It felt like because we were sitting at the counter, our order was just forgotten. If I had known it would take this long with such poor service, I would have just paid for my...

Excellent high quality dining experience.

Super friendly staff, yummy food. Beautifully decorated space. I would definitely recommend this place and return again to try the rest of the menu.

Kanpachi carpaccio 9/10, $16 🐠

Perfect combination of soft fish and flavorful sauce. Sauce taste like a combination of rice wine vinegar and soy sauce so it's sweet and tangy at the same time.

Youta tonkotsu ramen 9/10, $18 🍜

Relatively pricey for ramen but their chashu is MUCH better than the average ramen place. Their bamboo shoots are real, and the egg is perfectly marinated. It tasted fresh, but it's also a rich oily broth.

Tori karaage 8/10, $10 🐔

Crispy outside, savory and meaty inside. Big boneless pieces.

Assorted mushroom salad 8/10, $16🍄

This is an excellent salad with lots of flavor and quality mushrooms with some fluffy cheese on top. It's perfect if you want to keep things light and healthy.

Mushroom bun 8/10, $6 🍄

Lots of quality mushroom in this bun. If you like mushroom you will love this bun. It has more flavor and toppings than the chashu bun.

Shishamo tempura 7/10, $10 🐠

The quantity is worth it but I find the fish flavor to be too strong for me. The frying was well done though. If you like fish head etc you would enjoy it

Chashu bun 7/10, $6 🐷

Lots of chashu in this bun to warrant the $6. I think it'd be better with more topping and/or sauce. The bun and pork kinda cancel out the bbq flavor.

Mango parfait 7/10 $12 🥭

This is a nice dessert I like the mango sauce, cereal/ biscuits and cream. The mango pieces and vanilla ice cream were ok. I would try the matcha or...