JA Ramen — Restaurant in Tucson

Not so good, unfortunately. My 1st visit left me feeling underwhelmed, in that I did not feel welcomed there in the slightest: no greeting, slow to act, slow to respond. The people who worked there and made our food seemed disinterested and bothered by our presence. The vibe in the place seemed negative and dirty. The food at the time however was good enough to consider coming back a second time, which was today. My wife and I were hoping it was just a few people having a bad day the 1st time we went, but it doesn't seem the case. No greeting, no welcome, no smiles and very little communication. What we got a lot of was dirty looks, rolling eyes and body language I can only describe as coming from someone who seemed disgusted to serve us. An elderly man came from the back room to whom I nodded and smiled, only to receive a glare and a frown. It is not my intention to target unduly, this was a truly bad experience... Again. I have never felt so unwelcomed and out of place in a place like this... Never. As a business owner and operator here in Tucson, I would never treat my clients as my wife and I were treated at JA Ramen. You have to take care of the people who take care of your business, period, and especially when receiving warm and glad tidings... Even in our genuine kindness we had been treated poorly. It was so bad that I could not help but hope they wouldn't do anything unclean to our food. They were just so unfriendly... So unkind and did not seem happy to serve us at all, and we didn't do anything to deserve that. For our own reasons we choose not to get into, we do feel discriminated against... It is very difficult not to get that impression from the staff in that place. This time, the food just isn't good enough for us to want to come back... With a sad heart. The whole experience was just too ugly. We will never again visit this place or spread a good word... And because it is not my intention to speak ill, after this post I'll never speak of JA Ramen again.

"Do not judge by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." -Rev. Martin...

So far, this is almost similar to my favorite Japanese restaurant in Cali, here in tucson its hard to find a decent Japanese restaurant that will click to my taste and my family.. I ordered chicken katsu over rice which is one of my favorite dish, the flavor is really great but lacks condiments and side dishes, the chopped cabbage doesn't even have anything on it just plain cabbage, maybe if there is a garlic dressing or whatever dressing you want it would definitely make a difference.

My other concern is the serving.. for $11+ at least give me a bigger cut or portion of the meat, even the rice serving didn't make the cut or include the fountain drink in the meal. Maybe be a little less stingy on your serving. I have two picture included for comparison, one is from JA Ramen and another is from one of my favorite Japanese restaurant and its not even $10. Comes with drink, salad and a miso soup on side and it tastes better than Ja Ramen. Im not saying that Ja Ramen is bad, taste wise its pretty good too.

Me and my brother were disappointed on the customer service too, looks like the guy on the order taking spot is spaced out, not sure if he's smoking something on his break or what.

Would I recommend this place? yes, this is just me and my opinion based on my experience. We as customers deserves better and I hope my opinion would be heard and make...

I had tofu in their veggie broth and it was very tasty, HOWEVER, they didn't have many options that I could eat besides that. They can do their soups without noodles if you can't have grains, but i think they could've put more veggies. I loved their seaweed salad. I would definitely come back for these two items, but the workers there were terribly uninformed about food. They did not know that rice is a grain. I had to repeat myself, saying i can't have rice, and they didn't get it because rice is gluten free, they assumed i can have it, but that's not my issue. I had to explain myself to them, which really shouldn't have been necessary, but the servers that day weren't too bright 😒. They also did not know that corn is a grain. I don't expect everyone to know everything about special diets, but come on, at least know some basics if you work in food service. When I've worked food service, I had to fight for customers' rights to get the food that suits their diet, when my coworkers wouldn't take it seriously, but that's another can of worms... I really feel like this restaurant could have more options for different diets...