I REALLY wanted to like this place and was very much looking forward to trying it out based on the reviews and its reputation. Unfortunately, my wife and I did not have a good experience tonight.

First of all, the restaurant is very clearly understaffed. We came in and were put on the waitlist. Unlike most other people on the waitlist, we decided to stay inside the restaurant during the wait. Our wait was 25-30 minutes, which was pretty much in line with the estimate we were given. During our wait, however, I got a chance to observe the service. A woman already sitting at the bar when we first came in only got her order of ramen about three minutes before we got our table. Multiple drivers picking up takeout orders had to wait up to 10 minutes for their orders. One driver in particular was picking up three orders from this restaurant. The first order was ready right when we were placed on the waitlist. The second order was ready about 10 minutes into our wait. The third was not ready when we got our table. That's over a 25 minute wait for the driver inside the restaurant, meaning the first two orders would undoubtedly be cold already by the time they were going to be delivered. And of course it would be the driver who would be blamed and get a lower tip, not the restaurant. The manager and hostess basically just kept shrugging their shoulders and kept telling the guy to wait.

We were 11th on the waitlist in the beginning. By the time we were third in line, the manager asked a family of three (mother, father and young adult son) standing behind my wife and myself if they were still waiting for a table. They answered yes and the manager started whispering to the hostess, clearly trying to move them up in line, in fact telling them "I'll see what I can do". We ended up getting a table at the same time as them, but this left a really sour taste in my mouth and I was going to make a bigger deal out of it if we had to wait longer. Why have a waitlist at all then?

In regards to the service during the meal, our waitress was a young woman who was very sweet and helpful with the menu. Unfortunately, the last time we saw her during the meal service was when she took the order. It later took her 13 minutes to process my credit card payment. No asking if everything was to our liking, if we needed anything else, or of that sort. I do not blame her at all, like I said, the restaurant does not have nearly enough people employed.

In regards to the food itself. It was fine. Good. Solid. Nothing mind-blowing and I don't really understand the 4.8 rating. We ordered the pork buns, takoyaki and salmon/tuna cones as well as the Tonkotsku Black ramen and the Spicy Umami Miso ramen. I am from New York originally and have traveled extensively through Japan. I've eaten my fair share of great ramen. This was OK and I was honestly left disappointed based on the hype that perhaps I created in my head. I've had better ramen in DC (at a well known place in Adams Morgan, for example). My wife's portion of the Spicy Umami was also considerably larger than my Tonkotsu Black. Not sure what that was about.

All in all, I was going to leave a 3/5 but the service, or lack thereof, dropped it to a 2/5.