West Brew Izakaya — Restaurant in West Reading

First of all, I admire the effort of the owners to bring more and more new businesses and eateries to the West Reading area. I have frequented Takkii Ramen previously with no issues and was excited to try this new location. Unfortunately, West Brew Izakaya does not live up to the Takkii Ramen West Reading legacy.

Product standards and customer service have noticeably declined at this new location. Although the customer service can be excused do to their recent opening, I'm not inclined to believe product quality will improve without effort. The quality of their rice bowls have clearly declined. Meat is chewy, the amount of sauce was such that it was more of a soup than a rice bowl, food was cold, egg yolk already broken before it arrived at the table, and the saltiness was next level. I've ordered a similar dish many times previously at Takkii Ramen with no issues. I even ordered a bowl of rice to try to combat the overwhelming feeling that I was drinking soy sauce, but unfortunately I was still not able to finish my dinner. I also ordered no scallions, and yet there were still scallions throughout the dish as if they had been added by mistake and then removed. This was not an issue for me as my request was due to personal preference, but this could be a problem for those with food allergies.

The owner was made aware of the sauce/salty concerns when he came to check on the table, and his only comment was letting us know the side of rice that we ordered had been placed without asking any questions or discussing the issue further. Customer service starts at the ownership level.

I hope to make this a constructive review and provide some suggestions. I would suggest allowing those who are there for the bar to enjoy the cool, new, social atmosphere that has been created while still giving care and attention to your food that those in the community have grown to love. I would suggest taking a moment to understand each and every minor concern that is brought up in an effort to always foster improvement or set better expectations for customers. This is especially important in these first few months. I would suggest working on a way to increase efficiency and decrease wait times. Our wait was over an hour. I would suggest being more careful of special requests or checking if guests have food allergies before serving them food with remnants of ingrediants that they specially asked be excluded.

I look forward to trying this place again in a few months and maybe ordering some ramen. I'm optimistic that there's room for improvement, but I hope some time is taken to get back to the basics that were being flawlessly executed at their...

First time at Izakaya and I am feeling a bit mixed about my experience. I came with a party of 6, we ordered ramen and rice. The service needs improvement. The waitresses were amazing, they were attentive, kind, interactive and they deserve the best because that was probably the best part of the experience but the actual service of when food arrived was disappointing. A good restaurant has a table’s entrees should come out AT the same time not one or two then another 20 minutes 2 more come out then 10 minutes later another comes out. It felt very awkward for our table to have some people eating and some people sitting there waiting. Also the rice bowl had great flavor but the rice was so incredibly mushy that it tasted like a paste. Not sure if it was overcooked or what. I’ve had plenty of sticky rice, all levels of sticky, in my life and this was just not it. The chicken could’ve used more sauce or flavor to keep it moist and the bean sprouts would’ve been better if it was added to the dish raw (or at least that should’ve been an option). The ramen was pretty mediocre. When it says a ramen is going to be spicy, it should be spicy but it wasn’t. Overall, the tofu was good and so were the appetizer wings, I would order those again. But the overall experience was pretty mid/average, I’ve had better experiences at other Japanese restaurants in...

Stopped by last night after a long day, craving some ramen. The ramen came out lukewarm and the chasu pork tasted old. This is not the first time I've order ramen to receive a lukewarm bowl of food, even at their old location. As I was leaving I mentioned to the owner that my ramen didn't come out hot and that was incredibly disappointing. He told me he said something to the kitchen and it was because they were preparing to close. I did arrive about an hour before closing, but to use that as an excuse as to why my ramen wasn't hot was just as disappointing as the lukewarm bowl. I paid the same amount for my bowl as someone who came earlier in the day, quality and customer service shouldn't decrease just because I arrived later in the evening. As a restaurant, you can chose to not serve more complex dishes closer to closing for this reason!

The owner not really providing further customer service beyond saying "I said something to the kitchen, it's because they were preparing to close..." Him providing excuses for the lukewarm bowl made me feel like I was in the Twilight zone. Nothing further was done, no offer to make it right in any sense. I left with my bowl of ramen now packed in a to-go container to heat up at home.

There are other ramen places in the area, no reason to patronize a restaurant who can't provide hot food...