Little Ari's Japanese Kitchen — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

Little Ari is an offshoot of Arigato, same food except they don’t cook in front of you. The menu board is on the wall with items numbered, so you order in the proper sequence. My sister has eaten here before, so she knew the ordering drill. At the counter, you order your main & size (regular or light), then your rice choice, a veggie and 2 sauces. Here’s what she ordered: Hibachi Shrimp Light, fried rice, zucchini/onions but no onions and 2 white sauces. I think he was new but he was stumped at shrimp “light”. He called a girl over and she asked her if by “light” she meant the appetizer? She said no and pointed to the menu board that had the size choices. The girl said, ok and told him what to press. He then asked her if she wanted broccoli. Broccoli isn’t even a veggie choice and she said no, she wanted the zucchini/onions but no onions. He said so you want double zucchini, that’s a dollar extra? No, just no onions. He called the girl over again and she said it couldn’t be ordered that way because the zucchini and onions were together. My sister mentioned she had ordered it that way a week ago with no problem. They insisted she couldn’t. I wanted to point out that they aren’t mixed because you can get double zucchini. My sister was a really good sport and just let it go and got double zucchini and paid the dollar. I ordered the Hibachi Shrimp Light, which again seemed to stump him. He explained that if we didn’t say what we wanted in the proper order, the computer was confusing so he would just ask me questions. Fine with me. Broccoli? I asked does it come with broccoli? Only if you want it. So I said sure. Rice? Fried. Veggie? Zucchini/onions. Sauce? 1 ginger and 1 white. Drink? Yes. Tea or soda? (They are self serve but I guess it’s an inventory thing so I said tea. You get a buzzer, sit down and then go back up to get your food. The food was good but it should be noted that in the combined zucchini/onions I got a pile of onions and literally 1 strip and 1 piece of zucchini. Again, the food was good but some serious training needs to be done. The manager was standing there but he never got involved. I doubt...

I always said I wish arigato's was open for lunch but if you're in the mood for arigato's and it's before the time they open then this place kind of meets that. I got the white and mustard sauce which I was pleasantly surprised because it reminded me of arigato's sauces. I ordered a steak and shrimp combo with zucchini and onions and a teriyaki chicken lunch special. Steak and shrimp combo was okay but the teriyaki chicken lunch special was a disappointment they actually put the side salad on the same plate with the hot food and my order was to go. I asked if the salad would be on the side and the cashier said yes so I take it that since it was in a different compartment of the plate that meant the side. When I went back to the counter to ask about the mushrooms that were left off my steak I was ignored by staff and had to get someone's attention before someone acknowledged me. I would only return if there were no reservations available at arigato's. I almost forgot I counted five ServSafe certificates while waiting for my mushrooms. ServSafe certificates gives the restaurant added points to their score and I think their score was a 96 and each ServSafe certificate is 2 points so do the math. Had I seen this prior to ordering I would have walked out. The next time I'm in the area I will go by and take a picture cuz I'm pretty sure the owner or operator will try to dispute this and also this is public knowledge if you go to the Forsyth county health department website you can see all inspections and grades and serve safe certificates presented...

Good service, nice dining area, and food was ready relatively quickly. I ordered the shoyu ramen with pork loin and paid an extra $1 for “spicy” and extra $1 for veggies. The soup came in a large bowl with two playing card slices of tender pork (that was good) and about a cup and a half of ramen noodles (not bad), bean sprouts and spring onions (standard, I hope; see below), and filled to the brim with soy sauce based broth (ok but nothing special). “Spicy” translated into a little side cup with about 1 teaspoon of minced hot pepper. Apparently “spicy” is a DIY upgrade, as opposed to the addition of a blend of tasty herbs and spices that you usually get in a ramen joint. And “veggies” translated in about a half cup of overcooked, boiled, unseasoned zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, and (mostly) cabbage. (I’m assuming that the bean sprouts and diced spring onions were part of the basic ramen bowl and not the veggie upgrade. I hope so.) Frankly, but for the pork (which was nice), I think the ramen overall was no better than you could make for yourself from ingredients from any grocery store for 1/3 the price. At least the fountain soda included free refills. Would probably not order ramen from here again. Would definitely not pay extra for spicy or veggies. I might return to try the hibachi since the service and...