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| - X marks the spot when it comes to good service, here at Ramen Tatsu. I arrived at opening time this past Sunday (02/12 at 11:30), and was greeted by a young, very bright and enthusiastic female server, who told me I could sit anywhere; I chose the booth closest to the door.
She immediately placed a full water glass and menu on my table, then went about some other duties. When I was ready to order she magically appeared and efficiently took my order, repeated it back to me for confirmation and whisked away to the back with my menu in tow. All the while, more customers were filing in to the place, and she didn't miss a beat with any of them.
In good time, she returned with a steaming bowl of miso ramen and a small plate of chahan (I chose regular fried rice over kimchi fried rice). The chahan was decent, with a nice bit of wok flavor (I dropped the left over chahan at my mother's, and she thought it was excellent), and the miso ramen was just what I needed after a couple days of hard driving. The broth was hot, flavorful, with firm noodles, plenty of bean sprouts, corn, green onion and chasshuu. While it wasn't as good as a bowl of Misoya Tomi's miso ramen (they're actually closed now), it was pretty dang good. The highlight of the dish was the chasshuu, with excellent flavor in the lean part, and of course, a lot of flavor on the fatty part, which was plentiful.
After drinking the bowl dry, I pushed the bowl away and almost immediately after, the server dropped the check at my table, and asked me if I wanted a box for the left overs. When she returned with the box, she parted with a warm/polite "thank you".
The industry needs more servers like her. I hope this server, and many more like her, decide to make it their role in life to do this job, and do it well - especially in small, hole-in-the-wall places like Ramen Tatsu. Who knows, maybe she's the owner, and if so, thank God.
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