New spot in Charlotte! Since I had some friends from out of town who wanted to try it, we decided to come here after a whim. Location was confusing and hidden. The GPS took us to the other side of the light rail since it wasn't visible to us while driving (maybe if you're taking the light rail you might see it). No parking next to the restaurant, so we walked around until I had to ask bystanders where this location was at.
Side note: I've had many friends told me this place was terrible but I didn't want to take their words for it. Gotta try it out for yourself before you make your own decision right? Well, maybe I should of listen to them after all.
So we started off with some hamachi sashimi slices and they weren't bad. Had a very sour taste to it but overall decent if they could tone down that sourness. Pork bellies bun were "Americanized" flavor of sweet bbq sauce, not much punch or flavors to it. Definitely not impressed.
As for the ramen, we all opted to try the Tonkatsu Ramen because how can you failed in something that's normally good at other ramen places? We all took one bite and went looking for the salt. The broth was so bland. No salt were to be found. So when the waitress came to check on us, I requested something salty to add to the broth. She brought out some condiments and we all dose ourselves with what looks like Japanese "salt seasoning". Even with that, it left a weird after-taste. Usually when creating the broth for ramen, the broth has to be cooked for hours to create a sweet flavorful broth. However, after attempting 5 bites of this bowl, we all quickly agreed that even with the store bought Ramen packages - it would probably tasted even better than this! My friend took two more bites & eventually gave up, stating she can't eat this anymore. "It's just not good", she said. I didn't want to waste foods so I attempted to finish it but eventually gave in when our other friend said she's also done. Basically we all didn't even finished our meals and asked for the check and left. We ended up driving to Rusan's instead.
Service was awesome btw. Our waitress was great. Very cute setting but limited seatings. Foods, however were mediocre. I should of listen to all my Asian friends who said this place doesn't hold up to its hype. Hey, at least we gave it a try. Please do some more researches on how real Ramen broth or legit ramen restaurants i.e from Los Angeles or maybe Japan themselves before opening a restaurant in Charlotte.