Yatai Ramen Bar Cape Town Review

A Plumber, A Leak & A Ramen Date

Wednesday evening I was treated to a delicious dinner at the new Japanese restaurant, Yatai RamenBar. It is from the same owners of the restaurant just above it called Nikkei.

Now, not that it’s any of your business, but I feel like giving you all a little inside scoop to my life.

Early Tuesday morning I noticed a not so nice leak coming from my toilet. A very unhappy me messages my landlord about this issue. He got back to me very quickly and said not to worry there will be a plumber there my noon. Luckily for me, I can work from anywhere since I just need WiFi and sometimes a plug. I got into my comfortable clothing, hung up some washing and set off to work.

Noon comes around, and I see a beautiful specimen of a human walking towards me with a bucket. Oh no, this is the plumber. I quickly got up and, to my horror, showed him the leaking toilet, of all things. It was a quick fix, and off he went. I sent him a message to thank him for his service and next thing you know, we are planning a date. Cute, I know. So, now that you’re all caught up. Let’s get into the review.

The Atmosphere at Yatai Ramen Bar

We met at the entrance at 6pm sharp. There are two set dinner times. 6pm or 8pm, it was a school night so 6pm it was. We were quickly greeted and taken to our table. The waitresses were beautifully dressed and the decor was incredible. It is moody and has darker tones to it with cherry blossom flowers lit up in the windows with pink lights. It is very sleek, I quite liked it.

I was driving, so I opted for sparkling water. As per usual, no complaints there.

And so it Begins

After a couple of minutes of chatting, we were surprised with a complimentary starter that consisted of a dish that looked like an egg yolk but was actually miso soup. It was delicious, it just pops in your mouth and you get that wonderful rich umami flavour. The other dish was a savoury egg custard topped with some sort of crumble and mushrooms. This was alright, I enjoyed the different textures but the flavours were a bit dull.

Soon after, our waitress came back to take our order. We decided to share everything, because that is always more fun. We chose four small plates and then two ramens. What is really nice about Yatai is they give you the option to order a smaller ramen. I think this is a fantastic idea if you’re wanting to try their other dishes and slurp up some ramen noodles.

Small Plates Worth Sharing

For the smaller plates, we ordered the prawn dumplings, red Roman sashimi, miso buttered eggplant and the tempura oysters.

Prawn Dumplings

I absolutely loved the dumplings! They were incredibly fresh, the prawns were perfectly cooked, and there was a good amount of garlic, and if I’m not mistaken, ginger. I was a bit confused that they didn’t come with any sauce, but they honestly didn’t need it.

Red Roman Sashimi with Papaya

My favourite dish was the sashimi. Oh my word, I never thought to mix papaya with fish but it is fantastic. The soft and syrupy fruit with the buttery fish, it just complimented each other perfectly.

Miso Buttered Eggplant

The eggplant dish was good, however there was too much miso coated on it so it was incredibly overpowering. If you scrap about half of the butter off, it is delicious.

Tempura Oysters

Now for the oyster, this one really surprised me. I had never had a fried oyster before, but I am so happy I have now. It was just an explosion of flavour! There was quite a bit of soy sauce in it but it worked so well. I think it may have cut some of the richness from the tempura making it a very well balanced dish.

Ramen Showdown – Kingklip vs Wagyu

Can you believe it, we still had mains on the way. I ordered the kingklip and my date (cute) ordered the wagyu ramen. Our food arrived and I was incredibly excited to dig in. Realising in this moment, ramen isn’t the best option for a first date. I’m not exactly sure how to eat it in a cutesy matter, and best believe I did not.

Kingklip Ramen

Personally, I really enjoyed my first mouthful. No, it didn’t look very elegant, but the taste made up for the noodles hanging out of my mouth. The broth was silky and full of flavour and the noodles were perfectly chewy. The broth had a slight sweetness to it, but in such a delightful way. I must say that my favourite part of this dish were the noodles coated in this moreish broth. The fish however was on the bland side and the egg was overcooked. Other than that, I really enjoyed my meal.

Wagyu Ramen

Before almost devouring my meal, my date asked me if we could taste test each other’s food.
Thankfully for him, there was a bit left for him to try.
We switched bowls and I took a nice big bite of his steak. It was perfectly cooked and tender, I cannot fault it. However, the broth was a bit on the salty side. It was all just a bit too rich for me.
We agreed that I indeed had the better ramen, thankfully he gave me my bowl back and of course I polished it.

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