Sama Zama

The Ramen was delicious. Everything looked really delicious on other peoples tables too. The seaweed salad was good, different then what I’m used to with wontons mixed in. Overall it was a very good experience! I’ll definitely be going back

I was ASK TO LEAVE the restaurant by the owner (I think she is the owner or a relative of the owner, she is the bigger Japanese woman) her exact words were” if you cannot wait, you can go somewhere else. We don’t need this!“
I haven’t really gotten time to write this review but this is on my list because I need to let people know how you will be treated.
I was there on Friday with my boyfriend and a co-​worker. They dropped me off to get a table and went park the car as you know how parking can be around Westport. I went in first and this Japanese woman greeted me at the door and I said we have a party of 3. She ask me to wait which I did. There were a few tables available and she went straight to the kitchen and did not come back for like 5 mins until the other staff seated us. I have been there a few times and I would say this is the busiest I have ever seen them gotten, they are clearly understaffed. Anyway, I sat and I waited another 10−15minutes and nobody came by our table. Then my bf and coworker showed up and looked through the menu and were ready to order. Up to this point (at least 25 mins has gotten by) no one has even gave us a water. So my co-​worker, who came in 15 mins later than me, got impatient and ask the other staff if we can order or at least get something to drink first and she was really nice and kind of felt bad we have been waiting and said“of course, give me second” and then left again. Then this Japanese woman came to our table and that is when it all started. She went pass us first and came by and asked «have you been helped yet?» I was pretty upset about not getting served, so I sad” no, we have not even gotten a water.” This woman then completely lost it!!! She yelled“you know what, if you cannot wait, you can leave! There a lot of restaurants around here, so you can go!!” … For like a good 5 seconds I did not know what was happening and could not believe what just happened. I did not know why but I said to her” we can wait…” Hahahaha, cannot believe I didn’t walk out of the door right then. Then she said” no, no, no, you cannot wait, so you should just leave!” and she left us there. 3 of us are in complete disbelieve and sat there for like a minute and got up left…
She said something about” you have been here before and we don’t like it.” Or something, I don’t quite remember, but she meant I have always been impatient with them. Really? Are you serious?! First of all you need to admit you have the slowest service because you are so understaffed! Second of all, the only time I was served by her and had ever expressed my concerns with time is when I took my advisee to there on a 2 hours lunch break. I asked her how long the dessert was gonna take before I even ordered it because I knew I won’t have time to wait. She said 3 – 5 mins and I said fine we will order the dessert. Then the dessert came within a pretty decent time and we were happy and left satisfied. When did I Ever! Ever! Ever! complaint to you about your slow service?? ! !
I understand they had a pretty big party that night and was understaffed which is why she was stressed out and flipped out on us. But really? I have not ever, in the history of eating at a restaurant, rudely, not even politely, asked to leave the restaurant… She humiliated us in front of other customers!!!
I don’t think I was being a jerk for saying we didn’t even gotten a water since we got there because was speaking the truth. I was probably not saying that in my nicest voice because I consider a couple of water first for someone who had to wait for you to serve is reasonable requests!!! A normal owner would have apologized and asked us to understand there is a bigger party. We would be like ok, we like your food and we will wait… That was just too much to ask!
So, if you planning on going there, you want to make sure you can wait! If you don’t think you can, apparently you are not a good customer to them and will be asked to leave.
If you have gotten good service from this woman before and you don’t believe what I am saying, go back when they are busy! When they clearly don’t have enough people to run the place and won’t even admit they have a problem. She blamed the problem on the customers because she believes as a good customer, you will need to be patient and cannot mind waiting forever, and cannot complaint about slow service, and need to be ready to leave the restaurant when you are already starving from all the waiting.
BTW, other staffs there are great, they clearly aware their service is slow because they don’t have enough people working, so they are extra nice. I recommended this place to a lot of people and I even have my office made a large group order couple times. But if you dine in, don’t expect fast service.
Of course this place is dead to me now and I will tell everyone who i recommended this place to, which is a lot of people, not to go there anymore!

Plenty of reviews here already, so I’ll keep it short. This is a great location and nice atmosphere. Service is a bit slow and expected so for any Asian restaurant, so come with a bit of patience. Tonkotsu Ramen isn’t as robust in flavor as I expected, still pretty good. Great appetizer options, but the steak teriyaki was very chewy.
This leaves the Lawrence Ramen Shop the best in the KC area for ramen. If you can’t drive that far for Ramen, this isn’t a bad place to settle. I’ll def come back.
Cheers.

Great place for Vegetarians to eat in Kansas City.
I’ve been going to this restaurant for about three years. It seems that each time I go it is more and more busy, which makes me happy because this is a great place for vegetarians to eat.
The atmosphere is very nice. Its clean and not too loud, which is why I like to go to this place with friends that I’m trying to have more intimate conversation with. This means its a great place to go if you want to have drinks, appetizers, and conversation– a nice alternative to the more noisy haunts of westport. There are great options for vegetarians and vegans (they got an award from the PITCH for best TOFU in Kansas City). The drink menu is very affordable and they have some very interesting and tasty concoctions.
They have a lot of variety in the food, and I have not even tried all the vegetarian options yet. They make their own sauces they you can buy if you like. The house salad dressing is amazing. The hostess and wait staff are also very friendly. This is just a really great chill place to go get tasty vegetarian food and connect with friends.

I took my son and daughter here because they wanted to try restaurant ramen. We were all very underwhelmed. We paid $ 50 for a lunch that none of us really enjoyed. My kids got the pork ramen. They had a lot of bean sprouts in them and the broth was pretty flavorless and cloudy. I had the Yaki Udon noodles. They were decent but really just kind of flavorless. Perhaps authentic Japanese cuisine just isn’t for us.

Ordered the tonkatsu ramen and tofu, but they did live up to their hype. Although both were good, I would say that they were a little overpriced for the portion that they give you. The interior is very clean and modernized so that’s a plus. Our server was pretty «chill» and casual. Overall, it was an ok experience.

Upon hearing that there are three new ramen places opening in Kansas City, I thought I would write a review for the best ramen I’ve had so far here. This place is trendily decorated with sliding doors for the restrooms (don’t pull them!!). There’s usually one server for the whole restaurant with a surly manager that will help once in a while. The pork katsu is wonderfully crispy and delicious. The best dish is their tonkotsu (pork broth) spicy ramen. The char siu pork in it is reminiscent of Gomatei in Honolulu. The broth is delicious without being too salty. There’s a spicy ramen challenge that I have been tempted to try, but have not worked up enough courage to. Everything I’ve tried so far has been good.

I had their Okonomiyaki (a first for me) and it was delicious!!! Went on a Sunday @ 5pm, was not busy, had a few people. Service was great. Am excited to go back and try more dishes I haven’t had before!

Soul noodles
A friend told me about this place because I was craving some really tasty ramen. I went to check it out and it exceeded my expectations. First and foremost, the interior was so clean and modern. I loved the attention to detail starting from the sumo wrestler prints in the bathrooms to the pictures of the owner with different Japanese baseball players. As for the food, I tried the spicy tonkatsu ramen; it was fantastic. The broth was just the right amount of spicy. The noodles tasted fresh and the egg was boiled perfectly. All the food I ordered came right on time and I found the staff super friendly and helpful. Sama Zama has become my favorite joint in KC and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for some mouthwatering Japanese cuisine.
TREAT YO SELF.

They have a lot of items on the menu and I will admit I haven’t had as many items on the menu yet. I only get the tonkotsu ramen which has some heat to it. I love the egg they out in their ramen. The noodles were on point and the broth was rich. I just wasn’t really amazed with the entire flavor.

The wait and service was atrocious.
I arrived at around 7:30pm Friday night. There was only 2 servers on the floor and the restaurant was full. There was a sign that said ‘Please Wait to be Seated’ so my date and I stood there in the doorway. The servers just kept passing by back and forth and did not address us once. 15 mins later someone walks through the door and asks us if we have all been helped, and I said no. 10 mins later a table was clear and I finally got to sit.
We ordered the Shrimp/​Cheese, calamari, and takoyaki for apps. The appetizers had a bit of a wait. The calamari was a small portion so it was on the house, which was nice of them. I think the shrimp wonton thing we ordered wasnt worth the money. it was 4 pieces of large wonton wrapper with a tiny shrimp in it. it was good, but probably something I wont order again. takoyaki was wonderful!
The wait from appetizer to entrée was about 40 mins. 2 people that were seated next to me who ordered ramen sat down after us and recieved their entrée before us as well. even then maybe another 15 mins passed until we recieved our entrée. The server did mention the okonomi yaki took longer to prepare, but honestly not worth the wait. I personally did not like the pancake, my date didnt even want to finish it. he’s not big into japanese food anyway.
The ramen was great. I liked it alot! especially for not having much of a selection in KC.
The decrease in stars was due to the service. Food is great.
I will come back when I need a ramen fix for sure. Hopefully the service is better.

Came here again… and finished super frustrated.
I came last night to get the shaved ice for something sweet b4 going to bed… not good, they took the shave ice machine to a Japan Fest but they told me that it was going to be back and ready for today.
I went back today… and nothing. They have the machine back but it’s not connected so they will not serve. How hard is to plug a shave ice machine?, it seems very difficult for some people.
In another topic… they stopped serving brown rice too.
This restaurant doesn’t have the idea of running a good and consistent business.

If you have never had ramen before it’s NOT instant ramen. The noodles are fresh egg noodles and the broth shouldn’t be from a packet.
Food:
I got the spicy tonkotsu ramen. It will solve my ramen craving but I can’t say the ramen broth is quite «rich» or «full of flavor.». It wasn’t spicy at all and I had to ask for extra chili oil which kicked it up a notch. The nori (seaweed) was clearly old and had lost its crispiness.
Service:
Slow slow slow!!! I waited at the door for a while before anyone even approached me. There was no sign in and we were all just gathered at the door not knowing what to do. Even after getting seated, ordering took forever and getting the check took forever. Give yourself ample time if you’re going to come for dinner.

If you are lucky, you’ll get service here. But only if you’re lucky.
First issue: Terrible service
Went here the other night, the service is always slow here, but it was just ridiculous this time. We were seated and no one even came to check on our table for at least 15 minutes. We sat without water, just waiting.
Finally someone came to our table and said the other waiter was our server but that she would get our water.
Another 15 minutes rolls by and we finally get our waters. We were never acknowledged by the other server that we had been told would be helping us that evening so I told the person (same person who informed us that the other server was our waiter) who brought our water that no one had come by to take our order yet. She replied «Ok, I guess I’ll take your order then.»
We get our orders in and our appetizers arrive about 15 mins later. Our entrees took another 30 minutes after that. In between that time, a server NEVER came to our table to refresh our drinks. They were running around with water pitchers filling up other tables’ glasses, but ours was completely ignored.
When our entrees arrived, only 2 of the 3 came out. The other one was brought out about 10 minutes later. Not only was this awkward, but it seemed like they forgot about it because it was just 2 chicken terriyaki skewers.
Finally, I get to ask for some water when our entrees arrive. Waitress assures me she will get some right away. She wanders off and goes to attend another table. She NEVER brings any water to our table.
When the 3^rd entrée finally came out of the kitchen for our table, a different waitress brought it out and asked if we needed anything else. I ask for water for a second time. She assures me that she will go get some. She goes back to the kitchen, but doesn’t come back with any water. She then proceeds to tend to another table. I dont get my water until about 20 minutes later, when we are ready to leave.
We ask for our checks, we provide our cards, we’ve already been at this place for almost 2 hours. The waiter that takes our checks to run our cards proceeds to bus the dirty table next to us before running our cards, because, you know… everyone loves spending 2 and a half hours just getting dinner. We were very obviously ready to get the hell out of this place and they just take their sweet time.
Next issue: Drinks
Just don’t bother ordering the drinks there. The green tea cream soda quite literally has an after taste of fish food flakes. It did not taste like a cream soda at all. It tasted like green tea ice cream in water. So disgusting.
Friend got the cherry blossom cocktail, tastes like alcoholic cherry cough medicine.
The food is unique and good, but not nearly worth the frustration of dining here. Won’t ever return here after 2 similar experiences of just awful service. Train your wait staff or get new ones that understand how the restaurant business works.

Three things I love in a Westport Eatery. Quirky, fun, and good food. Sama Zama did not disappoint at all. Met a friend there for lunch on a Sunday. It was quiet and I really liked the furnishings and the simple clean design of the place.
I ordered the Tako Wasa (Raw Octopus in Wasabi Marinade), Octopus Balls (Get your head out of the gutter), and Shrimp Yaki Udon. The food was SO good. The Tako Wasa had just the right amount of wasabi. The octopus balls were crispy on the outside, soft in the center, and covered in Bonito flakes. The Udon was fried and quite a substantial portion.
I am debating going back for the Ramen Challenge, but that is for another day.

Service was completely slow during a Tuesday evening. It took 10 minutes to seated (with plenty of seating available), and another 20 for someone to come to the table to get our orders. I ordered the spicy ramen, which was decent and flavorful; however, it took another 20 – 30 minutes before our order even came out. The place was understaffed, we only saw one person in the kitchen.

I’m really indifferent to this place. Our server was preoccupied and uninformed. The place kind of feels just thrown together.
We started with edemame and a shrimp & cheese appetizer. They said they were out of what I ordered, so chicken teriyaki was my second choice. Good thing I ordered a side of rice. I wasn’t starving, but would’ve been pretty disappointed at the size of my Yakimono… although the flavor was nice. Come to find out it does come with rice, but I paid for it separately? I feel cheated. My friend had the spicy ramen. It looked great and she was happy with her dinner.
From talking with others, my experience isn’t the same as theirs. No hard feelings. I just don’t have the desire for a do over.

Really wanted to like this place.
Raw squid in wasabi sauce: over powering wasabi flavor.
Potato Croquettes: the only reason for my one star at all. Deliciousness!
Seaweed Salad: okay at best. I hate eating salad in a cups. Not a win.
Octopus Fried Balls: squishy almost raw potato center with steamed octopus inside. I love octopus, but I was expecting a crunchy or dense texture not a doughy raw like texture.
Spicy Ramen with Pork: broth lacking in savoriness-​just bleh. Pork was soggy & over cooked, as if it was the meat stock for broth. Noodles not memorable. A lot of bean sprouts. As mentioned in other reviews this could have been WAY better at other ramen houses.
Service was friendly, but unknowledgeable. When asked what’s the ingredient inside the fried octopus balls, my server stated she did not know because she never tried them and did not offer to ask the chef. I asked if it’s was suppose to be mushy inside and also stated,” I don’t know.” Looked aloof and carried on. Cool. Not recommending and will not be returning.

Yay, more Asian places in good olé KFC!
For our limited options here in the Midwest, it was good enough. I did feel like it was overpriced for what it was though. $ 13 for ramen, add a $ 1 for spicy, or add $ 2 for the spicy ramen challenge.

Great pure Japanese.
This is one of the places where when you sit down there you definitely feel like you’re off for Japan. the fact that they are not serving any sushi just goes in this direction: no true Japanese restaurant will serve sushi without a sushi master and no sushi master would work so far away from sea shore.
Their udon and ramen is awesome, thogh in all this place is a little bit pricy.
Edit:
After going there a couple of times in the past weeks and trying more and more items from the menu, this is now one of my favorite restaurants in Westport area. Their food tastes great and owner is very nice.