We tried the Edinburgh ramen restaurant taking part in Britain's Top Takeaways and were not really impressed.
Ahead of the BBC show presented by Sara Cox and Ainsley Harriot we decided to taste and rate one of two Edinburgh takeaways to partake in the competition.
On a Friday evening after finishing a busy week in the city, we were excited to kick back on the sofa in front of the telly and try some highly recommended ramen.
First of all we ordered through Deliveroo and made our choices on what I would say was a pretty limited menu - the chicken option wasn't available and there were not really any other meat options.
As a treat we opted for two starters, and two vegetarian main courses with no drinks. The order came to a whopping £40 - which is substantially steeper than we would usually pay for a take out for two.
But despite the limited menu and expensive price tag, we kept an open mind and eagerly waited for the order to arrive.
The food didn't take too long to arrive, especially considering it was a Friday night. It arrived around 40 minutes after we ordered, delivered by a friendly Deliveroo rider.
We ordered one starter portion of Pork Gyoza for £6.50 and Tebaski Chicken Wings also at £6.50.
Both starters were absolutely delicious. I'm a big fan of chicken wings and have tried many at different restaurants, serving different cuisines across the city and can honestly say these were a solid 8/10.
Not overloaded with spicy rather they were seasoned with an interesting and slightly complex flavouring which made my tastebuds tingle with delight.
The pork gyoza was also very tasty, served with a simple soy sauce dip, the little dumplings were gone within about a minute.
Unfortunately it was the main courses that let the experience down on a whole. Both ramen main dishes were £13 which is quite dear for a vegetarian main course.
We ordered one Yasai Ramen described as: "A light and delicious vegetarian option, this ramen uses a satiating vegetarian shiitake mushroom broth and comes with stir-fried vegetables.
"Inside the ramen we have our classic ramen noodles and two types of mushroom - marinated king oyster mushroom and shiitake."
Additionally we ordered a Chefs Special described as: " a delicious Vegetarian ramen - utilising a soy infused shiitake mushroom broth as a base.
"It is topped with tenderstem broccoli fried with garlic, soy and chilli - then fired crisp.
"In addition to this we also added marinated shiitake mushrooms, fresh greens and also of course our fresh handmade egg noodles."
They came with the contents and broth in separate containers but nothing was labelled so it was actually quite tricky working out which was which.
I even phoned the restaurant to work it out as one broth was a curry red colour and the other a standard soy sauce colour, but the only phone number associated went straight to voice mail. So we took a guess.
It was my first experience of ramen and unfortunately it was a let down especially since I ordered the special from the menu.
Both broths were not particularly tasty, they weren’t disgusting but nothing to sing about.
The noodles that came with both ramens had a very odd texture, like perhaps they were overcooked. A couple fork fulls of those put me off the rest of the meal.
Nothing in the ramen stood out, the noodles were not nice and the broth didn't bring the dish together as I was expecting.
For £13 we were definitely disappointed, perhaps it was a one off experience. I have years of experience working in hospitality and do understand these things can happen.
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We wish them the best of luck in the upcoming competition and perhaps one day will venture into the Causeywayside Restaurant to try again!
Each episode of Britain's Top Takeaways will see five of the nations’ award winning, highly rated and creative takeaways will compete in their own cuisine, cooking and delivering some of the finest take out the UK has to offer.
Judging the food and deciding who wins will be a host of takeaway-loving families who will eat, rate and score the food from the comfort of their own homes.
You can tune into Britain's Top Takeaways on BBC Two on May 9 at 8pm, and support Ikigai Ramen on May 19 at 8pm.
