Review Shinmai - Oakland

Super impressed! Absolutely delish! This place has a stealthy entrance, very cool! Lovely wait service, comfortable seating and atmosphere. The food is excellent, so fresh you can taste it. The sake is a little pricey but of course so smooth and delicious again. So this restaurant is worth it. Perfect to entertain out of town guests, it would make a sweet dinner date, it is romantic start to finish.

Went here because I was told it was better than another izakaya spot i love going to and i have to say i was impressed. The vibe and service is great and I had some of the best appetizers I've seen on a menu in a while. My only con is the veggie ramen which while not bad, it was pretty common only veggie and broth like I'm used to seeing at other places. I still prefer the veggie ramen at the other spot I go to but it's not a game breaker. If you eat meat you'll probably like the tonkotsu options but as vegetarian i wanted to say my opinion since it's hard to come by unique dishes. Overall great spot and great drinks! I'll be back with a party soon

Had a great time with my family. The drinks were on another level.everything was cooked very well and the vibe was awesome!!! Wait staff was very nice and attentive

One of my favorite ramen places in SF. They make a really rich tonkotsu ramen broth and their appetizers are always fantastic

If you're a ramen fan, this place is amazing. The red tonkatsu was spectacular and so were the fries. Their black tonkatsu also had great nuanced flavors.

The food here is great. The atmosphere is nice for a date, not too noisy, and the employees were super friendly. As of May 29 2021, they were taking temperatures for entry. I had the veggie ramen which was pretty good, though not the best vegetarian ramen around Oakland. The Sichuan spicy fries were so good.

I loved the spicy himitsu paste in the Red Tonkotsu Ramen.

Cool vibes of the restaurant, but the ramen does not feel worth the price. Ordered the veggies ramen and while the broth was rich the ramen was super skimpy on veggies. If you don't order at least 2? appetizers you will probably leave hungry. The ambiance of the place is really fun though so I think that makes the outing more worth it.

The food was really good. The flavors came through perfectly with each dish. The kitchen is right there behind glass so you can see everything they are doing if you want to. I had an ice tea with lemon which was Chinese tea (Oolong poured from a can like soda). The Ocean Trout appetizer was new to me but the flavors were excellent.

Beautiful place to enjoy delicious food. Appetizers are amazing (especially the peppers!!) and the best, freshest Ramen that you have ever tasted! We had a chance to meet the owner Yinji and he is very nice and a wonderful host!

The hippest restaurant in Oakland! I felt like I was in NY or Europe. Great food, service, music choice and ambiance!

Awesomeeeeeeeee Ramen! My goodness. Also, the venue has a dope vibe and the drinks are top-notch. You can literally not go wrong here.

Their ramen is the bomb. The vibe is very hip and chill. Will definitely be coming back.

Much needed addition to this neighborhood. Amazing cocktails, great ramen, and a really beautiful space.

Best tonkatsu ramen....ever. Rich broth, perfect egg and just enough condiments. Excellent service and unique appetizer dishes. New flavors with new twists.

Delicious food and exceptional service. Looking forward to dining there again!

Off the rails deeelissssh! Love the look and feel of Yingji's new venture. No expenses were spared... So excited to add Shinmai to our dining out rotation! Congrats!

fancy build out? yes.... but it’s cold and soulless like it’s food. we got there a way too early, at 430, but the door was unlocked so we opened the door and took a peak inside.... “we’re closed” ... OKAY...... that’s fine. We awaited until they opened. The 4,000 or so square foot restaurant was nearly empty. the host asks if we had reservations...... no. she informs us she can squeeze us in but we need to leave before 730. There’s an entire empty restaurant, the bar is open and so are the communal tables. I️ respond, if we get kicked out of our table, we will sit at the bar after.... She responds oh, yeah, you can sit anywhere there and points generally in the direction of the completely empty communal table. the waitress was nice enough, you can tell she was trained properly and she goes into detail about the difference between the menu. That was nice of her. When she tells me what robata is, I️ asked what type of charcoal did they use (it could be interpreted as an asshole question, but legitimate regardless)... binchotan? She has no idea and said she will check with the kitchen. She never got back to me about it. We ordered about 65% of the menu. We ate about 40% of the food and it wasn’t because we weren’t hungry.... A few very important points. While waitress and other servers presented our dishes.... they were explained like this “This is pork belly” “This is ocean trout” “This is ribeye” The one good thing about the dishes were that they were very composed and nicely plated. I would have explained the dishes a bit more, but then again, maybe this is just their style. Everything was either burnt, over cooked, overly sweet, or over fried. The sauces reminded me of Mr Yoshida’s.... and everything was too sweet, probably for western tastes. Half the pork belly that came out, one side was COMPLETELY BURNT, and of course that side was plated down. The karaage.... I’ve had better karaage at fast food places in Tokyo. This karaage reminded me of the new chicken tenders you find at McDonald’s. The waitress did ask how everything was going and I️ said fine. At this point, there was no way I️ was coming back and I️ didn’t want to get into a long conversation at everything that was wrong. The worst problem about all this was that the staff was just “hanging out” most of the time. As the owner of a few businesses, this is what all managers and owners and investors worry about the most. Staff just hanging out while customers expectations aren’t being met. Before during and after our meal, there was a total of maybe six customers. The staff outnumbered the customers. I️ literally saw the kitchen staff congregate at least four times just chatting away for minutes at a time. Then why the hell was three of our dishes burnt so bad you can’t eat it? I️ have a very personal connection to this cuisine. It was very sad to see this happen to something so close to me. This just reminds me of the type of mentality that you can just rush in and try to hit while it’s hot and repackage, build out something fancy and plate it nicely and bam, a new restaurant. One star plus one star for a nice beer list. (Posted pictures of burnt food on their yelp page)

Everything excellent food/service/drinks! We loved it!

Fantastic! Th broth was delicious. Starters were great!

Food was awesome!

好貴