The Yasai By Rakiraki

My experience here was great. The servers were friendly. I thought the atmosphere was nice it felt like modern restaurant. It was a little confusing at first cause they have a vegan menu and a non-vegan menu.

For the vegan dishes I could not even tell they were vegan. I love vegan food that is super flavorful. The vegan sushi tasted as if it was real sushi. If you're afraid of trying fish but want to try sushi that is similar to the original this restaurant has some of the best sushi dishes I have ever tried. Their ramen was super flavorful as well. I thought the way they plated their dishes were fascinating and I enjoyed my time here.

I would definitely come back here again to try more of their menu. They are a little pricey though.

ONE HOUR AND A HALF WAIT FOR A

--ZERO MICHELIN STAR--RESTAURANT.

FOH.

Food isn't even 10 stars .

7 to 8 max .

Hey San Diego, stop supporting places that do not manage their guests properly.

Teach this business a lesson of either expanding their space to accommodate with the demand; or ignore them completely.

Do not spend your money on places that makes people wait 2 hours for mediocre food.

BISH BYE.

Hands down my new favorite Ramen spot in San Diego!

Vegan? No problem! Meat eater? No problem!

The only requirement you need is to LOVE
Bomb Asian food!

I tried the:

Ramen: Black edition with pork belly. 10/10! No joke, the best ramen I've tried in San Diego. Creamy broth that isn't too heavy, tons of flavor, perfect noodle texture and the pork belly had a delicious charred flavor.

Karaage Fries: 10/10! Huge shareable appetizer, full of flavor. The fries were cooked to the perfect crisp, not too crunchy, and not soggy at all. The mixture of sauces with the fried chicken and green onions was to die for!

Incredible food! Such great vegetarian and vegan options! Keep up the taste and good work!

The MOST delicious vegan Japanese food I've ever had. I know that most sushi can be made vegan...but this sushi is so purposeful and elevated with unique and fun ingredients. The restaurant is clean, minimal, and stylish. The service was great, can't believe how fast the food came out and with such beautiful presentation.

We will be back for sure!

I've eaten a Rakiraki a number of times but had never before sat inside The Yasai. I found the ambiance to be more appealing and calm than its next-door counterpart, which I liked. I decided to order the Triple Tomato Ramen, made with their handcrafted triple-thick noodles and pure 100% farm tomato with konbu-dashi and garlic ginger fermented oil topped with tofu no-chasiu, crispy kabocha pumpkin, sautéed bean sprouts, steamed bok choy, green onions, and garlic chips. It typically also includes bamboo shoots and wakame seaweed but I asked to have mine without those two ingredients. I also opted for the Black Edition in my ramen, which is a delicious concoction of fermented roasted garlic oil.

Please hear me when I say that this was THE BEST RAMEN I'VE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE because it's 100% true! I was absolutely blown away by the broth's decadence and the noodles' great texture. It was absolute perfection! I've literally thought about this ramen every single day since having it...lol...no joke!

The location was quite small. The parking lot is shared by all the stores in the plaza and it is NOT big enough. Parking lot was small and packed, so be ready to find parking on the street. If you make a reservation, make sure you get there early, because even on a Thursday night there was no parking. As for the restaurant itself, it was also small. There are a lot of tables squished together, the next table over was about 10-12 inches away. This didn't bode well for the atmosphere. It felt felt rushed and cramped.
They also handed us 4 different menus and I think there were multiple restaurants functioning out of one kitchen. It was interesting to see that they weren't vegan like Yasai, the other places had meat dishes.
BUT, reading everything on the yasai menu made my mouth water! Every thing sounded delectable, but I managed to narrow it down to the triple tomato ramen, queen dragon roll, and lastly the karaage. The triple tomato ramen was delicious, I have to say the broth was nothing special but it did have a nice rich tomato flavor. I mainly loved the ingredients, I am a sucker for bamboo and kabocha. The noodles also had a great thickness and texture. The queen dragon roll was very refreshing! I loved the crunch that came with the sweet potato chips, and the avocado added a nice creamy flavor. I highly recommend this roll. Lastly the karaage was fine. The texture of the fake meat was awesome but I felt like it could have used a little more flavor. It really just felt like it was deep fried and then seasoning didn't really cross their mind. It was on a nice bed of sauce that helped redeem it a bit.

Over all, I would go back for the rolls, but that's about it. Plus this place is a bit on the pricier side so be ready for that, but what vegan place isn't expensive.

Horrible service!! The server was more interested to chit chat with another server for long rather than getting out order. He forgot to get one item for 20 mins and when asked he didn't even apologize but just went to kitchen where I could see the food to be waiting for him for long and just came to levav on the table! Just pathetic service for a place with good food!! It's just getting worse day by day I guess!!!

My sister wanted to try this place out...whoa!

AMBIANCE:
Parking: You're in the Convoy so good luck. There's plaza parking which is competitive and street parking which is also competitive as well.

Seating: Inside seating for small groups (solo to an adjustable six)

Vibes: Convoy is an awesome place if you're looking for good Asian cuisine. The spot itself is shared with the original RakiRaki Ramen. One side is the original place where all the ramen is made, Yasai is on the other side where they make all the vegan dishes. The spot itself is a bit calmer with a nice setup guided by natural lighting, pleasant sights of the chefs preparing vegan dishes, and a wide display of alcoholic beverages. It's family-friendly but I noticed a lot of older adults around.

FOOD:
The Classic $18~ (Recommend)
Wow! I barely recognized the difference! Well done! The mochi noodles were thick and delightful and the broth was warming. I enjoyed the mix of bamboo, seaweed, pumpkin, bean sprouts, green onions, garlic chips, and charred tofu! A vegan umami delight!

CUSTOMER SERVICE:
Awesome! Our orders came in relatively quickly!

TL; DR OVERALL:
4.5 Stars. Amazing!!!! I am quite impressed with this place! The food was delicious and the experience was pleasant. This place is more than ramen, I enjoyed their vegan sushi rolls. It's impressive as you can barely tell if it's vegan, a lot of work they put in from the presentation, texture, and taste! This place is truly one of a kind as my sister said there are not a lot of places like this in the Bay Area!

TIPS:
* Original location next door!
* Yasai means vegetables in Japanese

As someone who normally does not eat vegan cuisine, The Yasai's vegan ramen blew me away! You'll get seated in either the Raki Raki restaurant or The Yasai restaurant-- we were seated promptly and our servers were speedy.

The Classic ramen broth had a rich, umami flavor, while the Triple Tomato broth was slight spicy and light! The noodles were on the thicker side but delightfully chewy. Brussel sprouts were average (you can pass on these); sauce had an interesting wasabi kick but not a big fan of the flavor profile. Something I never thought I'd say: I prefer The Yasai ramen over the Raki Raki ramen. I'll be back to try the other vegan ramen options.....