Yama Noodles

The food is good but pricey and I feel like the portions could have been larger for the price. Everything on the menu is pretty much $ 9 including the appetizers. I believe they have a 10% off if you are a local with ID.
Over all, if you want ramen noodles or Asian noodle soups this is probably the only place in south Tahoe to go.

What I ate: Emerald ramen, Shanghai lumpya, Thai iced tea
Visit date: May 2, 2016
First time? Yes.
So…maybe I got too excited about a noodle house in South Lake Tahoe, but I had to give it a try for myself. I’m sad to report that it wasn’t all that great even though I had low expectations to begin with. As far as being «fusion» — it definitely is. It’s like they took their favorite ingredients from different Asian cuisines and threw it all together in hopes that something might taste good.
They pulled off the Shanghai lumpya. The wrapper was crisp; the inside slightly sweeter than the average Shanghai lumpya and it’s shape a bit off. It was served with two types of sauces — a traditional sweet and spicy chili sauce and a non-​traditional what seemed like a vinegar and soy sauce dip. Can’t really go wrong with either of these.
The Emerald ramen — it wasn’t bad; it was just disappointing. The menu describes it as «spicy green curry and coconut milk broth, fresh ramen noodles, tofu, vegetables.» I was expecting a creamy thick curry like broth, green in color with a good spice. When it arrived I saw that it had a runny broth and was brown in color — what happened to being emerald? Also, the veggies they used were bitter. I ate it anyway; it was warm and I was cold (and hungry after a long bike ride). Adding chili sauce definitely helped in the flavor department. I hate wasting food so I midnight snacked on some of the leftovers, but just couldn’t eat any more of it.
Oh, and the Thai iced tea was watered down. Actually, it maybe just never had sweetener added.
In other news, service was quick (we were the only ones there) and lot parking is ample (we were the only ones there).

Came to this place with family 4 years ago & it was good but now Everything is too salty except for mango ice tea with boba. Very disappointed.

DO NOT GO HERE!!! Someone needs to call the public health dept about this place. If you go, you’ve been warned. This place needs to be shut down. Bunch of Yama lama ding dongs. Where to start. The ramen noodles were so bloated it tasted like nothing, just mush. My bowl even had an untangled lump of noodles that were not cooked. My wife ordered some hot water. How do you mess up hot water? The teapot had burnt char at inside the bottom of the tea pot making my wife’s hot water look like she put black pepper in it. Yuck. The chicken karaage was so burnt it looked like little dog turds. Place is dirty. Staff can’t keep up with about 10 tables. It took two hours to sit and get our food and pay. This place needs to close, yesterday.

sunny, but cold winds… lunch in south lake tahoe… a small indoor mall with a mix of stores ranging from pirates to used books… an empty weekend afternoon… seated promptly and service friendly… menu provided and asian noodles from all around… orders taking some time to deliver. an order of the fried tofu phở… standard sprouts and leaves, and a wedge of lime… taste of the broth and finding quite salty… salty and sweet with the scent of phở… was not good… yama ramen fared better in taste… milky white broth, but lacking depth and richness. noodles were fine… the charred slabs of pork was not chashu pork… thick slices of lean pork browned and tossed in the ramen… almost in need of a steak knife to cut… managing to pull apart with spoon and chopsticks… hard boiled egg and seaweed on the edge… phở was bad and ramen was marginal… roughly $ 11-​$ 12 per person with no drinks…

Although it took 10 minutes to get seated, it took us 2 hours to get our food, eat, and pay. Tables were abundant, but apparently the restaurant didn’t have enough dishes to serve the guests…
Food itself was bland. Most watery phở we’ve ever had. We ordered lumpia, but was brought karaage, with the apology that the oil in the fryer was messed up. What! I turned to the table next to us, who did receive lumpia, and judging by his reaction, I guess it was in our favor to receive karaage instead.
All in all, any of these blunders individually would’ve been forgivable (maaaybe), but this perfect storm has really dissuaded us from straying from our favorite restaurants in Tahoe…(check out My Thai!)

The family and I were visiting from San Jose, CA. Having grown up and still living in the Bay Area I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by not only a variety of ethnic food but REAL and GOOD ethnic food. Sure, you can cruise along the South Bay and find some really bad restaurants but the amount of good to amazing outweigh those bad ones because there’s competition down there. Up here, not so much. So when we decided to try Yama Noodles on this «cold» day in Tahoe I shouldn’t have been surprised.
I got the Yama Ramen and a mango boba tea. The tea wasn’t very strong and tasted a bit watered down. That I can deal with but the boba, OMG, it was the WORST boba I’ve ever had. It was cold, tasted uncooked, and hard. That’s the worst you can get. Tapioca balls are supposed to be sitting pretty in a warm bath of goodness so when it’s finally deposited in your drink of choice there’s still a warmness to it. When it’s fully cooked it’ll be soft and chewy.
The Yama Ramen was meh. The braised pork was so thick I thought I was in a BBQ joint. If you know asian noodle soups whether you’re having ramen or phở you know that the meat is supposed to be thinly sliced. If this was a BBQ place I would give a thumbs up on the pork, but it is not. The pork was way to thick for a ramen bowl. The soup itself was lacking flavor and very little fixings in it. Having gone to ramen places in the South Bay where lines are forming an hour before opening, where they make fresh ramen and will close once they run out, you definitely get spoiled. This ramen place was not up to par with what I’ve had. But, if I were to compare it to cuisine found here in Tahoe than it’s passable. Unfortunately, if you live in an area that is chock full of ramen places than don’t go here or go here with low expectations and just wanting a place with hot soup.

I wanted noodle soup but there were no choices in the area so we came here. The food presentation wasn’t that great (looks like something you make at home). And the broth was only halfway filled in the bowls. However, the sierra phở with beef was surprisingly good. The soup had good flavor and enough contents to make you full. It also came with basil, cilantro and bean sprouts which looked like they had been refrigerated for a while. Our other order was the Yama ramen. This was ok. The noodles were a bit too soft for my taste. But the broth (seemed like tonkatsu) was good.
Overall, this is a decent substitute for Asian noodle soup in the area since there are no other options around.

It’s horrible! Don’t go there! Don’t ruin your vacation with this restaurant! The food is extremely poor! My Yama noodle taste like water with salt and my friends’ phở were way too salty. The most unbearable thing is the extremely long wait. Long wait to sit down when there is table available. Really long wait for food! It almost took 40 minute to wait one bowl of noodle. WHY?
If you really want noodle, just go get the instant noodle because it will taste way better and way faster!!!

My group of friends and I were craving warm, soupy noodles for the freezing weather when we were staying in South Lake Tahoe for the weekend and stumbled upon this little store.
This shop tries to incorporate a variety of cultural foods, such as the Vietnamese banh mi, phở, some Japanese ramen, Thai iced tea, etc. The majority of my group ordered the Yama Ramen while the rest of the group ordered phở. My Yama Ramen primarily consisted of noodles and one or two thick slices of pork with a completely boiled egg, a couple sheets of seaweed, and some of the black mushrooms. I eventually gave up chewing on the pork because it was extremely thick.
Service in the store was alright. During certain points, I felt like everyone seemed a little lost or surprised that we were such a huge group. When another large group came after us, I felt like they were a little frazzled.
I can’t complain because South Lake Tahoe has a shop that serves warm noodle soups, but I have definitely had better.

Great Ambiance, and great service. Food was great! Crunchy Tuna, Tuna Sliders, and Deep Fried Ice Cream were awesone.

I went to this place over MLK day weekend and went on the last day of our trip as we were all needing some good hot broth to sip on to get some warmth in our bones.
Sad to say that despite the below freezing temperatures Lake Tahoe does not have a single Phở place around, Tahoe is more a Burger and Brew kind of city and if you’re looking for that do yourself a favor and stop by MacDuff’s, they have a great selection of beers on tap and their reuben sandwich with housemade sauerkraut is a must!
Anyway back to Yama’s…the service was pretty good, most people were headed out of town when we came in so they were able to accommodate our party of 15 quickly. The servers were attentive and made sure we had everything we needed but sad to say the food was lacking.
The we started with the chicken karaage, calamari and shanghai rolls, the karaage and calamari were under seasoned and the karaage was waay over done, the batter was almost burnt to the point that it dissintegrated right when you put it in your mouth.
A majority of us ordered the Yama Ramen, which again was underseasoned. Luckily there’s Sriracha sauce on the table and I asked for chili oil which remedied that. The noodles as mentioned in other reviews were mushy overdone and left me with a sad ramen experience.
I appreciate that they are trying to bring something new and different to Lake Tahoe, but I felt like everything we tried was an imitation and merits quotation marks on the menu.
Thanks Yama «Ramen»

Love the chicken kaarage! Combination of the sauce was great.
I ordered the Yama noodle. The noodle and soup base was delicious. The meat however was the downfall. I don t know how they cooked it, but it was uneven. There were parts of the meat that was cooked brown and some so light you wonder if it was properly cooked. The gratuity is too much. They include it in the your bill. Waitress was helpful.

Why? 1 star.
Here’s the reason why. .
I’m with my boyfriend we went to Lake Tahoe to see the snow. Anyways after that!
We’re looking for a noodles first we try Vietnamese noodles but we can’t find it. So I tried to search Ramen «since we both ramen lovers lol so this place first pop up on my Unilocal.We try this and then when we get there the place are like ordinary nothing amazed you lol like attractions so we ordered Drinks: Thai iced tea my boyfriend got a Vietnamese ice coffee
Thai ice tea– this’s my first time to try a Thai tea with no TASTE lol it’s like a WATER with food coloring.
Ice Coffee– very strong it’s alright my boyfriend said but for me it’s really Strong lol.
YAMA Ramen — before I ordered ramen I asked the server is this good? And she said «I don’t know I don’t eat that» I was like ohh okay I’m gonna get this! I was surprised this server needs to try or knows what she’s serving a food not just a ramen and read what’s in there lol. So my ramen taste are very poor I feel like I’m not eating a food lol ramen with mushroom and 3 slices of pork and half slice of egg lol nothing much special.
My boyfriend ramen taste like celery with spicy taste but yeah that’s our experience.

My friends and I were looking for a (Thanksgiving) dinner after a long day of trip.
We decided to stop at this store. The owner informed us that there will about 30 minutes wait time, but we ended up with waiting for nearly an hour.
When we sat in a table, the five of us noticed that the table was completely wet and sticky. We quickly picked our food. Three of us ordered Phở with raw beef, and two ordered Yama Ramen.
We waited for another 25 minutes to get our noodles. In between this waiting time, the waitress was very thoughtful and attending.
Unfortunately, we all noticed that the broth was WAY TOO SALTY. Customers at another table also noticed the same thing. The waitress offered hot water to reduce the sensation. She spent another 10 minutes to get it back to us.
We all feel the need to share this unpleasant experience with future customers.

I am Asian visiting Lake Tahoe for the first time. Noticed that they are almost NONE asian food in this area, came across this place and gave it a try because I hate burgers and pizza which what people in Lake Tahoe only eat lol
Got the drunken noodle and ramen. Definitely NOT BAD, good enough for being the only asian place in such a non-​asian area. I recommend getting the Yama ramen with pork broth! It’s just that the noodle tasted like instant noodle but other than that everything is ok.

My husband and I went in not expecting authentic noodles here (it’s good to note that they don’t claim to be authentic but Asian fusion), but it turned out to be impressive. We were amazed how the chef could cook different styles of noodles equally well!
We ordered a rare beef phở and a yama ramen, two different styles of noodles. Both bowls of soup tasted like what we found in Vietnamese and Japanese restaurants. The noodles were right noodles. And I especially liked the texture of the ramen, which was springy and not soggy (as in many ramen places outside Japan). Even though my braised pork was nothing like the soft braised pork in Japan but more like pork chop, it was not dry or hard. I loved my bowl of noodles!

It was super cold so I was craving soup. It took way too long for the food to arrive. One of our plates came out so late that they took it out of the bill. They also took out the required 18% tip for larger parties because of they wait.
The table next to us found metal in their dish so they had it removed from their bill.
This restaurant is severely understaffed. There were plenty of tables but they had to turn down customers because the chef wasn’t able to cook the food fast enough.
The food was mediocre. I do not recommend.

They seem to be the only place in South Lake Tahoe where you can get a bowl of ramen, and perhaps phở. Nice place to eat on this raining day we experience while up here during Memorial Day weekend.
Their menu offers a variety of dry or soup noodles dishes from around Asia, including ramen, phở, and udon, as well as Singaporean stir fried vermicelli and chow mein. Everything is reasonably priced considering the area is not known for Asian food, and who knows how ample Asian ingredients are available in the area in order to make the dishes as authentic as possible?
I do wished they’d offer more non-​deep fried appetizers besides edamame. They had a cold tofu with ginger and scallions, which we ordered. It was fine… I prefer a less firm tofu, and think the dish would taste better with some dipping sauces in addition to what it was prepared with.
The chasu (pork) ramen had a good, tasty rich broth, but I found my noodles to be slightly overcooked. Coming from LA, I’ve come to expect the ramen to be served slightly al dente wtih a little pull and a little chew when eating the ramen. I had one good slice of chasu, but the other was a bit tough and had some gristle.
Services is friendly, and our waiter was especially attentive. He even took in consideration about the ramen being slightly overcooked for my taste.

hangover food. That’s the first thought I had after my first mouthful of ramen. this would be great if I had a hangover. Since I don’t drink it came off as bland and fatty. It’s not a bad bowl by any stretch of the imagination but it isn’t very tasty. I’m not certain that they make their noodles in house and really if it’s not going to knock your socks off then why bother leaving the house?
Though, again, if you’re suffering from a hangover this place is perfect.