My absolute favorite place to eat! We lived in Japan for years and I haven’t been able to find authentic Japanese curry and gyoza anywhere. I looked up different places and tried a few and was so thankful to have found Sama Zama. The gyoza and Chicken Curry made me feel like I was back in Japan. My husband loves the spicy chicken ramen and the Nabeyaki Udon. The raspberry cheesecake egg rolls are what dreams are made of! We come every week! We brought in our 4 kids (1 was born in Japan) and they saw why we love it so much. Erica (the owner) and Vicky are amazing and easily make you feel like family. There are times they are busy, but it is always worth the wait. We drive a good 30-40 minutes just to enjoy it, it’s worth the drive (even with these gas prices)! If you’re looking for amazing Japanese food and want to support a small business then you definitely want to try out Sama Zama! We’ve tried so many things on the menu and never disappointed.

I love this place! I've ordered take away several times and the food travels quite well. I dined in for the first time in April 2022 and had an incredible experience. They take COVID precautions very seriously, which I appreciate considering inside dining seats approx. 20 people in close quarters. The service is always impeccable. They really ensure you have a great dining experience. The food is delicious. I've tried several menu items, including: - Cha Shu Pork Ribs (a little sweet, but still yummy!) - Pork Tonkatsu Curry (my FAVORITE item on the menu) - Tori Kara Age Fried Chicken (crispy and the sauce is delicious) - Tonkotsu Ramen Spicy (very flavorful; my second favorite item) - Nabeyaki Udon (great presentation, noodles are delicious, get the spicy chili oil on the side) - Rice Ball Onigiri (a little thick on the rice but the filling is so good) - Gyoza Potstickers (you can never go wrong with these) - Fried Rice (just okay, there are much better items on the menu) - Ramune Soda (definitely give these a try! the bottle is so fun, the soda is delicious, and it's the perfect serving size) I would highly recommend dining at Sama Zama. No doubt you'll fall in love with traditional Japanese cuisine and have a fun dining experience while you're at it!

Everything was sooo good. I’ve never experienced a curry so smooth before, I couldn’t keep my partner off my plate😅 to be fair I ate quite a bit of his ramen. We will definitely be back!!!

Best Customer Service EVER! First visit, I ordered a Ramen and cheesy chicken. The chicken was to die for, so delish! But I didn't care for that particular Ramen and set it aside after three bites. The hostess asked and I explained there wasn't anything wrong with it; I just didn't care for the flavors. She took it back without hesitation and didn't charge me for it, said it's most important I am happy. I will be back. She is an Angel 😇.

I wish I could give more stars to this place. This was one of the best experiences I have ever had in KC. The food was out of this world. Got the curry, gyoza and dessert as well! Between my husband and I we probably ordered half the menu!

Lunch on a Saturday at 11:45-12:00, no waiting for a table. There were three in our party, so we ordered three different things to share. First to the table was Yaki Udon with chicken. Next was Chicken salad, it was made up of chicken Kara age, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and covered in Mogu Mogu dressing, taste it was! Last and the best was Ebi Kara Mayo. Shrimp and Calamari lightly breaded and fried then tossed in mayo, at the table we were instructed to drizzle a little soy sauce over it all. I'm here to tell you it was to die for! The calamari was so tender, it just about melted in your mouth. Never have I had calamari so good. Oh yeah the Ebi was really good also. The only bad thing about Sama Zama is that it's a FOUR hour drive from my home! We were all quite full after devouring the above, so I'm currently thinking of a few good reasons to make that 4 hour drive so that we can try more of the menu. If you are in KC, you gotta give it a try!

Sama Zama is the best Japanese spot in KC! It has a great menu and the staff is simply superb. My family all loves this place and we try to go whenever we can. I recommend their takoyaki, chicken and cheese, and their raspberry cheesecake dessert, but you can't go wrong with anything on this menu. They've taken COVID precautions seriously which I really appreciate, so you'll feel safe dining here. All on the first floor and they have two restrooms in the back.

Kind of a weird spot. The food is really good. The dining experience is odd. They let you know that they don't want you taking your time when you first get there. They will have you wait till they are completely done with another table before greeting and taking your order. Like I said food was good but we felt a little like our presence was a burden more then good business.

The edamame was delicious. Best fried chicken curry I've ever had! I got a second curry to go. Will definitely come back again, I can't recommend this place enough.

I was looking for Japanese restaurant near Kansas City. I chose to try Sama Zama for variety Japanese food from ramen to rice dishes. I had pork cutlet (katsu) curry rice. The curry was tasty with crispy juicy pork Katsu. I also ordered dango for dessert and fried shumai for appetizer. The appetizer crispy on the outside with mayo sauce and dessert were soft chewy mochi topped with sticky brown sugar sauce. Atmosphere was nice and cozy . No free tap water so have to buy beverage and $1 for to go container . There are free parking spaces available for customer.

I frequent this place during my lunch hours. It’s a great place for takoyaki and miso soup. They keep the front door locked during business hours because of very limited seating and their tiny kitchen, 1 server, plus COVID. They’re closed Sun-Mon I believe now. I highly recommend takoyaki and ramen here. They will ask how spicy on the ramen.

I really REALLY wanted to like this place. Their bright menu with photos drew us in right away, and loving Japanese food, it made it look very appealing. First thing to note about this place is that they keep the door locked from the inside. There's a sign on the door claiming it's to monitor the flow for your dining experience. There were multiple people who left immediately upon trying the door while we ate, though, so they're losing business due to this. The second important thing to note is you can bring your own water bottle, but they do NOT serve tap water. You must pay for a drink, or $1 for a bottle of water. The third thing we noticed is that they were out of multiple things that we were there to try. We had to change at least 3 things on our order because of this. And last, unfortunately, most of their food was very bland. The udon stir fry needs a sauce, because it is very dry without it. You'll have to ask for that. The miso was very watered down and bland, which was very sad. The two best things we had, in the $60 we spent, were the edamame and the Raspberry Cheesecake Maki... Each was $7. We enjoyed a total of $14 worth of our $60 ticket. Really wasn't worth it for us. ☹️

Nice Japanese restaurant! On Christmas Eve, we called and made reservation for dinner after the church service. We got there a bit late due to service ending late and they were about to close the restaurant since there weren’t any other customers that night but they re-opened the place for us. The service and the food are great! We’ll visit this place again for sure, when we are going to be in the vicinity. Highly recommended!

Good pricing. Food came out quickly and was hot. Flavor leaves something to be desired. Pork belly was very mushy. They charge for take out boxes and have no tap water available. Worth checking out if you don't have a ramen shop in your city, but wasn't a place I'd go again. Weirdly not busy during dinner...

My favorite Japanese restaurant. All of the food is amazing and the lobby itself looks amazing. I recommend this place to all my friends and would recommend it to anyone looking for good Japanese food.

We found Sama Zama when looking for a quick bite. We wound up with a truly enjoyable meal of fresh food that was cooked well, served fast, and was absolutely delicious. This is the most authentic Japanese restaurant I’ve found in KCMO, and I will be back. Everything here was clean, orderly, simple and executed perfectly. They also have a nice selection of sodas and other drinks.

First time here and absolutely in love. My household has been to Japan a couple of times and this is a great taste back here at home. Planning on returning visits to make sure we work our way through the entire menu. Always a treat to enjoy a cold CC Lemon with tonkatsu

This restaurant is amazing. The dishes are presented beautifully. Our server Vicki was incredible! Their knowledge of the dishes was really impressive! I'm looking forward to my next visit!

I am very picky. I love Japanese food and Japanese culture and I get annoyed at ramen shops around Kansas City that do the bare minimum to be a ramen shop. I’ve been to every ramen shop in Kansas City within 20 miles of downtown and Sama Zama is the best by far. Lots of tasty ramen. Lots of more traditional Japanese food and dishes the other shops don’t offer. None of it is stock frozen stuff they bought from somewhere else. It is authentic! I’ve been here 8 times now and finally decided to post a review because I just wanted to see how consistently good the food was and I highly highly recommend this spot. Get it to go or dine in. I will happily drive 20 minutes from the northland to have their food. 10/10 My only complaint is that the egg wasn’t runny like it’s suppose to be but I bet that’s them just appealing to Americans who think runny eggs are harmful for you.

Super cute and clean inside. Excellent Bento boxes, and Ramens, but my favorite so far is the Pork Tonkatsu Curry.

This is officially my favorite restaurant in KC! The atmosphere is very relaxed and friendly, with beautiful art on the walls and lots of natural light. Everything on the menu looks amazing and was obviously curated by the owner with a lot of care. The salmon onigiri was a great starter, the shrimp and calamari were so fresh and cooked perfectly, and the sasadango dessert imported from Japan was light and refreshing. The person who served our food was so nice and gave us recommendations for our food, which I really appreciated. This is a great place to go if you want fairly priced, delicious food that won't make you feel heavy afterwards. I feel very happy knowing I supported a small business and an owner who has very caringly brought fantastic and fresh Japanese cuisine to KC.