Attack of the Tatsu

Attack of the Tatsu is a restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, serving Japanese ramen and katsu from its home at 818 Georgia Ave, Unit 118. The kitchen is led by James Heeley and Daniel Starkey, who built the menu around Japanese culinary techniques and ingredients they encountered while traveling in Japan. The ramen list includes Tonkotsu with pork broth, chashu pork tenderloin, soft ramen egg, scallions, burnt garlic oil and bamboo shoots; Shoyu with chicken broth, leeks, pickled mushrooms, nori and narutomaki; Katsu Curry Ramen with a pork and chicken curry broth and a chicken katsu cutlet; and a gluten-free miso ramen with marinated tofu, pickled daikon and togarashi edamame. Gluten-free noodles can be substituted on any bowl. The katsu side of the menu covers tonkatsu, chicken katsu, curry katsu, menchi katsu and tofu katsu sandos, plus classic and curry katsu bowls with pork, chicken or tofu. Appetizers include tempura shishitos, seaweed salad, pickled daikon salad, edamame, tsukemono, karaage, katsu sliders, pork belly sliders, katsu scotch egg and tempura oyster mushrooms. The restaurant also runs a Godzilla Bowl ramen challenge: four bowls of ramen combined into one, free if finished in under 20 minutes without help. It holds a 4.80 rating from customer reviews.

The shop describes itself as an izakaya as well as a ramen shop, and its bar program centers on Japanese spirits, sake and whisky. Two separate bars operate inside, and the bar features a Suntory Toki carbonation machine used to make highly carbonated water for High Ball cocktails. The restaurant is open daily from 11AM to 12AM.

It sits on Georgia Avenue, a short walk from East Martin Luther King Boulevard and roughly a tenth of a mile from Miller Plaza, Miller Park, Kindred Hospital - Chattanooga and the Old Stone Church Tower.

The 4.80 rating reflects consistently positive feedback from the customers who have reviewed it, and the kitchen's focus on ramen and katsu gives Chattanooga a Japanese izakaya menu built on the owners' own travels through Japan.