HJ House

The service was a bit slow and the décor is not fancy but the food was good enough that I’ll be back to try again. The ramen wasn’t my favorite but I loved the steamed dumplings. It’s worth a trip just for that app.

Only been twice so far and had the same thing both times — the tender ribs ramen — and it was SO GOOOOOD. SO GOOD. Came to about $ 10 and I got two meals out of it. It’s a small, family-​run place and has been completely empty on both occasions, but they seem well loved and I’m hoping they do a lot of business. I want them to be around for a long time so I can branch out a bit and try some of the other stuff on the menu and have a reliable go-​to for my ramen fix for the foreseeable future.
**Just a head’s up, I don’t know if the listed business hours are correct — I was soooo craving ramen for lunch and they were closed at 11:45. I was (and still am) so bummed!**

I love this place. It’s small, family owned and quite welcoming. The food is great, especially the Ramen. I often get the ribs ramen or the pork chop. It won’t break the bank if you wanted to bring the whole family.

I love it here!! by far my favorite place to have sushi yes service can be slow at times
But it’s well worth it also love that it’s family owned and the kiddos are so cute and friendly

Definitely a small family run restaurant with a husband and his wife literally doing everything, food took over an hour to reach the table, although it was quite endearing to watch the entire family helping out. Ramen was pretty good, generally fresh, a bit bland, the sushi was fresh, I’d avoid the sashimi, teriyaki was good. I think if they hired a waitress or something then they could probably focus in the kitchen and streamline their efforts.

I loved the gyoza and the fried ice cream, will definitely be going back for those and to try the sushi. Gyoza is my favorite Japanese food and the portion they serve here is bigger than most places for the same $ 5 price. There were four flavors of fried ice cream, I expected the Red Bean to be less sweet (just knowing it in other foods) but it was perfect for my sweet tooth, so anyone expecting that should just be aware.
I’m no ramen expert so I can’t comment on it’s traditional accuracy but I enjoyed our beef sukiyaki ramen. My friend who loved in Japan for a semester said it was pretty close to one’s she had while in Japan. She said the beef was a little fatty but the texture and taste were fine for me. Despite the other reviews we enjoyed ourselves and will be back for more gyoza, ice cream, and to try the sushi next time!

Ordered unagi sushi, tuna tataki and a beef ramen. Food was no where near what I expected it to be. The tuna tataki was cut way too thick and just tasted off. Unagi sushi was below par. Beef in my ramen was cold. Would not recommend. Will never go back. Go to Asiana noodle shop on church st. They offer much higher quality service and food.

Come here for the sushi! I don’t know why everyone else is talking about their ramen; I tried it once and was not happy. Their sushi is great for the price. I love the King Kong. The miso is delicious. Fried ice cream is a little soggy. This is pretty much the only place I get sushi in Burlington because their prices are very reasonable and there is virtually no waiting involved.
Also delicious: the shrimp gyoza.

HJ house offer bad sushi and service. I’ve been there few times, but their food and service are as bad as always. I don’t even want to tip them. I had a cucumber salad this time, it’s only few pieces of cucumber and tomatoes with some weird sauce. Their sushi I had in this places are bad too. Rice is supposed to be the most important part of sushi, but their rice is too sticky. And the raw fish they use are not fresh, at all. I don’t recommend this place!

Just had sushi here, the octopus was still frozen and crunchy and the rice was squished and sticky. The worst sushi imaginable, Asiana or San Sai have far better sushi and service.
The waitress was very polite but the chef was half asleep when we came in and she had to wake him up in order to have him hastily throw that sushi together. I hope I don’t get sick.

I’ve tried this place twice now, both times for lunch & take-​out. I tried the BBQ Pork Curry Ramen noodles. The meal was separated with the noodles in a styrofoam container, and the broth with everything else in a quart size plastic container. The curry flavor was strong, but can quickly be diluted with the broth. Overall, it was good for what it was… but I will likely try a different ramen noodle next time.
I also tried their Grilled Eel Fried Rice (see pic). This came with a good portion of delicious stick Japanese fried rice, which was quite flavorful. The grilled eel, with it sweet sauce was a great addition to the rice. There was 1 breaded and fried piece of squid, not sure the proper name for it, but it was delicious. I would definitely order this dish again.

Very nice feel when first walking in: red lanterns and a big fan. I came for Valentines Day with three girlfriends. Much nicer ambiance than I expected. I expected phở dang small run down place but it has nice clean red tables. The ambiance is nice — lighting isn’t too dim and I love the mellow Chinese traditional music. We came around 7 pm on Friday Feb 14^th and most of the place is empty except for two other tables. Seating is definitely not a problem.
Food is mediocre. I was disappointed. I got the beef sukiyaki ramen and it was not good. The beef and bok choy is soft but the noodles are too soft and soggy. The broth wasn’t bad but the ramen definitely leaves much more to be desired. If you’re going I would recommend getting sushi or order fried rice (not on menu but I heard its really good). For dessert, we got fried red bean and fried green bean ice cream. This isn’t on the menu but you can order it. I was disappointed in both. The red bean wasn’t as sweet as I like. The green tea didn’t taste like green tea and had a weird aftertaste.
The service was not good. We had to ask to be waited on and go up to the counter to pay. I expected the service to be better, but I guess my expectations should never be high at a small Asian place. The waiter wasn’t helpful when I asked for recommendations either.
All in all I’m not inclined to go back and if I do I definitely won’t get the noodles. I really wanted to like this place, but I just couldn’t.
Décor — 3.5÷5
Service — ¹⁄₅
Food — ²⁄₄
Price — ³⁄₅
Overall — ²⁄₅

Meh.
We came here for dinner a few weeks ago around 7:30pm. There was one large table of folks just leaving and two others just arrived. Other than that we had the place to ourselves.
We ordered the Spicy Miso Ramen and the Veggie Curry Ramen. Unfortunately, neither were worth writing home about. There was an absence of Miso in the Miso Ramen which was over-​compensated with a overly-​generous squirt of unabashedly spicy chili oil. The Vegetable Curry Ramen didn’t have any familiar curry spice flavor to it. In fact, it brought me back to memories of my student life in the UK eating a Curry Flavored Pot Noodle for lunch — a similarly unsatisfying gastronomic experience.
Overall, both dishes had the same generic, bland, overly salty underpinnings, each with some extras added to afford the different names on the menu.
I’m hoping they had a bad night because I’d really like to try HJ House again and see them at their best.

This place is a hidden gem. I’m always surprised that there aren’t more people there because the food is great, it’s small and clean, and reasonably priced. The service tends to be a bit slow, but it’s relaxing and well worth it. This, along with the Church Street dumpling lady are two good reasons alone to come to Burlington.

The service here is quick and courteous. I lived in Japan for a year and experienced a wide range of quality ramen dishes there, and the ramen dishes at HJ House are really quite good by comparison, especially considering the very affordable price. I haven’t tried the sushi, but the real treat of the place is their ramen dishes and that is what I would encourage people going there to try.

Stopped in to get take out to take to the hotel. I ordered «shredded beef ramen» and salmon roll. What I discovered in our room is that they gave me the «spicy beef ramen» and I was unable to eat most of it. I have an okay tolerance for hot peppers, but this was insane. I’m a Tabasco on Eggs kinda guy. A pickled jalapeño on pizza guy. Not a Finely Chopped Chili Pepper of Horror kinda guy.
I offered a piece of the beef to my daughter which she refused; THANK FREAKING GOD. As it was, she picked up my chopsticks that had been soaking in what I assume was straight-​up chili oil and then got liquid from my Noodle Pot of Death on her hands. Quick parental thinking got her in the bathroom and her hands washed before she could rub Asian Magma all over her face.
The salmon roll was unremarkable, as was my wife’s cucumber salad, which consisted of sliced cucumbers and tomato in Wish Bone Italian dressing.

Lots of surprisingly affordable, yet yummy sushi. Almost no wait on a Saturday (which may not be a good sign for it’s longevity, but made it easy). My 11 year old daughter loved it, but it’s not a kid’s place. Don’t forget — it’s BYOB. Grab a locally brewed six-​pack and enjoy.

You would think with a name like HJ House, they would at least have a specialty roll named «The Happy Ending.» As one of the few sushi restaurants in Burlington, they serve one type of specialty roll unlike any I’ve ever seen. Appropriately named the sandwich roll, it is composed of spicy tuna and masago cut into miniature triangular-​shaped sandwiches (sans the crust). I like the idea, but the spicy flavor overshadowed any taste of tuna present between the faux-​bread rice. I hope the other rolls aren’t like the Out of Control roll — skimpy with the fish and only a single layer of rice on the outside.
HJ House is also one of the few, if not, only restaurants in Burlington that offers Japanese ramen on the menu. There’s nothing particularly special about the broth or the noodles, but they all come with a half egg. The beef in the HJ ramen was the highlight of the meal. The ramen starts at $ 6.50 and most of the specialty rolls are $ 9 and up.

This was actually a surprising find for me. Shame on me for not trying this place sooner! The ramen was very authentic. It brought back memories of my ramen-​eating experiences in Japan. The base broth was well-​seasoned and fortunately neither too salty nor oily. If I can enjoy a wonderful bowl of ramen during a hot summer day, it must really be one excellent ramen!
I had the opportunity to only try 1 type of sushi (tekka maki) so I can’t say that my opinion would be too accurate. However, the fish was definitely fresh. I just wish they used better quality ginger and wasabi for their sides but given the pricing of the food, I can’t really complain. At least the sushi itself is actually fresh so I am happy.
Service was very good. The server was polite, attentive, and efficient. The place was clean and pleasantly quiet. This is my new favorite place in Burlington and would be a fantastic place to go to in the winter!

Although there are many Japanese restaurants in the Burlington area, HJ House is actually the first one I’ve ever tried. I have never been a huge fan of Japanese food in the Burlington area as most of them seem pretty sushi focused. However, I was introduced to HJ House from Seven Days as being more of a Ramen House.
I should mention this first, this ramen isn’t your $ 0.25 instant ramen you are probably thinking of. This is genuine Japanese style ramen. Being a huge fan of ramen, I decided I needed to check this place out.
The location of HJ House is pretty easy to spot out, as it is right next to Vermont Pub & Brewery, Outside the restaurant are little triangle flaps and some lanterns. The inside and outside appearance immediately have a feel of restaurants as if you were in Chinatown.
Inside, not only were maybe about 7ish tables as well as a sushi bar in the back. Looking at the menu, there was a pretty good variety of Japanese food. Looking at the ramen section, there was well over 12 different styles from what I remember. The prices ranged from $ 7 to $ 10. For those who love sushi, there was one whole page dedicated to sushi rolls, a whole lot of variety and styles.
After going through all the ramen choices, I decided to go with the Spicy Meat Ramen. Service was pretty quick from time of ordering and receiving the meal. I will be honest, I was pretty cautious in terms of how big the portion size would be. All my previous experiences with ramen/​noodle dishes at Japanese restaurants have been pretty bad in that the portion sizes were all pretty small and requiring two bowls to fill up.
When I received my ramen bowl, I was pleasantly surprised how much bigger the bowl was compared to my past experiences. As for my ramen bowl, it was delicious. The Spicy Meat ramen had a drinkable broth which was quite spicy. The meat was cut up into nicely thin slices. The broth also had bean sprouts and what seemed to be Chinese Bok Choy (Chinese cabbage). My girlfriend had ordered a Sukiyaki Meat Ramen. Trying her sukiyaki meat, it was very tender.
All in all, HJ House was a very good experience. The whole time from entering and leaving was less than an hour. If your a fan of genuine ramen, I definitely recommend checking this place out. If you like sushi as well, they have quite a selection as well. As this place has literally only been only for a week, when I went, all the tables were filled. I can see this place getting pretty popular. Also, there is no alcohol served here, although I did see other people bring in wines.