Foo Foo Tei

Food: ⁴⁄₅ stars
I came for the ramen but ended up liking other food better. But they have hundred of ramen too choose from. I exaggerate but they have a lot of choices.
Atmosphere: ³⁄₅ stars
Located in the industrial part of town. You wouldn’t expect a restaurant here. The kitchen was big and took over half the restaurant. If you like crowds in an older place then you’ll like it here.
Service: ⁴⁄₅ stars
Very efficient.
Expense: ⁴⁄₅ stars
Very good value.
Return: ⁵⁄₅ stars
Yes.

It is a solid place for ramen! I didn’t have trouble with parking and I ordered the miso ramen with some green tea. I was extremely pleased!

I tried coming to this infamous restaurant 10 years ago but had to find an alternative after facing a 45+ minute wait and not being able to find a parking spot. I come back today after remember that this was once an extremely popular restaurant that I just had to visit eventually. Parking was plentiful, if you include the availability of street parking. I walked into this establishment and was thankfully faced with only 4 groups ahead of me. They actually called me within 5 minutes, but had to wait for my other party to arrive before being seated. The waiting area is tiny but there is an old shelf full of manga books! They were play j-​pop (or some sort of Japanese music). My 16 year old self would have loved it here.
I got number #17 (Nanchatte Tonkotsu Ramen) and shared an appetizer #7 (homemade croquette). I’m sad to say, neither were very good. The ramen was creamy, but I’ve had creamier noodle broth before. But the fact that it wasn’t too creamy was a plus. The ramen noodle didn’t leave an impactful experience and also very limited. The meat portion was very lacking as well. The poached egg was okay, I’ve had better and for some reason my egg was a lot smaller than my friends (unlucky I guess?). Stay away from the croquettes. Enough said.
I would come back if I’m feeling for a quick bite for Ramen but would reconsider if I want a higher quality ramen meal.

Yep. Nanchatte tonkatsu ramen was sooo tasty. I’m usually a thick noodle fan but the thin noodles here still impressed me AND filled me up. The chasu melts in your mouth and each spoonful of broth is creamy and smooth. My friend ordered a side of cheese mochi and the sauce blew me away. It ended up being $ 9 for the ramen and it was spectacular. Foo Foo, you treated us well tonight!

One of my favorite ramen places! My friends and parents love this place too! My favorite is the Nanchette ramen (I think that’s what it’s called XD), which was around $ 8.40. The soup is a white and creamy broth. The meat is really tender and the noodles taste great!
They have side dishes that are pretty good! I’ve had the squid and gyoza and I liked both! Their other main dishes are just okay though. I didn’t really like the omurice they made. It was really plain and not that flavorful. After my experience with the omurice, I just decided to stick to the ramen as their main dish.
Also, I usually like cold beverages but I always get the hot tea there because it tastes great! I think it used to be green tea but I got the barley tea today… Still good though ^_^

This is the best ramen place we have ever been to! My family comes down from norco and cypress just to eat here! It’s a small hole in the wall place and you know those are the best! The girls are great at serving us promptly sometimes we have to wait for a table but once sat down the food comes out really quick!!! My fave is #13 pork and veggies I get it spicy the broth is delicious!

Love this place!!! Great ramen out of no where. The reason why i give 4 stars is because there were flies while we were eating! Hard to enjoy the meal when you’re scared that the fly might end up in my soup. Brought some shio and shoyu ramen to go and they packed it so well, separating the noodles from everything else so when i prepared it at home it was just as fresh.

Foo foo tei has so many choices that it took me a while to order. I ended up getting Omelet rice for $ 8.5 with Grilled pike mackerel for $ 7, and my colleague got omelet rice plus pork cutlet with curry sauce for $ 13 to go. They were all savory and good! I loved how they separated the pork from rice for to go, thus keeping the pork crispy! Very thoughtful of them! The mackerel was well cooked and not too oily. The fish skin was brown and crisp. The price was reasonable with huge portion. I will definitely come back again to try other items on the menu. Note: some of the dishes also come in mini sizes, so you can order the mini size when you only want to have something light! Or you can order the mini size with some appetizers.

I heard a lot of good things about Foo Foo Tei & I’ve been wanting to try it for the longest time ever. Two-​ish years later, I finally get to try it & it was DISAPPOINTING!
So my friend and I arrived on a Tuesday night around 6 and it was not that busy. Parking was easy to find & we were seated right away. Since I couldn’t decide on anything else, I got the nanchette since everyone raves about that one. It wasn’t as flavorful as I thought it would be & even more disappinting, there were only TWO pieces of meat in there and a few other fillers. The rest was noodles!!! Don’t get me wrong, the pork was SO good & really wished I had more which would have made up for the lack of flavor, but there was NOTHING in this bowl except for noodles. Of course the noodles filled me up pretty fast so I couldn’t finish it. I’m pretty sure I won’t be coming back here again.

This is not my full review just using it to keep track of what I’ve had
#17 this one is my favorite tonkotsu + white cream is fire (I always take the soup Togo and add instant ramen the next day with it)
#tan tan mein the soup is no where near thick like yukinoya. I like both however
#curry ramen: the spices are on point. I would recommend dipping gyoza or cutlet, chicken wing, into the curry. If you have leftover rice from a mini bowl that’s even better.
#shin shin ramen: bout to try this
#broiled squid: I usually get this when I have a party more than two. Texture is chewy/​firm.

Update– brought my wife and order the large bowl to share and ordered three side dishes. The oyster egg custard is highly recommended. However, steam clam using butter can skip.
In the area so I try this place for lunch. The place is at middle of nowhere and there is a line before noon so it is a happen place.
There are good selection of ramen. The noodle is tender and soup base has nice body, thick. The ingredient is fresh and cook has a big hand based on the quantity of ingredient in the noodle. Boil squid is most have.
Next table order a large bowl and the size is a tub for the baby. I want to order and share it with my family on next visit. It is good size for three people.

I’m really upset that I have to give my favorite ramen place a one star. It would be negative if that were possible. I’m sitting here now because I’m going to get charged anyway.
I ordered the shin-​shin ramen with a bunch of add ons and the waitress put in the ten-​shin – similar sounding names so I get it. So I tell her and she says she heard ten-​shin and insists that I eat it because otherwise it’ll just go to waste. I tell her that I’m not going to eat it and ask if they can make what I originally ordered – WHAT I POINTED TO. She continues to insist that I eat what I didn’t order until I’m exasperated and tell her to go ahead and charge me for both bowls and to just pack up their mistake.
My friend originally orders the miso and asks if she can add beef because she can’t eat pork and the server says they can’t add beef (even though there are ramen which include beef) but when her bowl comes out sure enough, there’s pork. The waitress says she repeated the order (which she did but seriously her «ten-​shin» sounded exactly like SHIN-​SHIN) but we made sure that the pork wasn’t going to be included. So after arguing with her she says she can remake my friend’s ramen because she can’t eat it but I’m still going to have to get charged for a bowl of ramen I didn’t order and didn’t want to eat.
So I’m sitting here waiting for my remake because I’m already here and I’m going to have to pay anyway.
Extremely upset by the way they handled the situation. I’m sure my lone review won’t make a dent in their loyal patrons but I know that I won’t be returning.
Edit: I’m doing this review thru my phone so excuse any spelling or grammatical errors. I’ll go back and revise if necessary.
Okay, so sitting here (and mostly) enjoying what I originally ordered (almost. Opted out of all my extra sides because I didn’t want to pay for them TWICE) and this bowl is actually REALLY good, which upsets me even more because the food really is delicious but I can’t let go of how this was handled. Said server was supposed to pack the misfire for me and I assumed that she would bring it out upon packing it but she hasn’t and now I’m worried they’re tampering with it somehow. Sigh.
Last edit: original server avoided us the entire meal and didn’t even attempt to apologize. Another server tended to us and was really nice and attentive. At least they separated the broth from the noodles in the mistaken ten-​shin.
What with the service I got here and the ruin of what used to be Akasaka, I can safely say I’ll never find a reason to be on Clark St. ever again.

This place is always packed no matter what time you come. It looks like a hole-​in-​the-​wall place, but those places are usually BOMB.
They have a huge selection in their menu from Ramen, to rice dishes, and even Side dishes. Their menu has a picture for every item listed, which is so convenient.
I highly recommend the Shoyu Ramen. The broth/​soup is so flavorful, their noodles are tender and had the perfect chewiness to it. I absolutely love the pork slices, it was cooked to perfection and every bite melted in my mouth.

This was our first time going to Foo Foo Tei. We came at 12:15, 15 minutes after they opened and all the times were taken and about 7 groups in front of us. We waited for almost an hour to be seated. However, there were other reviews that warned us about the constant waiting time.
We wanted to try the «basic» dishes so that we would know what to get next time. My sister got the shoyo ramen, my brother ordered the shio ramen and for me, the miso ramen. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 respectively. I thought it was pretty good. Portions were large. We enjoyed our ramen but it was a little salty for our taste. (Our family cuts down salt in our diet so most places are too salty for us).
Staff was friendly and welcoming.
I really enjoyed this place. I want to try the other ramens and I will return here.

Foo Foo Tei? More like Floo Floo Away.
Great reviews and my love for ramen drew me here. But I was definitely not satisfied.
Parking was easy on a weekend afternoon, which started the day off nicely. Walk in, seems like a fairly unassuming shop. I appreciate a place that focuses on food and keeps the décor nice and simple. The wooden planks of ramen names aligning the walls also served to give the place some character. All in all great first impression.
So, what went wrong? Simply put, the food that we ordered just was not working. And before you ding me for thinking that I was trying to find authentic ramen at the wrong place, no I’m fully aware of enjoying a dish for what it is. The tastes just weren’t doing my tongue any favors.
First, the green tea calpico arrived. I always love getting an interesting drink off the menu. To my, somewhat ridiculous, surprise, it tasted just like green tea with calpico. I feel like I’m always surprised by these concoctions for being exactly who they are. My apologies. Anyway, it actually was quite refreshing, and possibly the best part of the meal.
We also ordered the mini curry bowl because 1) the mini bowls are $ 1 off with purchase of a noodle dish 2) everyone seems to be raving about the curry (and by everyone I mean the limited Unilocal reviews I quickly skimmed before deciding). The curry came before the noodles which was nice since we finished it about the time that the noodles arrived. Felt like a nice appetizer given its size. There wasn’t much to the curry though besides the sauce and the rice (and who can forget the glorious ginger). $ 4.50 for some slightly better than from-​the-​box curry that I make without any additional ingredients in it. Eh. I guess you can’t go wrong with curry.
Then the nanchatte and the shin-​shin ramen came. My gf loves seafood noodles, so it was the natural choice for her, and I figured since a lot of people were raving about the nanchatte, I’d give that a try. (Spoiler alert: Both terrible decisions by the way.)
Maybe I’m just not into a half creamy half soupy kind of base. Felt almost like when I melt cheese into my instant noodles at 3am and it turns into a cheesy-​ish broth. (Yes, that’s a thing.) The consistency and the taste just weren’t working for me though. It was difficult trying to eat it, and halfway through I basically gave up. That’s saying a lot for me.
The shin-​shin noodles should be more aptly named the vegetable ramen with seafood toppings. I’m sorry but this one almost seemed like it was trying to mimic Jjamppong (korean spicy seafood noodles) by excluding all the good parts. Composition was terrible, broth subpar. Again, not very exciting to finish.
By the end, we had two unsatisfying bowls of ramen and not enough green tea calpico. I’m not about this hype.

Wow, the price for quality is great here! For a decent price, you get a huge bowl of ramen that’s for sure to fill you up. They have a large variety of different ramen on the menu that I want to try.
I decided on the #17 Nanchatte Tonkotsu ramen with white cream soup ($ 8.40). The broth came quite hot and had a rich taste with a sweet flavor to it. Haven’t see this in most ramen places I’ve went to and it was delicious!
The portions are so huge, no other ramen restaurants compare and the prices are not expensive at all too! I’m really interested in returning to try their other ramen bowls! It’s a bit of a drive for me, but I wouldn’t mind making the drive if I’m really craving for excellent ramen.

So many options to choose from! Make sure you read the descriptions before you order.
If you plan on going on the weekend, expect a wait. If they are busy, expect to be rushed. Despite typical Asian restaurant etiquette, I have enjoyed all of the different ramen I have tried here.
There is a private lot with very limited spaces. If you can’t park in the lot you can park on the street towards the neighborhood behind the restaurant.

I’ve always wanted to come here because it’s near my work. Every of my friends who tried there recommend me to go. Since I wanted to avoid dining in rush hour, I arrived before they opened at 5:30 pm. The restaurant itself was small so make sure to go earlier to avoid waiting. Place got crowded easily after 6pm. They have manga and magazines at entrance section so feel free to grab one and read while waiting for food. There was even newest Vivi megazine (Japanese fashion magazine) that I used to buy every month!
Food
Boiled Squid 5 Star
The squid was bomb. It was tender and chewy at same time. It also have this taste of savory and sweet seasoning which I really enjoyed. This is probably my favorite dish of the night! It was so juicy that there is leftover juice I used to dip with salad. It also came with some pickles. $ 7 appetizer was kind of expensive but I would definitely order this again for the quality and flavor!
Nanchatte Tonkotsu Ramen with white cream soup with extra veggies 3.5 Star
I always got extra veggies for every ramen I tried. I was surprised how huge this bowl was when they served the ramen. I felt like all the ingredients were going to flow out. I personally not in favor of white cream broth but due my my sore throat situation, I could not try their spicy broth so I decided to try this white cream broth since it’s on the highlight. I was concerned if creamy soup would make me feel sick easily since it could be way too heavy. However, it did not happen to me at all. The cream soup was actually at nice flavor balance without making me feel sick. However, the chashu was okay, not too moist and tender. In general the flavor of this ramen was okay but I gotta say, it definitely worth the try.
I would def come back and try their spicy ramen with extra veggies! Great ramen spot in Hacienda Heights!

The wait at Foo Foo Tei is always super long. I’ve always ordered the #17 which is the Nanchatte Tonkotsu Ramen. The broth is very flavorful, but very heavy. It has this sweet flavor to it. They do have a good soup to ramen ratio and for a bowl the size they give you, is not too expensive.
Parking lot is awful, but there is a lot of street parking. I definitely think its worth a try as I have friends who love this establishment. Maybe you’ll find what you’re looking for in ramen.

This original location has been here for over 65 years! Hidden in the industrial area but don’t be fool on the location because there is always a line. I arrived on a weekday at 11:30 am and already there is a line outside waiting for the restaurant to open and 30 mins later, the rest of the lines starts forming for the rest of the day. They serve the food pretty quick and the servers are very quick and trying to get ppl in and out. They don’t check on you but they are always running back and forth between tables, so it may be difficult to catch their attention.
The most popular dishes are the ramen and the rice dishes. The bowl comes in a huge intimidating portion for about $ 10. I recommend sharing a bowl for 2 ppl and order another side dish. My fav is the miso ramen. They also include a lot of veggies, green onions, ginger, shrimp, fish balls, fish cakes, and half boiled egg aside than just noodles.
Side dishes: the sliced octopus and fried Japanese deep dish was very fresh and flavorful. It goes well with either a ramen or rice entrees. One of their traditional and authentic dish here. Good portion to share with the entire table as family style.
The eel rice bowl is one of the popular rice dish. The eel is nicely prepared with lots of seasoning. Fresh and also very soft. They serve with Japanese rice and 2 different pickle vegetable on the side. I just love the fluffy rice texture.
Overall a very good experience. I recommend coming here early so you will regret it!