Aji Man

The boyfriend and I were craving ramen late on a thursday night. Daikokuya was too packed, Shin Sen Gumi was too far, and Ajisen was out of the question. Since reading the other reviews I’m assuming because we arrived an hour before closing that our menu only consisted of two kinds of ramen, gyoza, drinks, and dessert. I didn’t question it at the time because I was only interested in the ramen. Anyway.
They give you a paper to specify your order, like extras and omissions.
I asked for standard oil? not knowing what I was getting myself into. When the bowl arrived, I had a hard time seeing through the thick layer of chili oil, and then realized I should have requested it as light!
In all honesty, it turned me off and made it hard to enjoy the broth. The noodles were well cooked and they did not skimp on the mushrooms, seaweed, and green onions. The flavor was great, too.
The service was kind and very attentive, being there was only one other person in the restaurant.
I couldn’t wait to get home to skim off the oil and enjoy the rest of the soup, but when I sent my bowl off to be packed, to my horror, it came back as a cup of only the ingredients! They clearly tossed out my broth, but I couldn’t complain since they do give free iced green tea refills and on that night only, free green tea and plum wine ice cream.
We’ll be back. I’m curious about the rest of the menu and ramen sans oil!

AJI-​MAN IS NO LONGER IN BUSINESS.
Aji-​Man is under new ownership and I believe the new name is something like «Tokyo Tonkatsu Ramen». We came here with our
gift certificate and were bummed to find Aji-​Man no longer there but decided to stay and eat at the new place. We actually liked the new restaurant even more. The ramen broth was tasty, fried rice was solid and the ramen dishes came with free ice cream dessert sprinkled with rice krispies, which was really tasty. For about $ 24 we had fried rice, and two ramen dishes with ice cream and were completely stuffed.
They gave our 3 year old a cute mug and bowl to use.
The one con: no public restroom.

I really like this restaurant. Inside, it looks pretty much like any struggling family establishment, but the owners care about their customers. The chef is from Hokkaido, and I feel that his Sapporo Miso Ramen is the best thing on the menu. It’s heaped with all kinds of good stuff and the broth is very tasty. And the noodles always have excellent texture and bite. Normally I prefer Tokyo-​style shoyu broth but at Ajiman the miso broths are superior.
The chef/​owner has also had experience as a sushi chef before opening this ramen shop, so generally his sushi is pretty good.
They are very kind to kids and if it’s slow they will give your kid a balloon. :)
We go back about once a month.

Heard about this place from a friend and finally got to try it after a failed attempt one other time (it was closed then on a weeknight close to 9pm). There’s a homey feel to the restaurant and service is pretty good and swift. I ordered California rolls at my little sister’s request and a miso ramen with pork, bean sprouts, egg, and seaweed (extra for each topping). The CA rolls were alright and as for the ramen, the broth was too thick for my taste and noodles too soft. My sis said that the pork tasted a bit weird, but I just took her word for it because I’m not eating meat right now. (I didn’t bother to ask for more pork). Although I’m glad there wasn’t a wait, I’d suggest going to Shin-​Sen-​Gumi in Rosemead for quality ramen in this area.

I love this place. I found it only by accident. I got here only because Ajisen Ramen was waaaay too croweded.
This place is not a big soul-​less chain like the giant Ajisen Ramen (chain, huge, NOISY). No. It’s really a small little mom & pop place. Cozy. Authentic. Family run. Quiet. DELICIOUS. I love it.
Because of my experiences at Ajimen, I’m never going to a chain ramen places like Ajisen again. I love mom & pop stores.

This one deserved a 4-​star for the service. Went back for lunch with my mom. She doesn’t like their ramen too much but we were in the SGV and I had the Café on 2^nd and Aji Man
gift certificates with me. I actually wanted to go to Café on 2^nd but they weren’t open, at noon! So undependable. Anyway, ended up going back to Aji Man.
Only one other table had customers. I ordered the Saporo ramen — lots of bean sprouts and corn, plus pork? and bamboo shoots. Big bowl, couldn’t finish because I also ordered a dragon roll. A little on the expensive side for relatively small pieces, but very fresh. Mom had the teriyaki chicken plate. What a deal! For $ 6.25, it came with a side salad, miso, and a ton of very tender pieces of chicken.
The waitress brought us three boxes to pack our leftovers without me having to ask. Even though my mom was cynical enough to say «that’s because we were the only customers in there», but even so, some waiters/​waitresses wouldn’t do that. I appreciate every little bits of good service.

I have been there a dozen times. I tried several of their dishes. Overall, they are decent. But last time I went there, something bad happened. I ordered the Chashu Ramen. It tasted okay, but there was one problem. Some of the food in the bowl were still cold… Some of the veggie were still cold as well as some of the Ramen noodle. I suspect that they use microwave to reheat the stuff. I am no expert in Ramen, but I don’t believe that’s the way Ramen should be prepared. I want my Ramen fresh.
The fried dumpling was not so good either. When I picked up dumplings with my chopsticks, they broke. That equals to bad quality. They can do better. Maybe the chef had a bad day.
And lastly, I think they shrank the portion size. The portion size was about one pack of Top Ramen Noodle. I remember they used to give me a lot more Ramen noodle.
The service was good as usual.

2010
You may want to read on… However, none of us go there after the waitress answered a question about their gyoza (Chinese style pan fried dumplings) seemed no different than the type sold in Japanese grocery stores in the frozen food section.
Watch out for this little factoid (if you care about this sort of, eh, maybe… quality) for gyoza, koroke (japanese for croquettes), edamame and other pre-​prepared & usually, frozen foods.
PS Same issue in other cities — so ask the server or the owner.
Please note: Many of the other foods were yummy: see below.
— — — — — –
2009
Ramen shops are ubiquitous in Japan. Each region has a variation. Each Ramen shop tries to out do the others with the tastiest noodle soup and perfectly al dente noodles. Half a boiled egg on top is traditional in many places. Spinach and dark, flavoured bamboo (called menma) on top is part of the typical bowl of ramen noodles. The large quantity of bean sprouts (moyashi) is a reason for joy when one orders «Moyashi Ramen.» Comments that there are too many bean sprouts in an order of genuine «Moyashi Ramen» order is therefore, surprising or inappropriate. At Aji Man where I ordered Moyashi ramen, the bean sprouts arrived soft and steamed. I ask them to give me fresh, raw bean sprouts and enjoyed the large amount of moyashi. You may like this technique: quickly rotate the raw moyashi from top to bottom of the bowl, so as to get a nice, slightly cooked, yet crunchy consistency of fresh bean spouts). Try the Chasu (moyashi chashu ramen) ask for the fat to be cut off of the chashu (pork slices). Unless you enjoy a bit of pork fat. In this part of the USA, for ramen and fatty pork, you might enjoy Tamaya. Slightly different soup taste, sometimes it seems better, other times, worse. The «Japanese» issue with Tamaya is their stretched out, over cooked noodles which are a bit too soft, perhaps over boiled and thus stretched out, to be respectable to most Ramen eaters in Japan. Tamaya is just a short way west from Aji Man. They use pork belly for their cha-​shu, and it is very fatty, it’s their special way of serving up ramen. PS: Aji Man offers a ticket to be stamped each time you buy ramen. 10 stamps = 1 free ramen, i.e., a 10% discount, or so, per serving of ramen. Aji Man may have the best price for chicken teriyaki. Re: the 2 mochi ice creams cut in quarters; Aji Man’s only after meal sweet. Boring, but the strawberry flavoured one is tasty. Cutting them each in quarters to be eaten with a tooth pick is probably due to Japanese traditional thoughts about serving Japanese sweets. But, it is an odd surprise for someone looking for a bountiful and American-​ish style dessert. As a person who appreciates dessert, I would enjoy such else where.

Say you’ve come on a pilgrimage to Golden Deli and the line is much too long for your liking (and the sister restaurants Vietnam Restaurant and Vietnam House are stuffed to the gills as well). You’re in luck because Ajiman is delicious and $$CHEAP$$!
Food: Two words: Sapporo ramen (
). Eating this heaping bowl of wonderment is like stuffing your face with a garden (and pork to boot). When my bowl came out, my jaw dropped. The bean sprouts, corn, seaweed, bamboo and scallions were seriously shooting about 3 – 4 inches out of the bowl. The meat was tender, the broth was milky. Need I say more? I have to say though, that out of all of the choices on the menu, this is by far the best. The shio ramen (
) wasn’t as delicious as Santouka’s and failed to amaze. Likewise, the seaweed ramen’s broth wasn’t anything special and had a weird aftertaste (
). My friend tried the chicken teriyaki plate which looked fairly average to me (
).
Atmosphere: This place isn’t much to look at from either the inside or the outside, but apparently the name means something like ‘tasty’ so I guess they have a lot of confidence. It’s fairly small, but seems like they could host a large gathering.
Service: Pretty standard. I love how the waitress got all excited and exclaimed that the Sapporo ramen was healthy when I ordered.
Synopsis: Will be back for the Sapporo ramen. I love fiber.

So I wanted to have dinner with my mom and my bf, so i decided Phở would be really good. But they ended up being super packed at 830PM. So we can in here to try. There was only on other table occupied. There was only on waitress. She was pleasant.
The menu is very small and limited and depending on the day, they have daily specials. We ordered the Chicken Teriyaki plate, Miso Ramen and Shio Ramen. Both ramen bows were not good. No real flavor, and the ramen was not cooked enough. The chicken was the best thing we had on the table, the meat being moist and the teriyaki sauce being so so.
After we ate, we all agreed that we wouldn’t be coming back here. The wait for the Phở restaurant next door is definitely worth the wait.

this place is dead! on a sunday afternoon, during lunch hour, while vietnamese restaurant was packed like always, there wasn’t any other tables besides us.
if it wasn’t for the
coupon i bought, i probably won’t come here for ramen, ever! i’ve never seen anyone eating here when i peak in. i thought i would give it a try since some reviews are pretty good. but i guess this isn’t for my taste.
i came here with my fam, ordered sapporo miso ramen, miso ramen, pork katsu don, and a spicy tuna bowl. the ramen came first, miso ramen was just watever, my bro said it was very very simple, like we can just make it at home. my sapporo ramen looks a little better, but like wat he says, i can make that at home. there was nothing special about their ramen at all. the ramen was not that al dente, soup wasn’t that flavorful, n big half of my bowl was filled with bean sprout. that was a rip off. hmm.
i also tried the pork katsu don, which i thought was pretty nasty. rice and the egg was just alright, how bad can it be? but the pork itself was very hard and dry. it didnt even taste like pork, more like the texture of an eraser. and the spicy tuna was probably the best thing outta all. but it wouldn’t bring me back to this place again.
service was alright with the lady. i understand that they are probably paranoid that no one eats there during weekend peak hour and the only table that went there came with a
certificate. don’t know how long this place will last, feel sorry for them.

This is a great little ramen shop. The ramen is equal in quality to the shops in little tokyo. It just hasn’t been discovered.
The ingredients were very fresh, and excellent noodles. Service was wonderfully quick, Their cold ramen comes very large, and was quite refreshing in the recent 100+ weather.
The restaurant is very clean, simple, very neighborhood friendly. Not a ton of atmosphere, quaint though. I came for the ramen, not for the décor.

My first time at Aji Man. I’ve always seen it when I go to Golden Deli. I thought about giving it a try whenever the line is too long at Golden Deli but always ended up waiting instead.
I finally tried Aji Man because I got a coupon from
. I ordered the Sapporo Miso Ramen. I didn’t know what to expect but the about of bean sprouts that they give you is ridiculous! I like bean sprouts but the entire bowl seen like nothing but bean sprouts. There were definitely more bean sprouts than noodles, or at least that what it feels like. The soup itself was kind of bland. The portion was good. I also order a sushi roll and that was ok. Now that I’ve satisfied by curiosity, I won’t be going back again.

Pretty easy to park located close to my work. Place is small, it has a tv. They only has ramen and sushi. I eat their combo lunch, ramen+4 rolls of californial rolls. The ramen do not had egg, which is strange, all otehr ramen place i been to use ramen, instead they add some vegetables. The beef is very good and tendor, ramen is actually also good, but i think is just abit less for what you paying.
Ramen hunter, try this place.

Ordered the Sapporo Miso ramen. I was expecting a lot of bean sprouts after reading some reviews… but this was ridiculous. It was an iceberg of sprouts – pretty healthy pile peeking out on top and a ton more under the soup! Soup base was bland. Noodles were meh. Basically tasted like store bought instant ramen.
Also tried some of the soup from the Shoyu Ramen – meh.
Aji Man deserves a few stars for the great service and cute shop – but the food needs help.

cute little man ramen!
Another ramen shop in the SGV! Yay! I really like this place. It’s a small shop that offer variety of different ramens.
I order Shio and Sapporo ramen. Both were tasty and simple. Good portions. Noodles and the broth were simple, nothing too salty. I also order crunch roll too. Delicious as well, but nothing special.
pros
lunch specials (choice of shoyu ramen or shio ramen with 4 California rolls for $ 7.25)
several different ramens to choose from!
appetizers (dragon roll, crunch roll, etc)
food comes out fast & no complaints about service!
prices are decent ($ 6 – 8)
takes MasterCard & visa too!
cons
parking is bad (sharing the lot with Newport Seafood, Golden Deli, and other shops)
small shop (limited seating)

1^st time was yesterday, it was pretty good! I had the Genki Ramen and my boss had the Kimichi Ramen. It was not bad… But I still haven’t found the best ramen or maybe ramen doesn’t like me.
Japanese owned with true Japanese customers so that is a good sign.
DOMO!

Simple. Tasty. Ramen.
Honestly, I could leave it at that and it would be a perfectly accurate review. This is ramen as you pretty much expect it to be, and that’s fine. The broths are delicious and the noodles are just how I like them. No complaints on the food whatsoever (although nothing extraordinary either).
Prices are around six or seven dollars and they have a couple bowls available for $ 5 on Thursdays. This might very well turn into my default Thursday night!

Tried shio ramen (salt flavor ramen) and green salad. Green salad came out first. Leafy green looked old, did not look appetizing. Then the ramen came out. Ramen looked really plain. Sprinkled with thinly sliced negi (scallions), 2 pieces of chashu (pork), and some bamboo shoots. I started eating the noodles which I thought was good. I personally like chizire-​men (not straight noodles but a little wavy or curly noodles). Then I thought to myself «hmmm…tastes rather bland.» Soup is really clear, looked like chicken broth. Then I sipped the soup. «Hmmm…still tastes bland, not salty at all.»
I sipped the soup few more times, and then it kicked in. «POW! POW!»
Noodle and the soup did not taste salty but after sipping the soup few times, there is no doubt in my mind they use MSG. I knew about this before I got there. I found a review on
and one person complained about it. I’m not a big fan of MSG because it affects me health wise (excessive thirst, scratchy throat, numbness in mouth, swollen/​tender tongue, etc.) When I got there there was one couple and that was it. So the service was okay but I personally didn’t like the waiter. He reminds me of the guy that works at Kiraku in Gardena, a «d1ck». Anyhow, what a waste of my time and drive to eat at this place. I don’t think this is real Hokkaido ramen like they say.

I wanted to try something different last night, so we stopped by Aji man for some hole in the wall Ramen. hehe… I thought it’s kinda cute how they are the imitation of Ajisen! hehe… It’s so Chinese! we can replicate everything. haha, but that’s besides the point.
Surprisingly, when we walked in, the tiny place was somewhat packed… that’s always a good sign!
Ramen was actually not bad at all. I liked the miso soup based… I could be a little bias, ’cause their «regular miso» base is a little bit on the spicy side! And I am a big fan of spicy miso base! Why don’t they just called it «Spicy Miso?» :P Anyways, we also got Katsudon, but that was pretty much a disappointment. The pork chop was overly fried and the sauce that they used wasn’t very tasty.
But hey, It wasn’t bad at all. Would I come back to Aji Man? Yeah, probably. Just for the“spicy” miso ramen. hehe.
Oh yeah kids, be aware that parking can be a killer! We were so lucky that we found a parking spot on the street! (next to Jack in the box) I didn’t want to fight with asian folks for a tiny parking slot. haha… wasn’t in mood for that… hehe.
So…what’s next? Aji-​dude? haha.
Price is decent. Ramen + Katsudon (included miso soup)= $ 15.20 Not bad at all.