Kairakutei

Haven’t even ate yet. Sitting here. Super slow service. Are being served after people who got here afterwards. Ran out of rice. Don’t think I’m coming back even without trying the food.

Finding vegan ramen isn’t easy, and they have a couple of versions (including miso broth) to choose from. Great service, feel free to ask the staff questions or for recos. Can’t go wrong with delicious, pretty authentic ramen this close to home

All these 1 and 2 star reviews are confusing me. This is amazing ramen! If you closed your eyes, it would be like you’re back in Japan at a ramen shop. Delicious ramen. I got the potstickers, those were weird. They tasted like pesto. Traditional veggie ramen — make it extra spicy! Oishii!!!

Ramen was pretty good, but we waited over 30 mins for our food which was frustrating. I like how they have combos, however, the curry was really salty. Good for a quick bite, but nothing spectacular.

Small mom and pop restaurant with inexpensive and decent tasting food options. It’s a cash only establishment with small tables good for 2 people, but they keep a row of tables stacked together for families (parents + 2 – 3 kids). The chairs are a little rickety, and I nearly knocked over the flimsy wooden room divider with my elbow three times. But I think it added to the cozy charm.
For those who may have trouble finding it, it’s in a plaza on the side that is near the intersection of Walnut and Newport, even though the address is McFadden street. The building is largely unlabeled except for large red letters that say «RAMEN NOODLE» on one side of the building.
Our server was friendly and attentive, especially with water refills.
FOOD ORDERED:
— Miso tonkotsu ramen ($ 5) w/​1 extra piece chashu (+$ 1 only! Would have easily been charged $ 2 if this was LA). The noodles were topped with half a braised egg, a sheet of nori, more seaweed, green onions, huge slice (s) of chashu pork, a dollop of shredded pink ginger, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Overall, the dish was okay. The noodles were al dente, but standard. I liked the chashu and found it to be soft enough. However, the egg was a little hard and dry. I liked that the yolk was thoroughly cooked, but fans of soft boiled eggs will be disappointed. Where it got a little strange was the soup: it tasted like smoky sesame soup more than miso or pork bone broth. But it was thick and had the texture of miso. I had enough leftovers for dinner, making the meal very affordable.
— Side of curry rice ($ 3 combo add-​on). It’s served with some slices of yellow pickled daikon and a mound of rice. The rice was good and moderately chewy. I liked the flavor of the curry itself, but it was a little salty. I received 1 piece of sweet carrot and wished for more! The curry also had pieces of pork which were pretty good, but only slightly dry.

Warning! If you don’t arrive within about 10 minutes of lunch opening on a weekday, all the tables will be filled! Then you would have to wait for the first groups to order, finish their food, pay, and leave. So expect to wait about 30 – 45 min if you arrive much later than 1130.
It’s a cute ma and pop shop. But keep in mind that only one person is waitressing all the tables and one is making all your ramen. So the wait can be a while. The ramen is really cheap, but sadly, the flavor is nothing extraordinary. My friend got the negi special and I got the tonkotsu miso ramen. The negi special isn’t very special, just has all the extra toppings that I would add to my ramen. The tonkotsu had a robust miso flavor, where I could taste the miso! If I ever come here again, tonkotsu is what I would get.
Overall, I would not go out of my way to get it but it’s decent during a lunch break. Also, it’s cash only…

After 25 minutes my veggie ramen wasn’t ready yet.
Really?!? you are not that busy, it’s just a noodle soup! Than I was told if I want to cancel the order because I asked how much longer it will be! Five minutes later when the soup wasn’t ready still I just left, really bad experience and bad customer service!

SO GOOD. Hubby got the curry and rice and i got the #6, tonkotsu miso ramen. Also a side of fried mackerel as an appetizer. $ 18.67 for all that AND it was tasty. Broth was flavorful, noodles were perfect, cut of pork was big and not too fatty. Service was very friendly. *cash only.
Will be back!

Ramen is one of the cheapest foods you can purchase at a market. That being said, if I am to order ramen at a restaurant, and pay $ 8+, it BETTER BE WORTH IT! Kairakutei is known for its ramen and it was definitely worth the money.
To start off, I prefer dining at family-​owned restaurants opposed to chains and this restaurant did not disappoint. I ordered the Shoyu Ramen (which is claimed to be the most popular item on the menu) and I see why. The ramen came out piping hot topped with a piece of pork, boiled egg, green onions, and seaweed two-​ways. I appreciated the temperature of the soup because many other restaurants do not bring the ramen out hot enough, resulting in a cold bowl of soup 10 minutes later. To add on to the soup, I ordered a side of fried rice which was decent, but the rice had a weird aftertaste, similar to Sprite.
Overall, I was satisfied with the meal. The owner of the restaurant was a super nice lady and she was very attentive and never let our water fall below halfway. Do not expect to get blown out of the water, but if you are in the mood for some Japanese comfort food, Kairakutei is the place to go!

I like their fried rice here. I also like the noodles. What I don’t like is the broth. I got the SPICY NEGI SPECIAL RAMEN ($ 7.99) and had the fried rice on the side (add $ 3 for combo). I wish it was the other way around where the ramen was my side dish because I couldn’t even get to finishing half of the bowl. It wasn’t missing flavor, in fact, I found it a little too salty. The broth had serious notes of green onion but it was the combination of everything else that didn’t work for me. The egg was over cooked, it had plenty of seaweed, green onions, some corn, one big piece of char siu, and ground meat in it. This reminded me of Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai’s, only it didn’t taste nearly as good. The FRIED RICE though, that was the show stopper. I could come back here just for that.
If you do find yourself in this area, I’d say get the TONKOTSU MISO RAMEN ($ 7.50) to be on the safe side but if you don’t mind driving a little bit more, save yourself the trouble and head straight to Santouka for a better ramen experience. The competition is tough out there. Cash only.

Kairakutei offers a middle of the road Ramen experience on the very cheap.
It was only a matter of time until I got Kairakutei on my ramen resume and the warnings about the hidden restaurant are warranted, it is at the end of the mall facing the opposite side of street. Once inside you will find a no frills affair mom & pop with a very sweet woman waiting tables by herself. The place gets packed quickly and with only one person doing the waiting, you are going to be doing some waiting yourself. My order took over 20 minutes to arrive.
The menu is quite large and offers all of the usual suspects in the ramen game. I went with the Tonkotsu Miso Ramen ($ 7.00), a side of Gyoza ($ 3.00) and a can of soda ($ 1.75). All prices were reasonable or better until it came to the soda.
The Tonkotsu Miso Ramen comes stock with a huge cutlet of Charshu, half of a hard boiled egg, wakame seaweed, nori, red ginger, and a handful of chopped green onion. The broth was rather bland and had an «earthy» flavor to it thanks to the seaweed I could not decide if I enjoyed or not. The pork flavor is not nearly as pronounced as I am accustomed to (think: Santouka, Yamadaya or SSG) and the mouthfeel was a bit on the loose end. The noodles were solid; cooked al dente but still had a nice strong chew to them. The star of the scene had to be the pork filet which looked like Russia on an old map, huge and formidable. Not nearly as fatty as most of the competition.
The Gyoza was a complete win. 3 seared dumplings loaded with cabbage, leeks, green onions, garlic and ginger and ground pork. The flavor is very balanced and required absolutely none of the supplied dipping sauces. These bad boys need no adornment to shine. At $ 3.00, this is a no brainer in addition to a bowl of noodles.
Kairakutei is very popular as the lines dictate and I think that is because of the overall value. At $ 7.00, they offer the best prices in the Ramen game. I wouldn’t put it on my top ten and my return visit is probably very questionable. That said, I am glad I have the notch on my Ramen belt.

Negi special spicy was very flavorful!!! I don’t understand the corn thing in Japanese food so I opted out on the corn ;) service was friendly and plenty of parking. It was easy to find. Gyoza, fried rice, and croquettes were good also!!!

This noodle house wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good enough for me to want/​crave it again.
Things you want to know before coming here for the first time!
1. CASH ONLY
2. Pretty small restaurant and the wait can be a while during busy hours.
3. Located at the right corner of the entire plaza.
FOOD:
Shumai
Best shumai I have tasted in SoCal. It was filled with delicious meat! I also loved it with the garlic miso paste. The downside of it is that they only give 2 small pieces.
Gyoza
Lots of people love the gyoza here, but I don’t even like at all. I ended up eating the skin by itself because it was crispy. The stuffing inside seemed like it was all vegetable. It did not taste like cabbage and the ginger flavor was too strong for me. :(
Curry Rice Bowl
Its decent. If I ever go back, I wouldn’t order this again. The meat was shredded and dry. The curry rice bowl at Tanakaya is way better.
Tonkotsu Miso Ramen
Pretty good ramen and the broth was delicious! I absolutely love egg noodle: D I really love drinking soup too, but I couldn’t finish this bowl of soup since it was too salty. I was sad that they only gave half an egg that wasn’t even soft. It was too dry for my liking. The chashu was good though! I was pleased it wasn’t dry :)
Service:
The service was great ! The lady was super nice and attentive. Props to her for being able to serve all the tables in a timely manner!
I was debating between a 3 or 4 stars since you can’t give 3.5 on Unilocal.I decided to go with the 4 stars because of the nice lady and the yummy egg noodles~

This is such a cute little place to come for some ramen. The place is a bit small so there is a little wait if the tables are full.
Food– The tonkotsu miso ramen is actually pretty good. The ramen is typical but still pretty decent/​good. If you are a spicy lover than this is not the place for you because their ramens are more towards the mild side. Even then it is still very good. The portion size though is small compared to a majority of the ramen places I’ve been too.
Service– There is only one server that also hosts. Props to her for getting everyone in and bringing food to everyone quickly. She seemed like a very nice middle age woman but she was very nice to us and made us feel very comfortable.
Price– My bowl of ramen only costed about $ 8 including tax. This place is really cheap for ramen but it makes sense why because their serving size is smaller than most places.
Overall– It is a very cute little place for some ramen. It is very small though so there will be a wait but there’s a small little patio thing in front of it so it’s still cute. Their ramen is like any other. The serving size is smaller but it is cheaper for that reason. I would probably not come back because I know other places that are better and bigger but maybe if I was in that area I would come back.

Why the heck do they have really good Unilocal reviews? Their ramen is so bad. Khanh N. and I both tried choices from their top 3 and hated both.
First, it’s hard to find this place. You want to enter the plaza from the intersection between Walnut and McFadden. It’ll be behind the gas station and near a laundromat. They do not have a sign for their restaurant — terrible. Spot the red lantern hanging in the corner of the parking lot. They have a menu in front of the entrance.
Second, while the noodles weren’t bad, the broth was so off. I had the tonkotsu miso. I never had ramen broth this bad. It was so oily. When I tried to take sips with my spoon, the first layer of broth was pretty much oil. The oil droplets made the floating sesame seeds look huge. Even Ajisen makes it better. They were too generous with the kelp pieces and chopped green onions. I did not like that they add ginger in the bowl already. Khanh had the negi special, which was supposed to be really popular. He hated the broth too. He said it did not taste like pork broth. They overloaded on his green onions and soy sauce. It wasn’t spicy enough for him, but I thought it was spicy enough. His ramen came with corn.
Third, the lady who served us was nice. She obviously doesn’t speak English well because we still didn’t understand what the negi special was, even though we asked her.
I’m not coming back.

Great mom and pop ramen shop! It’s a pretty small shop and quite old, to be honest. However, the owner was very nice and very patient. This place is cash only so you need to pay attention to that! My boyfriend and I were unaware of this and he had to go drive off and find an ATM.
I ordered the Negi Special Ramen, which is their signature spicy broth. I really liked the soup. It was flavorful and didn’t taste like just tabasco sauce (which I have experienced at other places). I loved the ramen noodles because they had a really nice bite to it. I’m not a fan of overcooked soft noodles so I really appreciated the chewiness of these noodles.
We also ordered the homemade gyoza ($ 3 for 3 pieces) and chicken karage ($ 3 for 4 pieces). I really liked the gyoza because it was pan fried instead of deep fried. It was more flavorful than a lot of places I’ve been to. I didn’t like the sauce it came with, however. It was a little too salty for my taste. The karage came with honey mustard instead of mayo which was very different in my opinion but still good. I thought it was a little pricey for the amount of food we got.
They had a large variety of ramen, which I do want to try one day. They also have chu-​hi here! I wanted to try it but decided against it because I had work to do when I got home.

Nice small ramen shop, with very friendly service. The ramen here was good, it had good textured noodles and a flavorful broth. The noodles are a little chewy and have a nice bite to them (which I like).
I ordered the tonkatsu miso ramen, and thought it was good. The broth had a nice nice flavor and the pork was nice and tender (not the best I’ve had, but still good). The prices here are really inexpensive for what you get. I paid $ 7.25 for a big bowl of ramen and $ 3.00 each for a side of homemade gyoza and chicken karage. The gyoza and karage were both really good, and I loved the honey mustard sauce that comes with the chicken as well. The sauce that came with the gyoza was whatever, but I ended up just dipping them in the chicken karage sauce.
All in all, nice small ramen shop to check out to get your ramen fix. They have a nice variety of different ramens to choose from, and a plethora of appetizers/​sides to pair it with.
ALSO CASH ONLY with no ATMs close by

Cute little location in a small strip mall, on the edge of stores. Went in at about 8pm on a Monday, only a couple people there. Our server was a super sweet older woman, she was very attentive.
Let me start by saying I’m not a big ramen person, I’ve only had it a few times. So I decided to just go off of the Unilocal recommendations. I started with the gyoza appetizer (with 3), which was tasty, but different from what I’ve tried before. The center was mixed with some green stuff. The fried rice side was also tasty, but didn’t wow me.
For ramen, we ordered the tonkotsu (#6) and the shoyu. The shoyu was delicious, tasted a little lighter, but you could taste the saltiness of the sea weed. The pork fell apart and went well with the soup. My friend ordered the tonkotsu and didn’t care for it much and neither did I, it had a very strong taste, maybe an acquired taste for people who eat ramen often, considering it is a popular item here. Just eating the noodles was ok, but taking a sip of the broth was way too much, tasted much better with the sriacha.

Finally got to hit the first few spots in the older side of town! This is wrapped right next to the Mom & Market. It’s a super small hole in the wall joint with only a few tables and a lot of reading material for the (yesterday’s non-​existent) line. We were seated quickly and the hostess served us pretty quick.
I opted for the second top item on the list, the Tonkotsu Miso Ramen. This is different than the Tonkotsu Shiyo Ramen, and I thought somehow it would be less salty. The miso version was actually more salty than the Shio or Shoyu. The Tonkotsu flavor was much watered down and had little fatty flavor, (by comparison try other ramen houses like Kopan or Daikukuya (LITTLE TOKYO). Actually any ramen house in Little Tokyo is probably a safe bet.) It only came with one chunk of chashu so I ordered an extra one for a dollar. 100 pennies, kids. One piece. But it did come with a half egg, seaweed, and radishes. I half expected bamboo sprouts but alas, none to be found.
The broth looks really authentic but it definitely was not. It tasted like it was made from scratch, but maybe with a few additives. It was really salty, and I almost want to say it might have been MSG. Not sure on my tastebuds there since I grew up on it, but it was salty. Really salty. I drank three cups of their big waters. But, to be fair, this is the kind of place you can go if you’re really craving ramen but don’t want to go to any of the other hot spots. Honestly, I would skip this one altogether though. There’s fabulous ramen places all over the Irvine/​Costa Mesa area, including the chain favorites Aijisen and Santouka. But if you must have the mom&pop shop feel, this will get you there. It will take you back to a place in Japan, where you just stand outside to smell it and find yourself gravitating inside. I don’t even recall seeing a bathroom, but I’m sure there is one inside.
Ok, foodie to foodie, ramen lover to ramen lover, pass. Mom & Pop Shop lover to home made food lover, check it out. You decide!

The place I go to usually for cold ramen has closed (sho sad!). The results of Google search led me here. I’ve been here for the regular ramen before and it’s pretty good.
They don’t list cold ramen on the menu because it’s seasonal so we asked the waitress if it was available. After asking the chefs she said it was and gave us a choice of chashu pork, chicken, or just veggies. We got the chashu pork.
When she brought us the ramen it looked different than other cold ramens that I’ve had before (we did order blindly though).
There was a tangy cold broth on the bottom, ramen, then a mountain of lettuce, topped with shredded egg, ginger, pork, and wakame. It looked healthy and tasted good. I would’ve preferred less salad though but I was super full after.