Kyuramen x TBaar - Arcadia

Very horrible service, no staff is working. There are multiple empty spaces and they won’t call waitlist name and just have people waiting instead. They even let someone whose name behind us go before.

Atmosphere: 1

Service: 1

Finally I can dine in. I wish it is bigger and better parking space

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Tried this place out with some friends, and the restaurant is spacious and beautifully decorated. It's very unique. We didn't have to wait to be seated as we arrived when the restaurant wasn't at its busiest. The food was warm when served but not hot, and our server was attentive and friendly. There was a mix up with a few orders as we were missing items (maybe there was a mixup with their system as they've recently opened?) but our server along with other staff checked in with us before we realized the mishap. We stayed there for about 2 hours total and did not feel rushed, all 4 of us enjoyed our meals and drinks while enjoying the atmosphere. ☺️

The only downside is that parking is VERY limited since it's located next to other small restaurants and coffee shops, making it a busy area.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Spicy Miso Ramen, Yinyang Ramen and Katsu

!!! Be prepared to wait !!!
!!! Make sure your whole party is on time !!!
Delicious food
Clean

Staff looked stressed out / overworked. SOME staff just seemed lost and annoyed when you asked for help.

Terrible waiting area
Awful parking situation

That being said, I will go back!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 2

The worst thing is that the waiter rushed back and forth to pay the bill before we finished the meal. We originally ate slowly and chatted and ordered more, but we were not in the mood to come over and eat next time.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 2

The ramen here was great especially the desserts as well. I order the Combo A2 which came with the Tonkotsu Ramen, Thai iced tea, and a matcha pudding w/red bean. The ramen was great with the pork. The thai iced tea and desserts were all not too sweet which was good. The interior looks like you are in a Japan restaurant and the service here was pretty quick and we had a guy named Marco and his customer service was excellent.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Pros: interior feels like you’re transported to Japan aesthetically; excellent service; scallops; spicy miso
Cons: 2-3 hour wait time; difficult parking; bathroom was out of service; mediocre taste; gimmicky “prizes” at bottom of bowl when finished

Just wanted to give some criticism from the grand opening as someone had mentioned the taste was better than in Japan. I strongly disagree and not worth visiting out of the way. Definitely needs some improvement as I felt the tonkatsu broth wasn’t as flavourful as expected. Demi glaze for the omurice started jellifying for take out. Finally, pork cutlet tasted greasy and overcooked. Hard to recommend.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 4

Update (3/6/2025):
Had the katsuoboshi ramen this time with the pork belly bao and lemonade. The lemonade tasted very different this time and much more artificial. Also for the ramen, while the broth was good, everything else tasted mid. What was surprising was how cheap the pork belly bao tasted and how bad their pork belly was. The pork belly bao which is their take on gua bao is probably the worst I’ve tried. Meat is tough and tastes very cheap, the bun came out soggy and tastes like the worst quality one they could find from the supermarket. I’m downgrading the food from 4 to 3, especially with the poor quality meat and the change in lemonade. The service and atmosphere is still great though and adds a star for me.

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Visit: 2/9/2025
Great experience and ambience, solid food options with decent taste. Some of the seating was fun and unique. The tableware was high quality and presentation was good. I also appreciated the tables and chairs that feel solid and not rocky/flimsy.

My party ordered the Tonkatsu Omurice and Mega Ramen for entrees, yakitori and lobster chashu ball for apps and matcha tiramisu for dessert. For drinks we had thai tea, lemonade both very flavorful and not watered down. I brought a milk tea over from TBaar to my dine in table.

Tonkatsu Omurice - they had someone come out to cut the omelette, it was cooked well 5/5. The curry sauce did not have enough curry flavor and had too much salt 3/5. Overall 4/5

Mega Ramen - i only had a sip of the broth. It was very rich and had good depth of flavor. Felt like it could have used some acid (perhaps lime) and less salt. 4/5

Yakitori - the meat was juicy enough and tasted good quality. Sauce felt a little lacking, missing a smoky flavor and sauce not as sticky as I am used to. 4/5

Lobster chashu ball - There was a rich umami flavor that tasted like a pate (not sure what it was). Crispy on the outside with a combo of interesting flavors. It was a hit for our table. 5/5

Matcha Tiramisu - Nice presentation, nothing particularly wrong with it but I’ve had better. 4/5

Thai tea - not watered down, well made. 5/5

Lemonade - had some cucumber in it. Strong flavor and well made. 5/5

TBaar brown sugar boba milk tea - not terrible but in Arcadia it is difficult to compete with all the top tier boba spots. Boba quality was so-so and tea wasn’t particularly fragrant. 2.5/5

Overall the vibe and ambience is great with comfortable/spacious seating with good attention to details for the atmosphere. They had some small experiences that were fun - we won a free ramen for next time and there was a “tree” to write and hang omamori. Service was also on point, servers were all very friendly.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 5

I prefer my ramen piping hot. The soup wasn't hot but towards the warm side. The omurice was pretty, I wish the fried rice had more flavor and protein. The fried rice only has bits and pieces of pork.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Decided to try this place out after seeing the viral videos of the omurice being split open. This location is directly behind the Starbucks on the corner of Santa Anita and Live Oak. There is parking but it’s a small lot so it can fill up quickly. You might want to park on the street instead and walk over.

Kyuramen shares its space with Tbaar and you’re even able to order Tbaar drinks with your food. Upon walking in, you’ll see Tbaar and to the right is where you’d check-in for Kyuramen on the iPad. I waited about 20min before being seated.

My party got the omurice, the katsuobushi pork ramen, lobster and chasu salad balls, and the purple sweet potato fries. We also ordered drinks off the Top 9 list front Tbaar. The lobster chasu salad balls and the purple sweet potato fries were the stars of our meal. Both were delicious and flavorful. And be aware that the lobster chasu salad balls are a cold dish. The Tbaar drinks we got were just ok.

The omurice came a little later than the ramen but not too long after. The waiter was nice enough to let me get my camera ready so I could record him splitting the egg open. I had read a review and agree with it that it looks much more impressive than it tastes. It was a little bland and even with the sauce, it didn’t enhance the flavor.

The ramen was good but also a bit too salty. Our waiter did recommend that we use this sort of sauerkraut that was on the table with the particular ramen we got and that was an A+ rec. It had a kick but it paired so well with the ramen. I even put some on my omurice to help with the flavor.

Overall the environment and staff were lovely so we had a great time. I would give the food another shot as it is still relatively new and nothing tasted horrible. I just wasn’t wow-ed by the food I got to make it a favorite place. I would probably give this place 3.5 stars / 5

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 5

This was the worst dining experience I’ve had in a long time. It was almost laughable. Every staff member from the host stand to table side dropped the ball in one way or another to make our experience terrible. TLDR; the staff is unprofessional, the service is terrible, and after a 2+ HOUR WAIT, they tell us they RAN OUT OF OMURICE. And then, they SERVE OMURICE to a table that was SEATED AFTER US.

We drove an hour from Orange County to try the omurice. Literally the only reason we came. We put our name down at 6:40pm. We waited two hours. When we finally get our text, we immediately walk in, but our table isn’t ready. They are still setting it up. So we wait for like 2 minutes, and another party of two walks in behind us, claiming to have also gotten a text. The host then tells us that they are giving our table to the one that walked in after us because they were above us on the waitlist. So our table wasn’t ready for us when they called us, and then they gave our table to a party that wasn’t prepared for their own time. We had to wait even longer for a table for 2 to be ready, even though this situation was completely their fault.

We finally sit down. Immediately, they try to get us to order. We barely had time to breathe after sitting down. We had waited more than two hours for our table. They can wait a little to let us look at the menu.

Then the server swings by to tells us they are out of omurice for the night. Great. We waited 2+ hours for a dish that isn’t even there. A dish that was heavily advertised and was the whole premise of our trip. Why would I drive up from Orange County for ramen? In fact, they were out of several items. No omurice. No honeycomb platter. On a Friday.

I swear the servers were afraid of us or something because they kept switching people on us. We were understandably visually upset from everything we’d been through but no one made an effort to make our experience better. No one checked in on us. No water refills. Servers seemed to prioritize standing around, doing nothing, and avoiding eye contact instead of providing service. I promise I didn’t even yell at them or say anything mean, I just had a pissed facial expression. I had to flag down a random server just to be able to pay. No one even said bye to me on the way out.

We got two bowls of ramen, the popcorn chicken, and the takoyaki. The ramen came out first. To be honest it tasted fine, but by that point I was so starved that I wolfed down the entire bowl. So I wasn’t able to remember much about the taste. Garlic, sure whatever. The popcorn chicken was not to my taste. It was not crispy at all, yet managed to still be a little dry. There was no sauce served with it either. The takoyaki was actually pretty good and had a touch of sweetness.

Funny enough, it said I won a free dessert at the bottom of my ramen bowl. Maybe, just maybe this night was salvaged a little bit, but then I read that I had to come back on another visit to redeem my free dessert. I threw the coupon away because I’d never come back here anyways.

The absolute kicker of the night was them SERVING OMURICE to a table that was SEATED AFTER US. After telling us THEY WERE OUT OF OMURICE. I knew this was definitely the restaurant’s blunder because we overheard the servers gossiping that they saw another server serve omurice after they told everyone that they were out. That was kinda the last straw for me. All of the staff are totally unprofessional. Dining here felt like an insult, I would strongly advise anyone against coming here.

Parking: Parking is abysmal. But you shouldn’t come eat here anyways.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

This newly Japanese chain restaurant just recently opened nearly my house. (1st one in California).

The ramen is tasty. Even they offer variety of choices of food, the menu is easy enough to order for old guy like me.

The interior is nicely designed n good for younger generations. I enjoyed dining with my 2 kids.

Price is fair for the area where I live. The food portion is just adequate. If u were a hungry boy, I do recommend you have desert and add-ons.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Has potential if genuine Japanese recipes are used instead of Chinese hybrid recipes and menu is consolidated. I want you to succeed.

Issues:
- Use actual Takoyaki machines instead of deep fryer. There should be 2-3 octopus pieces not 1 if pieces are small.
- Grill or broil yakitori sticks before service
- add tomato sauce or paste to omurice fried rice w/ fresh onion and tomatoes
- make actual okonomiyaki instead of frozen ones that seem deep fried
- Ramen broth needs to be reevaluated and improved for richness and umami (ask other restaurants for help/ check recipes)

I can only recommend the dessert. Staff and dessert gave you the 2 stars, food didn’t.

At the end of the day, there is high standards for Japanese food especially at that price point and the long line just for the Instagram pic is temporary. A focused menu with excellent flavors and quality will retain customers not social media.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 1

Service: 5

KYURAMEN – I don’t even know how to rate this experience.

Let’s not talk about whether the food was good or not. One of the drinks we ordered had a small cup inside for some unknown reason. After we brought it up to the staff, they replaced the drink for us.

When the rice dish was served, the egg was very soft, and for some reason, the staff member, without wearing gloves, directly used their hand to hold the egg while cutting it. This was extremely unsanitary.

At the end, when they were collecting the bowls, they mentioned that there was a lottery at the bottom of the bowl, and we might win a prize. However, because I ordered the Yin-Yang Ramen (which is half-and-half of two different ramen types), the staff member said that this ramen wouldn’t be eligible for the lottery. I was honestly speechless at that moment.

Overall, this whole dining experience was really bad.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 2

Waited 50 minutes to get in, and waited 30 minutes to get our noodles.
Takoyaki- all starch, octopus is prob only my pinky nail size
Ramen- we ordered spicy tonkatsu and Sapporo miso- came with TWO piece of chashu only and soup literally tasted like instant noodles soup with price almost $20 each before tax

I would be giving 1 if not the server and the decoration of the restaurant.

STRONGLY recommend NOT TO COME

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 3