Kuro-Obi by Ippudo

Unfortunately, the quality of ramen here has gone downhill. It was so bad that despite craving it beforehand, I had to throw out 80% of my bowl. Just couldn't stomach such low quality. I prefer instant ramen over this.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 3

Used to be decent. But now is probably the worst Ramen it can get.

Food: 1

Wow, this place has gone sooo downhill, to the point that I will never eat there again. The Kurt-Obi bowl used to be INCREDIBLE, and I would come to the mall just to eat there OR get take out, and even with taking the ramen home to eat, I could happily anticipate what I knew was going to be really good ramen. They killed the menu, took away most of the variety on their menu. Gone are the warm, soft & fresh buns with crispy & tasty chicken tucked in, which we always enjoyed. The Kurosawa-Obi bowl is not even close to what it used to be, there’s no more bamboo, no more spicy yummy splash of red sauce on top, it’s just ramen, a TINY bit of cabbage, a TON of bean sprouts, fatty/cheap meat, and a spoonful of mashed up fat plunked on top, (this is a new thing since menu changed) I suppose in attempts to bring up the flavor profile? They now offer complementary to-go cups of minced garlic, which they never had before. Maybe they’re trying to disguise the fact that the food is terrible. It was a huge greasy disappointment, especially considering the price. Never again! I’ve tried the Kuro-Obi bowl twice since the menu was decimated, and I’m no longer a customer. Really sad because they had such a terrific menu, and we frequented their restaurant quite often.

Food: 1

Impressed. First time I took the kids for ramen and really not a lot of ethnic experience for them. They devoured the tonkatsu and pork. We had soo much fun. Service was really good despite a lot of orders. The guys working tonight did a great job managing through a steady stream of orders, cooking and doing register at the same time. He was patient with me while I tried to figure out what my kids might like, and then he suggested the perfect meal. I got some good looking one by picture alone and man it did not disappoint !

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Nice and affordable dinner
Quick service too

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Authentic Ramen noodles they serve here! 🤤🇯🇵 I love ramen ever since and this is one of the best Ramen I have around the area and SFO. The pork should be cut thinner tho but overall its an amazing meal 🥘

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

the chasu is cold

Highly not recommended.

It was decent before, considering it’s mall ramen..

Something changed drastically and the change isn’t good. It’s far from what IPPUDO usually puts out. It’s straight garbage now. Totally bland broth, bland meat, and wayyyyy too much bland bean sprouts..

Also way overpriced.

I assume change of ownership / chief

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

The pork chashu is really bad!!!

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

I used to enjoy Kuro-Obi Ramen, but whatever changes they’ve made to their menu have completely ruined it. This was one of my go-to bowls, and now I’m just angry I wasted my time and money.

First off, the portion size is laughably small for the price. I left still hungry — and not in a “that was light and elegant” kind of way, but in a “did I just pay for a sample?” kind of way.

Second, the yuzu flavor is completely off. Instead of the fragrant, citrusy brightness of real yuzu peel, it tastes like someone just squeezed a lemon wedge into soy sauce. It’s sharp, unbalanced, and borderline unpleasant. Absolutely no subtlety.

The broth is overpoweringly salty and oily, like it’s trying to hide the fact that there’s no real depth to it anymore. I used to look forward to sipping the broth to the last drop this time, I couldn’t finish half.

Noodles were slick with oil, clumped together, and didn’t have that nice springy chewy just felt greasy and heavy. And the pork? Chewy and dry. A far cry from the tender, flavorful chashu I remember.

Overall, this felt like a cheap, rushed version of what used to be a quality bowl. The changes are not just bad — they’re insulting to anyone who actually appreciates ramen. Will not be returning. Hugely disappointed.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 3

Pretty good, I've had tonkotsu around the bay, orenchi and HiroNori. This is pretty good, don't get all the hate

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Ordered from here 3x in the last couple months since my 6yo kid loves noodle soup, and I was appalled when I saw how staff handled payments and used the same gloved hands instead of utensils to handle ramen noodles and toppings.

Today the lone staff was very friendly to and had an extensive conversation in Spanish with 2 women in front of me, however after he took their order he intentionally ignored me for several minutes before telling me to order using a QR code. Yet he didn’t ask the women to order via the code.

Noodles took 10-15min and they were completely clumped together!! Broth has been overly salty and toppings were very bland including the cold, sliced watery chicken. I’ve been very disappointed by their food lately and if they are indeed under new ownership, I imagine that could be influencing food and service quality.

This is far from Ippudo quality, and hoping either they improve soon or that we can find an alternative soup noodle place nearby.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

updare: this place finally got the original ramens back. They are mostly the same as before. With one step back that the pork is much thicker than last year. Changing my rating to 3.

Like all the recent reviews, I am very disappointed they changed the menu. Ordered one from doordash and was shocked. This is no longer Ippudo recipe. It can't even be called Raman. They swapped the thin noodles with a gray, thick noodle that's never found for raman. And the soup is completely different. And so bad. The soup is no longer rich and tasty. It tastes cheap, oily and too salty.

I will not revisit unless they switch the recipe back. How did it get so bad? Did they lose the collab with Ippudo?

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 4

Ramen is perfect! The best I’ve ever had in Bay Area.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

vary bad foods. garbage.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1