I love it here, sure it's a little pricy but the portions are HUGE. They have gluten free and vegetarian options which is great because (I have celiac) I can enjoy my food without feeling left out by eating a salad while others have a huge meal.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Sara Hallingstad
I had the volcano ramen and a strawberry matcha latte. The ramen was perfectly spicy. The pork was tender and flavorful. My favorite part is the marinated egg, so yummy!! The matcha latte was creamy and delicious! We've been here before and will definitely be back!
Michio Waterdu
Hands down one of my favorite restaurants I’ve ever been to. I go here at least once a week. My favorite ramen is the Volcano Ramen they serve here. The service is great, particularly from the young man named Angga
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Elizabeth Vu
Overall a positive experience and would go again. Ramen was good and I appreciated the added bok Choy in the Ramen. My only complaint is that the noodles were slightly overcooked. I’m also used to the Karaage being more breaded and crispy. Service was great despite there only being one server.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Elaina Genthe
Love this place! For vegetarian options, all of the fried apps are great (potato croquettes and avocado especially!) and for entrees I love the avocado and cucumber roll and the fried rice. My partner loves the vegetable udon. I wasn’t expecting this hole in the wall to be serving up such delicious food. What a gem in the neighborhood!
Laura M
The food was so good we forgot to take before pictures! We were celebrating a birthday and the staff really went above and beyond for us. It was very family-friendly and welcoming - our toddler very much approved!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Ariana Fox
I rarely want to speak on bad experiences I have with restaurants, but this has just left too much of a bad taste for me to completely ignore. I decided it was just one of those nights to want to grab some type of dinner with my family after my son's sport practice, which resulted in us skipping the true white and blue (Culver's), and heading to Zen Ramen to try it as we rarely say no to Asian food. The only highlight of our whole experience as a family was being able to pick a table to sit at as we first walked in but from there it went downhill so very quickly. As we seated ourselves, our server came out with plastic kids plates and cups (which one cup was dirty my husband noticed and got our waiter to kindly take it back, asking for a new cup). The restaurant was in no way, shape and or form was busy at all. With only our family and a couple who was seated two tables away, it just us all in the restaurant. But so much time was spent at the restaurant with us waiting for periods on end. Our server came back with the cup and walked away quickly with no water was served for any one of us. I tried to ignore it and as soon as our waiter came back, we quickly put in our whole order (drinks, apps, and main dishes), with my husband asking for our appetizer of Gyozas and his order of sushi to be brought out early before our main dishes, so we had something to pick at. Again we sat for a long while, waiting. It came to our server bringing out our soup first (that was included with our main dishes), which during this my husband spoke up asking for water which our server finally got us water and left the pitcher at our table. A handful of minutes later we were served our gyozas and sushi, which to be totally honest was a complete letdown. Presentation and taste if graded was a F. The gyozas were burnt to a crisp with seeming as if it were microwaved beforehand and then pan fried on both sides, and the sushi looked just as bad as other reviewers photos on other reviews on here. Definitely underwhelming to say the least. With a few bites into the appetizer/sushi our food (main dishes) came out within minutes after. We felt so overwhelmed and disappointed at the same time, it all led to just feeling like corners kept being cut. My husband's food was not like the picture, whatever egg was in his food was ice cold. My son's kids meal of the fried rice was bland and tasteless, and my steak fried rice tasted only of black pepper. I was juggling my baby on my lap while trying to eat which he kept putting his hands near the food, which resulted in him dipping his hand into my soup by accident. It was then we finally got asked if we would like a highchair which we refused (because honrstly what was the point at this point of time), but our server brought one out anyway after everything. I was so upset at this point with every single thing, my husband wasn't feeling good, that I wanted out so bad. I tried to maintain peace and remain calm for my son and baby, but I was aggravated at the point of terrible service, terrible food and overall terrible experience that I asked for boxes and the check. With still tipping despite all this, bill was $80. In no way, do I feel this was deserving at all for this whole thing, as it left not only me but my whole family and I still feeling hungry but sick at the same time, upset and me wishing I listened to my husband who said he was fine with Culver's. For this price, Niji near East Towne would have been better. A word of advice from someone who just had their first and last experience here (Monday, July 7th, 2025 around 7:20pm), proceed with caution.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Rebecca Mataya
Went in on a whim with my grandkids today for lunch. Spectacular all around. Our waiter was so patient explaining the menu, made suggestions for the kids (who eat ramen often in the PNW), gracious service, incredible flavors in all our dishes. Generous portions so we all had leftovers! The moshi was great, too. The waiter gave my granddaughter a bag of sweets before we left—how lovely! I highly recommend and can’t wait to go back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jason
Amazing! Ordered online and took it home and couldn’t be more pleased. Cannot wait to go back. Best ramen in Madison.
Lukas Vinci
Love the inside of this place, was so cute and well organized and clean. The food was amazing, I seriously recommend the duo dish.
The food was great. Flavorful broth with savory slices of pork. Highly recommend the volcano ramen for those who like a little spice. Service was exceptional and accommodating for our group of 7. Would definitely go back!
Forgot to take pictures of the food but they have an unusually tall and thin cactus that caught my eye.
Kristi Moe
Takeout - it was ok. Not better than grocery store sushi. Kind of bland and no wasabi. With the amount of reviews I hoped for better. Maybe dine in is better?
Steph G
Our waiter was beyond amazing!! Annga you're awesome!! Great brown sugar boba tea, edamame and sushi!!! We had the avocado cucumber roll and the tempura shrimp rolls- best I've ever had, very fresh!!!! Beef udon yaki was very good too!!
Shue Long Xiong
Small and quiet spot with parking outside the city. Ordered garlic miso ramen. Presentation was nice but did not taste as good as it looked. Noodles were soggy and overcooked, even by appearance before digging in. The two pork pieces were nicely charred on the outside but were thin, dry and chewy. Pork broth was drowned out by the amount of garlic. Also had some miso soup but too much salt.
Pachi Moua
We got the pork bun appetizer and the pork was really dry, the buns were a tad cold and also dry, it crumbled and broke apart. The overall taste for those weren't amazing. All it had was shredded lettuce inside and the sauce straight up tasted like Mac sauce from MCDs lol. We got tonkatsu ramen and volcano ramen, again the chashu was dry & tough. I had to really twist and pull to even get a bite. The ramen was ok not the greatest. The katsu chicken was good though. Overall, we regretted trying it out instead of just going to Strings, but at least now we know.
I love it here, sure it's a little pricy but the portions are HUGE.
They have gluten free and vegetarian options which is great because (I have celiac) I can enjoy my food without feeling left out by eating a salad while others have a huge meal.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I had the volcano ramen and a strawberry matcha latte. The ramen was perfectly spicy. The pork was tender and flavorful. My favorite part is the marinated egg, so yummy!! The matcha latte was creamy and delicious! We've been here before and will definitely be back!
Hands down one of my favorite restaurants I’ve ever been to. I go here at least once a week. My favorite ramen is the Volcano Ramen they serve here. The service is great, particularly from the young man named Angga
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Overall a positive experience and would go again. Ramen was good and I appreciated the added bok Choy in the Ramen. My only complaint is that the noodles were slightly overcooked. I’m also used to the Karaage being more breaded and crispy. Service was great despite there only being one server.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Love this place! For vegetarian options, all of the fried apps are great (potato croquettes and avocado especially!) and for entrees I love the avocado and cucumber roll and the fried rice. My partner loves the vegetable udon. I wasn’t expecting this hole in the wall to be serving up such delicious food. What a gem in the neighborhood!
The food was so good we forgot to take before pictures! We were celebrating a birthday and the staff really went above and beyond for us.
It was very family-friendly and welcoming - our toddler very much approved!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I rarely want to speak on bad experiences I have with restaurants, but this has just left too much of a bad taste for me to completely ignore.
I decided it was just one of those nights to want to grab some type of dinner with my family after my son's sport practice, which resulted in us skipping the true white and blue (Culver's), and heading to Zen Ramen to try it as we rarely say no to Asian food.
The only highlight of our whole experience as a family was being able to pick a table to sit at as we first walked in but from there it went downhill so very quickly.
As we seated ourselves, our server came out with plastic kids plates and cups (which one cup was dirty my husband noticed and got our waiter to kindly take it back, asking for a new cup).
The restaurant was in no way, shape and or form was busy at all. With only our family and a couple who was seated two tables away, it just us all in the restaurant. But so much time was spent at the restaurant with us waiting for periods on end.
Our server came back with the cup and walked away quickly with no water was served for any one of us.
I tried to ignore it and as soon as our waiter came back, we quickly put in our whole order (drinks, apps, and main dishes), with my husband asking for our appetizer of Gyozas and his order of sushi to be brought out early before our main dishes, so we had something to pick at. Again we sat for a long while, waiting.
It came to our server bringing out our soup first (that was included with our main dishes), which during this my husband spoke up asking for water which our server finally got us water and left the pitcher at our table.
A handful of minutes later we were served our gyozas and sushi, which to be totally honest was a complete letdown. Presentation and taste if graded was a F. The gyozas were burnt to a crisp with seeming as if it were microwaved beforehand and then pan fried on both sides, and the sushi looked just as bad as other reviewers photos on other reviews on here. Definitely underwhelming to say the least. With a few bites into the appetizer/sushi our food (main dishes) came out within minutes after. We felt so overwhelmed and disappointed at the same time, it all led to just feeling like corners kept being cut.
My husband's food was not like the picture, whatever egg was in his food was ice cold. My son's kids meal of the fried rice was bland and tasteless, and my steak fried rice tasted only of black pepper. I was juggling my baby on my lap while trying to eat which he kept putting his hands near the food, which resulted in him dipping his hand into my soup by accident.
It was then we finally got asked if we would like a highchair which we refused (because honrstly what was the point at this point of time), but our server brought one out anyway after everything.
I was so upset at this point with every single thing, my husband wasn't feeling good, that I wanted out so bad. I tried to maintain peace and remain calm for my son and baby, but I was aggravated at the point of terrible service, terrible food and overall terrible experience that I asked for boxes and the check. With still tipping despite all this, bill was $80.
In no way, do I feel this was deserving at all for this whole thing, as it left not only me but my whole family and I still feeling hungry but sick at the same time, upset and me wishing I listened to my husband who said he was fine with Culver's.
For this price, Niji near East Towne would have been better.
A word of advice from someone who just had their first and last experience here (Monday, July 7th, 2025 around 7:20pm), proceed with caution.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Went in on a whim with my grandkids today for lunch. Spectacular all around. Our waiter was so patient explaining the menu, made suggestions for the kids (who eat ramen often in the PNW), gracious service, incredible flavors in all our dishes. Generous portions so we all had leftovers! The moshi was great, too. The waiter gave my granddaughter a bag of sweets before we left—how lovely! I highly recommend and can’t wait to go back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Amazing! Ordered online and took it home and couldn’t be more pleased. Cannot wait to go back. Best ramen in Madison.
Love the inside of this place, was so cute and well organized and clean. The food was amazing, I seriously recommend the duo dish.
Restaurantji Recommends
The food was great. Flavorful broth with savory slices of pork. Highly recommend the volcano ramen for those who like a little spice. Service was exceptional and accommodating for our group of 7. Would definitely go back!
Forgot to take pictures of the food but they have an unusually tall and thin cactus that caught my eye.
Takeout - it was ok. Not better than grocery store sushi. Kind of bland and no wasabi. With the amount of reviews I hoped for better. Maybe dine in is better?
Our waiter was beyond amazing!! Annga you're awesome!! Great brown sugar boba tea, edamame and sushi!!! We had the avocado cucumber roll and the tempura shrimp rolls- best I've ever had, very fresh!!!! Beef udon yaki was very good too!!
Small and quiet spot with parking outside the city. Ordered garlic miso ramen. Presentation was nice but did not taste as good as it looked. Noodles were soggy and overcooked, even by appearance before digging in. The two pork pieces were nicely charred on the outside but were thin, dry and chewy. Pork broth was drowned out by the amount of garlic. Also had some miso soup but too much salt.
We got the pork bun appetizer and the pork was really dry, the buns were a tad cold and also dry, it crumbled and broke apart. The overall taste for those weren't amazing. All it had was shredded lettuce inside and the sauce straight up tasted like Mac sauce from MCDs lol. We got tonkatsu ramen and volcano ramen, again the chashu was dry & tough. I had to really twist and pull to even get a bite. The ramen was ok not the greatest. The katsu chicken was good though. Overall, we regretted trying it out instead of just going to Strings, but at least now we know.
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