Ramen Club
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: No
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
144 reviews
Menlo Park, CA
"Having eaten many Kaiseki meals in Japan over the past few years, I am very familiar with the format of this meal and the typical content.…" read more »
35 Reviews for Ramen Club
It tastes alright, but the parking is awful!!!! Probably won't go back cause it's just to hard to find parking and it isn't tasty enough for all that effort.
Very average ramen. I wasn't impressed with the quality of noodles or the tonkotsu broth. It was okay, nothing memorable. I did like the soba noodles, though. The flavor and texture were just right. My friend and I were testers for their mango mochi that our waiter made. It was tasty except for the copious amounts of coconut on the outside. Overall, it's a little pricier than what I think it deserves.
There was quite a variety of opinions about this place from our group of four. One person thought his ramen selecton was tasty, another person said his was overly seasoned. He had to dilute it by adding a glass of water to it. Another person and I thought ours was extremely bland. I added about everything in the condiments tray trying to give my seafood soba some flavor.
I don't advise that you use their parking lot unless you have a small car or you will have trouble getting out and through the alley.
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I was on my way to the Wine Room earlier tonight, but the stomach was growlin'.
And thought to myself
wouldn't it be funny to have Ramen Club before heading over to the Wine Room?
The answer should have been no. I should have snacked on Wine Room small plates and dessert.
Yes I knew what I was going into. Shaftsville! I had read the reviews of this joint prior.
But oh man.... where do I begin?
They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.
They copied the name of the restaurant from Burlingame, and literally copied Maruichi's menu, namely the ramen broth offerings, including the "Maruichi" upgrade of side of stewed pork belly & extra toppings. All of this was just copied in name only.
Instead of being flattered, I was flabberghasted.
On the surface, everything looks pretty Japanese here, from the decor, the importing of Japanese la-yu (chili oil), Japanese ramen pepper. They did their best and it ended there.
I sampled a little bit of their in house kim chi (marinated spicy vinegared cabbage). This stuff was pretty foul. How can a Chinese run ramen restaurant screw up kim chi! Even Shandong Chinese restaurants know how to do it right and way better (e.g. San Tung in SF on Irving, really addictive kim chi/pao tsai). Hardly any vinegar, or hint of fruit marination with Ramen Club's rendition, it was more watered down spice! Man the shortcut they must have taken to "ferment" this shizzle. AVOID at all costs. Especially in this kind of heat wave, you don't want to know what the byproduct coming out looks like...
Within mere minutes of ordering, my items arrived. That's WAY too soon for a ramen haus. I swore there was no coin operated machine ramen dispenser in the kitchen that I could see...
2 pc hamachi at $3.50+. WTF were you thinking, you must be thinkin'. Well I wanted to see how bad it was. When ramen + sushi are offered at the same place, they might as well include tempura and teriyaki!
Oh man, did they just buy this 2 pc nigiri from a supermarket? Sushi rice tasted exactly like Whole Foods or Nijiya's. It was like the chef didn't even need to mold it, or put fish over rice.
Tonkatsu Ramen $6.90 - yep I had read about this but totally forgot about it.
Talk about re-inventing a classic...
Instead of roasted pork slices, aka ramen chashu, they gave me breaded pork cutlet (tonkatsu) to match with tonkotsu soup.
The tonkatsu was ok, but the breaded crumbs had separated into the soup, making it look rather messy. The broth otherwise was light, and pure pork bone broth. It was ok, but I would much rather make my own pork bone broth and do it better (and pair it with WANGy noodles...)
I got my needed greens. Instead of pea sprouts, they used julienne cabbage. Great....I could use cabbage farts and corn.
Instead of crispy nori mini cut sheets, I got seaweed/kelp (konbu), the kind that Koreans and Taiwanese use for kelp + scrambled egg soup for a quick soup fix.
Instead of freshly made noodles (whether through a vendor or made in house), I got yellowy looking noodles that tasted exactly like the instant ramen packs from the supermarket's refrigerator/freezer section (the mediocre kind too). Kudos for them not having that ammonia like texture like at Suzu in SF J-town.
As confirmed, Mandarin was heard from the kitchen.
Pseudo ramen. Sorry make that RAMAN. TONKATSU RAMAN. That's how it was spelt on the check.
Ramen Rama in Cupertino is Taiwanese/Chinese run, and I have to say based on one visit alone they did a whole lot better (at least RR had chashu with their ramen....)
The highlight? Watching the waiter place my check within a minute of my ramen order arriving at the table (so very Chinese.....).
Including myself, there were only 3 tables past 7 pm. Granted it was 9x degrees F outside. I feel bad for these guys.
$6.90 could have bought me a few packs of Nissan Demae instant noodles or the WANGER Korean noodlicious stuff. I could have DIY'd the shizzle myself with change to spare. :-(
All that wine in the Wine Room could not have washed down this Raman in my system.
This kind of ramen would not fly in Taipei...
CA$H ONLY.
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If you're in the mood for ramen, you can pass on this place and head over to your local Safeway instead. Although the restaurant itself is cute, they have limited parking, only accept cash, and the ramen is a bit pricey in my opinion.
I came here with my friend because we were craving noodles. I made the mistake of saying, "Hey, let's try something new instead of going to Zao." That was the first mistake. The second mistake was that we actually decided to try it after we reviewed the menu. Which, by the way, one would think they'd have money for a menu, but no, they only have their seemingly quaint printed menus that are basically like your run-of-the-mill to-go menus.
Here's another kicker: I came here with one of my Japanese friends, and he was appalled by the food. He ordered some ramen with pork, and he said it smelled as if the pork had been frozen and was not fresh. I ordered the Nabeyaki Udon, and honestly wouldn't have known the difference, but their Nabeyaki Udon is not original. My friend essentially said that if you were in Japan and ordered it, and they brought out their dish it would have been sent back. I loved his analogy, "It's like ordering a steak and having them bring you out a hamburger." The udon itself wasn't that great.
If you want Chinese style Japanese noodles, then this is your place (the owner is Chinese, which is the reason the server gave us for not being real nabeyaki). If you want authentic noodles, head elsewhere.
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Ramen taste very average, definitely not authentic Japanese ramen. They also are not very customizable, for examle, you can't change your gyoza to rice. Parking sucks. Will not recommend here. Maruichi or Ryuwa in Castro is a lot better.
I visited Ramen Club this past Sunday (June 22nd). I ordered a Tonkotsu ramen and got what I expected -- no breaded pork! In fact, the slices of pork were nice and lean, just the way I like it! The soup was rich and flavorful, but too salty. The noodles were alright... they did not have the nice chewy texture that the noodles have at Maru-ichi.
I also noticed that they are no longer open until 1 AM every day of the week. They close at 11 PM.
If you can look past the grimey paper menus, cheap wobbly chairs, and focus on what you came for (ramen, fool), the place is fine.
It's called ramen club because they serve ramen - I would not come expecting a whole lot more. The kara-ramen was properly flavored, but was improved with a dash of shichimi-togarashi. Hey, at least there was some on the table. I ordered mine w/o chashu, but my friend verified it was up to par.
Did I mention you also have to look past the check? A tad steep for noodles.
I was so excited about a Ramen place so close to me but it is ok, not great.
$8.95 for Combo B, ramen (shoyu, miso, black, tonkatsu), 3 California rolls, and 3 pieces of gyoza. I ordered the shoyu which is a chicken stock. Had two large pieces of pork, good flavor and not dried out, corn, cabbage, seaweed and hard boiled egg half. The noodles were cooked but I like them on the chewier, al dente side. The Ca. rolls came with wasabi and ginger, they were ok. The gyoza were deep fried but I liked the flavor. Was missing the chili sauce. The free kimchee on the table was too salty for me.
So a solid Ramen but not to die for. Would like to try the Kuro, pork stock next time.
Parking is awful, just street parking, had to park at Blockbuster and I went on Sunday at 2:30pm. The waitstaff was very attentive and welcoming, kept my water filled and quick with the check.
They have a special menu of mostly sushi's on a wipeboard near the kitchen.
They have been open since April.
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Don't expect much, the name says it all. It's just ramen!
They don't accept ATM or credit cards either which to my standard is a bit unacceptable in 2008.
Atomosphere: C
Service: A
Taste: F
Is it Ramen Club or Raman Club? On their receipt, they said "Raman Club" I think...
The menu looked a lot like Maruichi's, and I think they are about the same price, but the taste at Ramen Club was awful.
They accept cash only, and even though the next door donut shop has an ATM machine, it is out of service :/
Anyway, I ordered Tonkatsu ramen, thinking, oh, they made a spelling mistake. Wrong. It was actually tonkatsu (pork cutlet) ramen. I think the soup base is chicken, and I felt like there were a lot of MSG in it. I kept drinking water. As I mentioned before, it was a tonkAtsu ramen, so they had tonkatsu in the soup. Deep fried breaded pork in soup = soggy = awful. It also had cabbage in the soup, which I thought was weird, but that was a small thing compared to how awful the soup tasted.
Atomosphere was all right; they tried to make this "Japanesey" feel, but I think majority of their decoration was bought from Daiso, a cheap Japanese import store. They had many flag-kind of stuff up, but those were misleading for they don't serve some of the stuff that was on the flag (ie. Takoyaki).
Service was good. While they look like they're still new at the services, but I think they were doing their best to serve the guests. The waiters came around many times to pour ice water, at least.
But then, considering its taste, I don't think I'll be going back there any more.
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Wow, I'm surprised this place got such bad reviews. Hubby and I stumbled upon this place before we went to Fry's in Palo Alto. We thought this place was the same Ramen Club as the one on Burlingame. We immediately noticed the difference in menu and figured out it just have the same name. The place was pretty dead on this warm Saturday afternoon. I ordered the spicy miso ramen and hubby got the regular miso ramen. Our food came out incredibly fast, along with our bill, which I thought was a bit weird. I thought my ramen was pretty tasty and just enough hot sauce on my ramen. I liked that they included fresh seaweed, cabbage and corn in the noddle. I also quite enjoyed the kimchee they had out on the table. The only thing I didn't like about my food was the hard boiled egg that came with the ramen was cold. Maybe me and hubby's palate is not as refined as the rest of the yelprs, but this place is not as bad as everyone's been saying. I think this place deserves another chance.
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Wow. Review #100! I can't believe I've actually written that many reviews, but it's a nice benchmark to reach.
It's almost fitting that my 100th review be of a ramen place. It was my review of Santa Ramen that started it all on Yelp for me. I jokingly suggested that people boycott Santa Ramen for their inability to make enough stewed pork, despite the same levels of demand daily, and I was met with the wrath of some very passionate Yelpers. Rather than take the criticism harshly, I actually realized what a vibrant and passionate community Yelp was and began to Yelp much more after my initial few reviews. A few reviews later, Elite, and now my 100th review. Thanks guys!
Anyway, back to Ramen Club. Today, April 20th, was the Grand Opening of Ramen Club in Palo Alto. I had heard of Ramen Club in Burlingame but had never gotten the chance to try it out. Today was my chance.
As a sidenote, there were already 3 reviews of this place today. To all those people who pre-Yelped this place with 3 stars BEFORE opening so as to bookmark your place as one of the first reviewers YET DID NOT even eat here today, I say "Shame On You!" Very un-Elite-like. i think I'm the first review by someone who actually ate here today.
Back to Ramen Club: it's located on El Camino Real and is a welcome addition to the ramen scene. Nearby choices include Ryowa and Maruichi, so it's nice to have another choice.
On opening day, the crowds were quite impressive (and the staff seemed a bit shell shocked). The small parking lot of about 5 spaces was quickly overwhelmed and parking was definitely an issue along El Camino Real.
The menu was relatively straightforward with 5 ramen types (shiyo, kiro, tonkatsu ($6.90), ramen club special ($9.90), and spicy miso ramen ($7.90) and has places to mark for extra toppings. They use dry erase menus and while it's a great idea in theory, it doesn't work well in practice. You mark what ramen you want and the quantity. Then you mark which extra toppings and the quantity. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to designate which toppings you want to go with which ramen. To make things simple, we both ordered the same extra toppings so they wouldn't be confused which order of ramen had the extra toppings. Hopefully, this will be fixed in the future.
The ramen came out very quickly and immediately we noticed that some extra toppings were missing from one of our orders. The egg in both our orders that's also supposed to be a part of every ramen order, was also absent. They definitely messed up quite a few orders, but again, given the growing pains, I decided to be less critical. Still, given their experience with Ramen Club in Burlingame, you'd think these kinks might have been worked out . The waitress quickly got each missing item and provided them with little hassle.
So how was the ramen? Well, for me, it's all about the broth and I found both our orders (kiro and tonkatsu) to be relatively bland. I would say most ramen places are notable for how flavorful their broth is...Ramen Club is the exact opposite. While it's somewhat warm and soothing, there definitely is no wow factor with the broth. On the plus side, I'd say this COULD mean the broth has much lower levels of sodium than other places. It does get better with a few spoonfuls, but I already was adding kimchi and red pepper to make the bowl a bit more tasty.
No complaints about the noodles, which had a nice consistency and were tasty. The majority of the toppings were ok too. The one item that was a bit subpar was the stewed pork ($1) which is nowhere as good as Santa Ramen (surprise, surprise). Frankly, I'm not even sure where the stewed pork was in my ramen. I asked the waitress in case they had forgotten that topping and she pointed to a piece that looked like the regular chashu, but who knows. The stewed pork at Santa is quite distinct and you know its not the same as chashu.
Overall, I thought the place was quite average. For a bowl that costs this much (tonkatsu ramen ($6.90 + bean sprouts ($1) + stewed pork ($1) + corn ($1), I was definitely expecting a bit more. Given it's opening day, I was pretty lenient about their growing pains. My one worry is the quality of the broth, which I'm not sure will improve substantially even when all the growing pains are gone. I'll probably come back in a few months to see though.
Finally, the place is cash ONLY. For me, that ended up being a bit of a nightmare. Post clubbing I used all my cash the night before. Then I realized this place was cash only. Then I realized I had no wallet (actually in the other pants). Then I realized the gf had no atm card either. So had to drive home, get wallet from pants, and then get money. Ugh. I remember thinking, "I hope this ramen is pretty damn good for all that hassle." Sadly, it wasn't.
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Months after the 'coming soon' signs went up, after peering in the windows every couple of weeks to check on the progress, after railing against those FTR-hoes who put up three star reviews before tasting a drop of broth, Ramen Club finally opened on April 20th. After two visits in two weeks, I have to agree with the other yelpers who've dissed nearly every aspect of the operation. The dry-erase menus (which did not make an appearance on my second visit) didn't help them get the order right. The extras we ordered didn't bear any relation to what showed up in the bowls. The broths were only tepidly warm and not very flavorful. The addition of katsu in the soup did not do it any good. The 'kuro' had only a glop of toasted garlic pieces and not the layer of deliciousness I was hoping for. The noodles, while decent, were nothing to crow over.
Overall, even though I work only a few blocks away and, as a non-driver, the convenience is quite appealing, Ramen Club will be more of a 'ramen of last resort' than any place I'm going to seek out.
Maru Ichi's got nothing to fear.
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I love the special Ramen bowl with the stewed pork. It was very tasty, i think. Although i have to admit that Santa Ramen and Himawari in San Mateo, is way better.
I normally give new restaurants 3 months of time to clean up their act and I hope Ramen Club does clean up its act in time.
1) The menu system is flawed. You pick what type of ramen and toppings by writing on a laminated menu using a dry-erase marker. The theory is great for sushi restaurants, but not for ramen with variable toppings. It is impossible to distinguish which topping goes into which ramen. We made it easy by picking the same toppings for each of our ramen.
2) They didn't give us what we ordered, extra toppings that we ordered were missing (ie. eggs and sprouts).
3) They gave us our missing eggs on the side and I wasn't too thrilled with the eggs. They were Chinese tea eggs, not the kind with soft egg yolk that normally came with ramen.
4) Soup base was watered down but according to David K's review, their soup base was really salty by 9pm. Well, it's their grand opening. I guess they are still trying to perfect their trade.
5) Tonkatsu and tonkotsu are different. If they are trying to be creative with the play on words, they should clarify it in their menu. The menu indicated Tonkotsu as pork and chicken soup. If I had known it was fried pork cutlet, I wouldn't have ordered it.
6) I don't like fried pork cutlet in my ramen. I do suggest they add sticky rice cake (like mochi) into ramen.
7) Hopefully they will have their beer license soon. It's probably easier for them to blocked out the beer list in the menu until they obtained the license.
8) Cash only. Although there was one sign by the cash register, it could not be easily seen.
9) The noodle itself was tender like how ramen noodle should be. Ok on that!
At the end of the day, we got watered down ramen with some missing toppings and tea eggs on the side. I got fooled into the fried pork cutlet ramen thinking it was tonkotsu. Not thrilled.
Hopefully they will up their game or else it would be hard for them to stay in business, especially in the Bay Area.
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hmmm...i felt like i got tricked into trying this restaurant because of its name. i happen to like ramen club in burlingame a lot. besides the name, this place shared nothing else in common with ramen club in burlingame.
i got the combo set that had ramen, gyoza and a bowl of fried rice. the ramen was mediocre at best - lean slices of chasu that fell short of flavorful, soup was so-so. The fried rice might as well been called shoyu (soy sauce) rice. Gyoza was ok, but i suspect it's of the frozen variety.
overall, nothing too exciting...plus one star for clean bathrooms...another for ok service.
Its Grand Opening time!! April 20 is the big day. Finally a place in Palo Alto that promises to be open until 1am every day of the week for us late night zombies!! Love it!
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It was okay. A bit on greasy side. Open late. Guy friendly.
Ramen is all about expectation. Not exactly right, adhering to a Japanese aesthetic of presenting the entire ramen experience is very important. It is easy to understand why people are so very underwhelmed. This place is just as much Tung Kee Noodles (chiu zhou fast eats) as ramen house. Even worse, its name is the same as a ramen house in Burlingame. I assume they are not the same company. The menu doesn't reference the other place. Please read other reviews for negatives, there are too many to restate. On a positive note, the noodles on their own are good. If you don't feel like ramen, there is a limited selection of sushi and appetizers. OK, if you feel like eating soup noodles close to campus and you want to conserve some coin, why not! go, it beats Tung Kee Noodle which is another freeway exit away -- sorry, left jab. That reminds me, CASH ONLY establishment.
This place was seriously awful. I don't plan on ever returning, for they didn't have a single "good" element in the 2 ramen that I sampled.
Both had:
~ awful broth (watery, lacking any flavor),
~ awful noodles (must have come from the supermarket, and overcooked to mush),
~ awful toppings (including a supermarket deli slice of pork, an overcooked tea egg half, and no corn or anything else)
~ awful service (these people have no idea what they are doing, and the funniest part is when they mispronounce irrashaimase)
~ awful concept (who puts fried pork cutlet, tonkatsu, on top of ramen? that's idiotic! the panko bread crumbs get all soggy and simply beats the point)
Anyhow, this place is awful. I was so excited to go too since ramen is one of my favorite foods, and this was pretty near my house. Gah!
I went to the new Ramen Club that opened on El camino near my work for lunch. Went with coworkers They had free kimchi. Not spicy but very flavorful. I helped myself to a good portion. The wait staff was not that good, all a bit green and they kept asking for the number on the menu for our orders. I guess they fixed the menu ordering system that previous yelpers were complaining about. Now they just write down what you order.
I ordered a Tonkatsu? ramen combo with fried rice and gyoza and my coworker ordered the miso ramen with spicy california rolls and gyoza. For some reason the Tonkatsu was spelled Tonkosu on the menu...not sure if that is a word or not. The waitress did not understand what i said when I asked for the TonKatsu ramen so maybe it is Tonkosu.
The ramen all came in different bowls, different from the peoples sitting next to us too. It felt like a lot of the utensils and bowls were from someone's house because they were a bit mismatched. They reused chopsticks so you pick them up from the center on your table just like many Pho places. Even the plates that the sushi and gyoza came in were different from the tables next to us. A bit odd...
So the Tonkosu ramen was not very good. They put actual tonkatsu in it where the fried pork got all soggy and seperated from the baked outer shell. Also the bowl seemed smaller than the Miso soup one and I could tell that the ramen was dropped like you drop in an instant noodle ramen into the boiling water at home. It was all packed into a square. the soup did not have that much flavor. The Miso soup looked a lot better. if i ever go back I will try that one. I say stay away from the tonkosu.
The place only takes cash for a reminder. The gyoza was okay, the fried rice terrible. I only ate a few bites and couldn't go on.
Overall I want to give it 1.5 stars but I'll round it to two. I might check back in 3-6 months to see if they've improved.
April 20th... The grand opening - only a couple months late, though I suppose in Asian time it's not all that bad.
Was it worth the wait? Let's see...
Stopped by for lunch today with KL and thankfully we beat the lunch rush. They offer kuro, miso, shoyu and tonkotsu broths and their standard ramen comes with 2 pieces of chashu pork, a piece of nori (seaweed) and green onions. Rather bare bones, though like at Santa you can add extra toppings.
In addition, they offer combo meals much like at Maruichi, plus a random assortment of sides, sushi and sashimi. Sushi/sashimi at a ramenya? Yeah, I know it's a little weird. Alas, no chicken karaage or soboro rice.
As for the actual food, I got Combo C with the miso ramen, the spicy tuna roll and gyoza. The miso ramen was actually ok, not too salty but also not particularly flavorful - I've had better, but I've also had much worse. The half egg was more of a Chinese-style tea egg, which may hint at this place being owned by Chinese (like some have claimed). The spicy tuna roll was ok and I didn't get sick afterwards, though I prefer Sushi Tomi's version better (sans avocado), and the gyoza were likewise decent but not memorable.
Service was earnest but a little scattered, forgivable given that today was their first day in business.
Overall, 2.5-3 stars. Nothing spectacular but not bad for Palo Alto, which is not known to be a bastion of traditional Asian food. However, I'm sure ramen-purists will be alternately horrified and offended. I'll probably be back to try out the rest of their ramen, if only because I can walk to this place within 5 minutes. Dunno how their kuro will stack up to Maruichi...
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I was pleased with the food and service. Prices are reasonable.
I had the Combo A which includes
A large bowl of your choice of ramen
fried rice
and potsickers
All for under $9 (excl tip)
I wish they take credit card, add more vegetable in the soup and the pot stickers are always dry.
In a word: disappointing. To elaborate, extremely disappointing. While reading this, keep in mind that I am a ramen lover and The Girl is Japanese and just came back from Japan 2 weeks ago so the idea of good Japanese cuisine is still fresh in her mind.
Yes, as Randy said, I was one of the people who had a placeholder review for Ramen Club. But my experience was so profoundly bad that I had to rewrite the entire thing. The Girl and I went on the evening of the grand opening, after many weeks of anticipation. We're both ramen lovers, so having any decent Ramen place closeby would be great. We go to Maruichi and Ryowa from time to time, but this place is closer to The Girl.
The Girl had been to the Ramen Club in San Mateo/Burlingame years before but couldn't remember much about it. She had heard this was Chinese-owned and was a bit skeptical. Since this is supposed to be Japanese and The Girl is Japanese, she had high expectations for ramen.
Again, we were abysmally and indefatigably disappointed. A numbered list of reasons why follows:
1) The place is oddly decorated. It feels more like a Chinese noodle place than a Japanese ramen place. This is Day 1. Not good having wobbly tables when eating soup. We arrived at 9pm on opening night. There were about 5 other groups there and the place was only 1/5 full when we ate.
2) The menu system. At first I thought it was cool that you could use a dry erase marker on a laminated menu to mark what you wanted, but it soon became apparent that if you ordered extra toppings, there was no way to specify what toppings went to which ramen order. You just had to tell them verbally and pray that they remember.
3) The music. For the entire hour, Top 40s music was playing. If you felt a little maudlin, you'd appreciate the array of not-really-appropriate-for-any-restaurant-let-alon e-a-ramen-place music from Savage Garden, Spice Girls, 3T, Kai, Backstreet Boys, and the like. And then if you really listened, you'd realize that these are all covers. Not by the real artists. None of them. Little did I know that this series of poor imitations was an omen that would pervade the entire meal.
4) I ordered Shoyu with extra bamboo and The Girl ordered Tonkotsu. Pay close attention to what we ordered because they sure as heck didn't. After about 4 minutes, we got our bowls of ramen. The presentation was bleak, pictures coming soon. My bowl had 4 thin slices of pork and I couldn't see any noodles, or bamboo. The noodles were in a mound under the pork, like they hadn't even been stirred in. And there was no bamboo. I asked them about this and they were confused. After a full minute, the waiter comes back and says "it's there". It wasn't, I showed him. He goes back to the counter, comes back and takes the bowl, and comes back with bamboo in the bowl. He apologizes and I wince. I know what's coming. I pick up a piece of bamboo and eat it. It's COLD. It's FLINGIN' FLANGIN' COLD.
5) They need to understand Japanese better. The Girl ordered a Tonkotsu ramen. This is a distinct difference from Tonkatsu ramen. Firstly, she has never heard of Tonkatsu ramen. That 'a' instead of an 'o' means a world of difference. Tonkatsu is breaded and fried pork cutlet, which isn't so appetizing when it's steeped in broth. Tonkotsu simply describes the broth that is derived from pork bones. The menu said Tonkotsu. What The Girl got was Tonkatsu. Bad.
6) The noodles were soggy. What was that? It's 9pm? This is grand opening and they are supposedly open until 1am. The noodles were not good.
7) My broth was INSANELY salty. The Girl's broth was bland. The pork was dry and flavorless. I've never had a Shoyu broth so salty. I could have recycled it to give to passing deer as a salt lick. I had to counter the saltiness by using almost half of the kimchee on the table. The kimchee was not authentic (which it rarely is).
8) They did not have Japanese beverages. The Girl figured this as it was Chinese-owned. I asked about Calpico and the guy was like "huh?" We ordered tea and The Girl thought it tasted like bleach while I thought it tasted like bohreecha, a Korean roasted corn tea.
9) Learn to spell. See pictures. The receipt was replete with misspellings. It said the place was Raman Club. Raman like ... spectroscopy? The menu says Tonkotsu Ramen, which is what The Girl expected. The receipt says she ordered Tonkatsu Raman. And I've never seen the word "Cashier" misspelled on a receipt until now.
10) They only accept CASH. I didn't see this announced ANYWHERE. In my experience with Chinese-owned places, there's a message on the menu, on the receipt, in big bold letters ... but nothing. That's really inconvenient and it's a good thing I had cash on me.
In summary, this place is so disappointing that we're never coming again. We'd rather trek the 10 miles to Kahoo than the 2000 feet to Ramen Club.
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I think this place deserves less than 1 star, but giving one star as no one got sick from eating the food.
Sorry, but a Ramen place should be run by Japanese. There are no Japanese associated with this place.
We laughed about the Tonkotsu Ramen. They actually wrote it as Tonkatsu Ramen and it actually is Tonkatsu Ramen, with fried pork cutlet? You never get Ramen with fried pork cutlet, the dish I guess they wanted to make was Tonkutsu Ramen (pork broth). Funny, people open a Ramen place and have no idea what they are making.
The soup bases are bland. The chashu (sliced pork) among the worst I ever had at Ramen shop. The Gyoza was deep fried, krispy and dried out (why did I eat them?) and the suchi roll was too scary to try.
Yuck!! I think that is a one word review of this excuse for a Ramen place. We thought the noodles were not home made, may be home made, but not in a home I would ever want to eat at.
Terrible, please do not eat at this place. I was stupid and did not read the reviews on this site before going. I deserved the torture of eating this food, you do not.
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Nothing special. Ryowa is only a few minutes away and is *so* much better. Also, people who work at Japanese restaurants should learn how to pronounce "irasshaimase" if they are going to shout it every few minutes.
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Finally, Palo Alto has a Ramen place! Despite what others have said about this place, I like their ramen! Judging by the earlier postings, it seems like this place has made some changes since their grand opening. The menu format has definitely changed. I don't know if they've made changes to the food as well.
I thought the ramen was solid! The noodle was just right, not too chewy, and not too soft. I really liked their Kuro soup base (pork). It was kind of greasy, but it was yummy :P The price is affordable, $6.90 for a bowl of ramen. Most additional toppings are $1 each. Most sides (gyoza, unagi, edamame, etc) range from $2-$4. The staff was nice and attentive. It wasn't crowded at lunch, which is a huge plus over the ramen places on castro in mountain view! The food came out really fast. The parking lot is small, with approx 5-6 spots.
I guess it's all about expectations. I didn't go there expecting a Nobu experience, so I am quite happy with my experience. It's cheap, close by, fast, clean, tastey, and has good service.
It's been open for 6 days now so we decided to try it for lunch. I will not be going back.
FOOD:
The Ramen: The noodle itself is similar to Ryowa, which is pretty good. However my shoyu broth was too salty. The standard ramen is $6.90 but only comes only with half an egg, a piece of seaweed and 3 pieces of pork. All additional toppings are $1 each. So if you add corn and bamboo, it's a lot of expensive than most ramen places.
California rolls: You cannot even call these California rolls because there weren't any avocados in them. Additionally, the rice tasted like it was kept in the fridge overnight. They were definitely not fresh made. =(
Fried rice: The fried rice should be instead called gross mushy rice with eggs. It was the size of a ice cream scoop and tasteless. Everyone knows you can't use fry fresh rice because it gets mushy. =(
Service: The wait staff was friendly but clueless. I don't blame them since it is the first week they opened. There was one Asian guy who was in charge. They let us substitute california rolls for the gyoza. However when we got our bill, they had charged us for an extra bowl of ramen. They quickly corrected the mistake when we pointed it out to them.
Overall: I can't imagine the owner wanting to eat some of the food himself, which begs the question of why are you serving it to your customers! This is the bay area, the customers are savvy about ramen. Get your act together if you want returning customers.
If you must go to try Ramen club, just order the ramen, not the combos.
OWNER OF THE RAMEN CLUB IN BURLINGAME - you should seriously considering filing a lawsuit for trademark confusion.
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It's good if you're looking for a cheap, quick, and tasty Ramen. There may be better Ramen restaurants in the Bay, but I do think that some of the other reviewers are overly critical.
Well, I've been to the Ramen Club in Burlingame, and this is not even close to it. I was pretty excited to see this opening so close to where I work, but the anticipation was obviously better than the real thing. The ramen order was a little bland. Had the combo meal, so I had some sushi and gyoza I think. Those were not good either. All in all, I would not go back, and lord knows I like eatting ramen.
Food: I had the Combo C with miso ramen and asked to add corn. The noodles and broth are decent. The broth is definitely not as tasty as Maruichi, Ryowa or Santa, but it is okay. My noodles came "bunched up" like some of the other reviewers noted, but they tasted okay. I do like their pork (cha-shu) better because it is not as fatty as Maruichi's and you get more (I think I got 4 slices). The egg is like a Chinese tea egg-Maruichi's is much better with a slightly soft yolk. They forgot to bring my corn so I had to ask for it on the side. The potstickers are decent-nothing spectacular. The rice on the spicy tuna was a little hard, but if you leave it out for a while, it's okay to eat.
Decor: What I would expect for a ramen restaurant. At least the tables and chairs are clean since it's a relatively new place.
Service: Okay, but not great. Seems like the staff is still learning the flow of things.
Parking: BAD! There is only 3 spaces in the "lot" and a few spaces of street parking so if you go at a busy time, good luck!
Overall, I would probably come back, but only if I was too lazy to drive to MV for Maruichi or Ryowa. Hopefully by the next time I go back, they will have improved on some things.
Much anticipation, much disappointment.
My wife and I frequently go for ramen, and we've been to places like Santa Ramen (San Mateo), Maruichi, Ryowa (Mountain View), and Ramen Halu (San Jose).
If you've been to any of the other places I've mentioned above and like them, I'd recommend you not go here. The soup (both kuro and tonkatsu) is pretty bland and doesn't have the depth of flavor as the others.
The sushi is not bad, but not special in any way either.
However, if you're looking for a more low sodium/MSG, less intensely flavored broth, then Ramen Club may fit the bill.
They are still new...
We ordered 1 combo w/ tonkotsu soup (w/ dumplings and CA roll) and one tonkotsu ramen. When they came out, one has charsiu, and one has tonkatsu (fried pork)!!??!!? WHAT THE HELL??? We picked the same item from the menu, not sure why one is charsiu and one is fried pork????
The noodles were still "stuck" together when it came out. Broth was not special... too watery and not hot. It tasted something like instant ramen I got from japanese market.
We had to pay $1 to get corn (the soup only comes w/ charsiu and half and egg). I swear there were like 1 teaspoons of corn in there!!! I couldn't even find my corn and they charged $1 for it!!! God....
The CA roll's rice was HARD... in the fridge too long!!! dumplings were something we got from supermarket also.
I will go back later once they stabilized their services and food.
After passing by for over a month and seeing the "soon to be open" sign, I was excited to see that it finally opened. I really wanted this place to be good but it was just so disappointing. I ordered the tonkotsu ramen. The broth and noodles were so bland, like only hot water bland. The bowl came with soup, the noodles, soggy fried pork (wasn't expecting it to be fried), and one piece of dried seaweed.. very no frills. My husband ordered Combo C with kuro ramen and gyoza and a spicy tuna roll. Again, the broth and noodles were so bland. Maybe I'm just used to the flavorful broths that Santa Ramen in San Mateo and Maruichi in Mountain View serve. In addition, the check comes immediately after the food is served, which I thought gave a very "rush you out of the door" impression. Ramen Club just opened so I'm hoping they will improve, but until I hear that they do, I don't plan on going back.
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