Cal Ramen

Very bland ramen with poorly prepared ingredients.

Man the ramen at this place is totally incongruent with the reviews. I had to go a few times before reviewing it because I was really surprised based on the food and what I read here. And since when do we penalize asian restaurants for their English spelling haha =) I’m really at a loss as to where all the hate on Unilocal is coming from.
Anyways, this place is by my work, and it’s pretty good. It’s the only ramen place on the north side, and it’s reasonably priced. I like the outdoor seating, the service is very good, and the ramen is decent. I’ve had mostly the spicy garlic and the tonkotsu. The portions are decent for the price and you get two free small apps to tide you over. Overall I would say it’s 3 stars for the food and 1 star for the service ambience and convenience.
Now this isn’t life-​changing wet your pants ramen like you get in Tokyo, but we’re not in Tokyo, we’re in Berkeley. I have met Chinese and Filipino workers there, but I also saw Mexicans at Orenchii and Ramen Dojo, and I don’t think the ethnicity of the workers should factor into the experience.
As always don’t believe the hype! Try the place out for yourself.

I hate to say it but if I was really craving a bowl of ramen I think I’d rather just make my own at home from a packet. The one strength Cal Ramen might be able to boast is the quality of their noodles which is just above that of the dried noodles that come in Korean Shin ramen packages but not by much.
I was also excited to see that they had Earl Grey milk tea on the menu since not many places near campus offer this. Unfortunately, this was pretty bland and tasted a lot like coffee cream.
Even still, I’m giving this place two stars because it’s really not a horrible lunch spot. The food isn’t great, the drink is far from stellar, but if you’re hungry and want Asian food it’s not a bad place to go for a sit-​down lunch. Cal Ramen probably has more of a restaurant feel than most places on North Side Asian Ghetto with a pretty spacious indoor and outdoor seating array. Most of the rest of the cafés and eateries in its vicinity opt for that bustling, crowded, on-​the-​go food vibe. I personally love that vibe but there are occasions when the former is appropriate as well.

NOOOOOOOOOOO
I kinda feel like a mean girl writing this review… because customer service was actually really nice! but the food… just no no I can’t help it.
Noodles were overcooked, tonkotsu soup was lacking flavors. Egg was overcooked… Idk I didn’t like it at all. Now, karaage was not karaage at all. It tasted like those chicken snacks at bubble tea shop. MEH NONONO.
Never going back… I think they should start serving real Japanese ramen… this is not how it’s supposed to taste.
Hot tea was pretty good though.

That day I was craving for a noodle soup and this place happened to be there. I walked into this place thinking that how can anyone make bad ramen. I ordered tonkotsu ramen and they first gave me a wrong order. It was jajang ramen or something. They prepared a new one and it came out in the next 5 min or so. The ramen however tastes so bad. These few bullet points sum up my experience.
— Strange smell in the soup
— Two slices of very fatty pork
— Still-​cold boiled egg
— Bean sprouts look very old
Never again.

This place is close to my office, so I decided to give it a try. My friend and I sat in their outdoor seating area which was pleasant enough.
I’m not a huge ramen fan, so I decided to get the crispy pepper chicken rice bowl. I took a long time for us to get our food, which seemed strange because the restaurant was not that busy. If I only had a set amount of time for lunch, I would have been worried about getting back to work on time.
When the food did come, it looked really good and colorful. My bowl had the chicken, rice, broccoli, corn, and half a hard-​boiled egg. I also liked that each table had soy sauce, garlic salt, cayenne pepper, and several other sauces and spices to season the food with. Unfortunately, the execution of the ingredients was poor. About half of my broccoli was stone cold, as if it had just been removed from the fridge. The rest of it was warm though, so I’m not sue what happened. Also, some of my rice was undercooked. On a positive note, I really liked the pepper chicken.
Maybe I’ll have to give this place another try sometime. Hopefully they were having an off-​day when I tried it.

I didn’t know you could make ramen taste bad. At worst in the past, it might have been too cold or too salty or too spicy. This had a weird smell & taste that I just couldn’t pinpoint. For the same price, there’s a ton of better ramen places in East Bay. And if you don’t want to find them, you can find much better food anywhere around the Berkeley campus.
This place was disappointing.

Ramen tastes bland.
It was the worst ramen I had.

I was pretty skeptical about this place after reading so many negative comments on Unilocal,but it actually turned out better than i expected –although i only get tonkotsu, and even that’s a bit salty to me.

This ramen would only be good if:
1. It were free and
2. I were dying of starvation
My friends and I ordered the calamri poppers which were $ 5 for 4 pieces of calimari. Something is terribly wrong with that situation there.
We then all ordered the spicy pork ramen for $ 8 which is not a bad price for ramen in the bay. The ramen was nothing stellar at all though. In fact, it was kind of disgusting. You can actually see the grease bubbles on the soup and taste the bits of MSG in the soup. The noodles were bland, the ingredients were soggy, and the ramen overall was one of the worst I’ve ever tasted.
No one star for them because they had great service and I didn’t throw up after. Great waiter, though.

Ordered ramen to go. Got a glass of water while I waited. The glass was disgusting, with a full-​grown loogie stuck to the bottom of it, floating like kelp in the water. Half an hour later, I got a to-​go container of lukewarm ramen.
Try harder guys. It’s soup, you make giant pots of it, it does not need to take half an hour. And clean your glasses. This is basic stuff!

I tried this place with my friend, and both of us did not like taste of ramen at all.
Also, as a Japanese, I wouldn’t like them to call this place «Japanese» place. Some items on a menu were misspelled in a very misleading way (which implies this place is not managed by Japanese), and the interior looked rather Chinese style to me, and I did not see any element of Japaneseness there.

I thought this place would be ok since it was a ramen joint on northside, but i was sadly mistaken.
I got the tonkatsu ramen with bamboo shoots it just tasted awful. Everything tasted old and not fresh. The bamboo shoots were almost not even edible. The ramen broth was not tasty, only salty. The ramen noodles were tasteless and undercooked.
Overall, this place is just… sad

Cal Ramen sells entrees too, including sea bass something. skipped this. just tried the ramen.
not sure if the «irashimase!» greeting was phonentically correct or not. the ramen didn’t taste authentically japanese.
eats: tonkotsu ramen (8)
–toppings of green onion, bamboo, nori, red ginger, bean sprouts, cabbage, surimi
, whole boiled egg, boiled pork slices (not chashu), corn.
–noodles ok, not al dente
–broth had aftertaste, msg?
–suspect broth came from soup base, not boiling pork bones.
temaki:
–everyone here speaks mandarin (chinese)
–décor typical japanese
–service, japanese specs.

Their ramen is really tasty.
This rating might be biased since I love ramen and there is other ramen place around the campus (not those cup-​noodle like ramen).

«Meh.» That was more or less the thought I had upon getting my bowl of ramen. While it’s nice to have a ramen place up in Northside, with the various decent, though by no means amazing, options all around Berkeley, I’d recommend passing on this location.
Granted, this is a new entry to Northside Asian Ghetto, so I may be making a fast statement. Without a doubt, the service was better than you could expect from a ramen place. The servers were nice, the service was actually quick, and they do take card, which is quite convenient.
The ramen is by no means terrible. I had the Spicy Garlic Pork Ramen, and the broth and noodles were fine. The toppings, I could have lived without, as they were quite excessive and took away from the fact that there was a dearth of wholesome ingredients. but I do see the effort that is being put toward this grand opening, especially with the décor and service.
It’s an interesting addition, and with the service being so quick, it’s not as if I’ll never go here ever again, but it’s by no means anything amazing or worth going out of your way to check out.
TIP: N/​A

I’m glad a Japanese ramen place opened right next to Cal.
But you know the authenticity of the joint is in question when they butcher the pronounciation of «Irashaimase!» as you enter.
The menu is cheap and simple. If you want ramen, you just pick the flavor of soup. You really don’t need any add ons because the standard comes with pretty much everything you need.
I ordered the TONKOTSU. Yes its supposed to be tonkotsu, and not tonkasu as it says on the menu as tonkatsu refers to friend pork cutlets while the correct term tonkotsu refers to soup that is made from boiling pork bones for a long time.
The boiled egg that is supposed to be soft boiled was definitely hard-​boiled. Not on par with good quality Japanese ramen.
All the above points may seem a little picky so I will get down to the most important parts.
The noodle itself was good. Slightly al dente as it should be and has a good chewy texture. However, the soup lacked any deep flavor as it tasted like pork bone boiled with plain sea salt added to it.
All in all, the price is decent and the place has potential, so i guess its worth a try, but don’t go in expecting perfection… the perfection that is usually pretty standard in Japanese restaurants that take their «art of cooking» seriously.

I loved love their Ramen noodles! Especially, with their home made chili hot sauce. It was recommended that I have it dry so you can taste the flavor together but I’m a soup girl so I tried the spicy pork flavor instead which came in a curry-​like, mildly spice for me. It was flavorful and there was a lot going on in the bowl which I thought made up for the money. I also got a taste of the Tonkatsu, which I liked this soup base better because I prefer broth on the clear side. I also tried the fried calmari with a tangy orange mayo like dressing and loved it!
I must say, their service was excellent, very attentive and fast. I like the setting given they also have extra space to eat outdoors-​spacious and gave a cozy feeling. Overall, I enjoyed the food here and I would definitely come again to try the rest of the flavored soup and appetizers.

Cool idea, but they really need to work out the kinks.
I had been waiting for this place to open. I ordered the Tonkotsu ramen. The broth was rich, and the roasted pork was flavorful, but unfortunately the item was not served exactly as described.
There was no fishcakes and no mushrooms, and the advertised soft boiled egg was actually hard boiled (which is not necessarily bad, but it should be accurately described). The ramen also contained nontraditional ingredients like corn, which I found surprising, given that the menu alluded to traditional ramen and not a more playful take on the dish.
I must also admit that I found a tiny bug and what looked like an eyelash in my soup. I’ll give them the benefit in the doubt given that I was eating outside and I happen to have eyelashes, but it is still worth mentioning in case it fits with a larger trend.
I hope they work things out, because a hot bowl of ramen would be a nice option to have for a cold winter afternoon.

Went down to SF to visit family and came here for their soft opening, there wasn’t any signs saying it was soft opening or anything. Their décor looks really good compared to the other restaurants around them. Very clean. Since it just opened, the service is not as quick, but the waiters and waitresses are extremely kind and helpful. The inside is really small but they have outside seating as well. Their ramen has a lot of stuff inside, like seaweed, corn, veggies, japanese fish cake, egg, and ginger. I had the chicken wings, calamari, and mussels. The chicken wings and calamari were good, but the mussels were a little too chewy for my liking. They have a variety of flavors/​soup bases that you can choose from. It is very convenient for students that go to Berkeley, it’s literally right across the street. I would come back if I were ever in the area again.