Samurai Noodle

Fantastic ramen! I’ve been there three times and I think it might have to becomes staple of mine. The ramen selection is pretty expansive. The miso is delicious. They’re vegan friendly (I’m not vegan but I think it’s cool to have options). The chairs are a little low to the ground and don’t have a back but I get that they’re going for a certain ambiance. The service staff are very helpful in making suggestions.
TLDR: Really good ramen.

Easy and quick sitdown place for ramen. Their vegan broth whether regular or miso both taste better than Jinya but their noodles are not as good. Part of it may be because it’s oily due to the stir fry vegetables used rather the raw ones that Jinya dump into their soup.
Location is easy to get to although confusing for someone not familiar with the Durham/​Shepherd parallel one-​ways. Plenty of parking. Décor is minimalist but they should invest in something that sucks up the fumes. You will smell like ramen broth leaving the place. Despite the lower overhead than the Jinya in midtown, prices are higher here.

Came in with my husband today and we both agreed after exploring ramen in a few places here in Houston as well as else where it’s pretty good. I definitely think that it was a random night where it felt service was unorganized because it seem to have a flow of business and really attentive service today. I had the Garlic Ramen like last time and it’s amazing. The noodles had a nice bite and the broth was just enough garlic to sesame oil. My husband had the tonkotsu and agreed with the firm noodles was pretty good. I am glad that there is a local place down the street from home. Keep doing what you guys do. It’s great!

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that impressed. It might be what I ordered, the Spicy Chicken Ramen. The inside of the restaurant was ok, but just looking around it just seemed a little unclean. It’s probably due to the high traffic, but even the condiments looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in a while. I may try it again, try something more popular, but you know, with all the great restaurants out it’s hard to give a place a second chance… but I will try.
Tip, I suggest going with the soft noodles, ramen noodles al dente do not taste good.
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Yum yum. I live just a few blocks away, so it’s easy to get my ramen fix here. It’s a pretty small shop but there’s plenty of parking. Can get pretty crowded at times.
I wouldn’t expect it, but this place has the. Best. Gyoza! Yummy and crispy and hot and has this layer of fried stuff on top. As far as ramens go, I typically don’t like the tonkotsu (pork) broth and opt for the shoyu (chicken). I’ve had the spicy garlic, garlic, combination shoyu tonkotsu, and the mushroom. The garlic is good but your breath will smell for the next 2 days (so make sure your significant other doesn’t get it!!!). My favorite is the mushroom. It’s peppery and flavorful and not super heavy. Mmmmmmmm. You can get pork shoulder, pork belly, chicken, or tofu to accompany your ramen.
PS: Add an egg, dammit!

The ramen here was alright. The portions are for sure larger than ninja ramen and the prices are reasonable. It’s a small place so I’m not sure how large groups work here or if it’s good at all for larger groups.
I ordered the tonkotsu ramen and asked for extra rich broth. I also added corn and an egg to my ramen. The dining table has a little basket of extra seasonings you can add to your ramen too like salt/​pepper, pickled ginger, sesame seeds, assorted chili seasoning, and dry red pepper flakes. The seasonings didn’t really add a spice to my ramen but I think the broth was so rich, I couldn’t taste any extra spice I added. If you want spice, I suggest ordering a spicier ramen broth. I will try next time.
The broth was really rich and the noodles were good. Not too hard or soft, but you could also ask for how hard or soft you want them cooked. They give you the option of choosing from extra soft, soft, medium, firm, extra firm.
They have extra toppings you can add for an additional 50 cents or more. The only thing I didn’t like was the broth not being salty enough. Yeah, it was rich and smoky from the pork fat, but i think it could’ve used a stand out salty flavor instead of just the smoky flavor. The cooks forgot my corn and egg, but I didn’t have a problem with that. I just asked them to give them to me on the side. The pork belly slices are also pretty thin and small. Not very generous on the meat slices, but the amount of noodles made up for that.
The servers are super friendly and helpful. It’s a very laid back environment. It’s not busy and loud like tiger den or jinya. I like that it was more chill and casual. I could actually hear my friend while we were chatting during lunch. I hate having to shout when out for food.
They don’t bring a check to the table when you finish eating. You just go up to the counter and pay. They have your order set so you don’t have to worry about remembering what you got.
I’ll probably come back to try their spicier ramen. I think I’m just ruined from after having ramen in LA.
Samurai is still good in my book though. I’ll come back.

It’s kind of nice to see a ramen place that’s more casual/​no-​frills than the overhyped fanfare of other shops with long waitlists. My boyfriend and I came during a quiet weekday late lunchtime, but the restaurant was still relatively full (about half capacity at 3pm or so).
I was in the mood for something spicy, so I got the Spicy Miso Tonkatsu (extra rich). I was a little disappointed to not see any spicy tonkatsu since I didn’t really want miso. My boyfriend went for the Tonkatsu since it was his first time getting «real» ramen. My broth had a nice level of spice, with all the flavor I wanted, but without broaching that «burning in the back of my throat kinda hurts to breathe» level. My boyfriend’s tonkatsu broth was amazing — so rich and porky. It was the perfect example of a broth that’s obviously been simmered for hours. It had a level of depth far beyond that of Jinya’s (which I had eaten the previous day). After trying Samurai Noodle’s broth, my suspicions that Jinya falls back on MSG to pump up their broth were confirmed. Samurai’s truly exemplifies a broth that has the full depth that comes only from really using pork bones alone. The toppings here are fairly sparse, but it’s always possible to add more. Not to mention, the prices here are lower than Jinya, so you could add more toppings and end up with as many as theirs, but with a much better broth. The noodles are fairly springy, and it’s nice to be able to get them to order, customizing their level of doneness. The only problem with the food was the pork slice that topped my ramen. The pork was definitely on the lean side, which isn’t what you want when you’re going for chashu pork belly. That broth though… I slurped up the whole bowl.
The service was a little awkward/​stilted, with the servers a little slow to seat us and to take orders. This is mostly why I’m taking one star off. Overall, however, it’s nice to have a ramen spot without a long wait and with a convenient location. The broth here is truly superior and has a greater depth to it than any competitor ramen shops in Houston.

I came here for lunch and I had tonkatsu. Was delicious. The only thing that kind of bothers me is that you have to order the egg separately and the seaweed. Most places serve it with those to begin with and you don’t need to add a dollar here and there for different toppings. Except for this I have nothing but good things to say. All soups come with one one piece of meat but it’s pretty big and more than enough (at least for me).

I’ve always driven past this place but never really paid attention since it’s in a pretty unassuming location. My bf & I decided to try this place out on a whim one evening and I was pleasantly surprised.
We started off with the Takoyaki appetizer, which I thought it was good and would order again. As for the ramen, we both ordered the Spicy Miso Tonkotsu. Our server suggested that we each try a tonkotsu ramen and shoyu ramen for variety. He even offered to let us order another ramen dish if we didn’t like the shoyu ramen. I really appreciated the fact that they offer this! Alas, we didn’t budge on our initial orders because it sounded so good and we would feel bad if they had to make another dish. The Spicy Miso Tonkotsu ramen turned out to be really good and broth was tasty! Also, add an egg to your order. The egg was cooked perfectly.
Service was good and attentive. Bonus for taking the time to give us recommendations and making the aforementioned offer. I could tell he just really wanted us to get a well-​rounded experience. I promise that I will try the shoyu ramen next time. I’m glad that we decided to try out this place because now I have another good restaurant to get my ramen fix. I’ll be back. :)

I wanted to like Samurai Noodle for a lot of reasons.
1. It’s literally around the corner from my place.
2. I loooove me some ramen.
3, I’ve been waiting to try this place fooooorrrreeevvvver.
Unfortunately, this joint was a let down as soon as we stepped foot in the door. We came on a Friday evening and the restaurant wasn’t terribly busy. It took us awhile to get seated, forever for someone to take our order, and an eternity for someone to ring us up. Typically, if service is off it’s not a big deal. I understand. some places just have their off nights or they’re understaffed or whatever the problem is. Fine.
The food did not make up for the lack of service. We started with the chicken karaage. It was alright. Not crispy enough for my liking but the flavor was there. I had the spicy miso tonkotsu and it was basically a bowl of salt. There was very little pork. My boyfriend had the spicy tonkotsu which was even saltier than my bowl. It was so spicy it took away from the flavor of the broth. We both added eggs to our ramen (at an additional charge of course) and my boyfriend dug around and noticed he didn’t have an egg. He mentioned it to the waiter and the waiter asked us, «are you sure.?». I don’t know why this irritated me so much. I mean obviously we dug around. if we say there isn’t an egg then there isn’t an egg.
Anyway, I really wanted to like Samurai Noodle and I really hesitated to write this review but I felt it was necessary. You’ve been warned.

Mmm ramen! I’ve been here a couple of times now and the performance has been consistent.
Parking can get full but if you come at the right time, it isn’t that bad. You come in, they seat you, and take your order immediately if you’re ready. For any ramen dishes that you select pork for, you’ll have the option of belly or shoulder. Both are delicious but the shoulder is obviously healthier. I order the spicy miso and every time I do, I get worried that it will be too spicy. Fear not, this is never the case with ramen. It’s more the flavor so pursue this delicious dish with confidence.
The once thing that really sets this place apart is the fresh egg noodle. I tell my friends about it all the time because to be perfectly honest, even though Houston has a very strong Asian culture base with many restaurants to choose from, I can only think of one other place that has fresh egg noodle (and the place I’m thinking of basically handles Cantonese speaking customers only so super hole in the wall joint). Fresh egg noodle makes a huge difference folks.
My first time here, service was kind of slow because they had just opened. Subsequent times have been superb. I love the atmosphere, consistency, and friendly service. Dishes are affordable and if I didn’t live outside of the loop, I’d come here more often.

Samurai Noodle is one of those places that you’ve probably driven by a million times but never noticed until you actually Unilocaled it. It’s on the I-​10 feeder heading east before the I-​10/​Durham intersection; more simply put, it’s in the same plaza as the Starbucks. I feel like all the ramen shops in Houston are really randomly located…
I came here with my family for my sister’s birthday at around 5:30 on a Sunday, and it’s a good thing we got there early — Samurai isn’t particularly big, and it gets pretty busy; when we left an hour later, there were quite a few groups glaring at us to leave. You can actually get takeout ramen here if waiting isn’t your style, though.
To start off, we got karaage (glorified chicken nugs) and green onion chili pork (it’s shredded and spicy) — both were decent (I think they’d be GREAT with a beer), but I’m not here for these appetizers! I didn’t even want them (my family did)! Bring on the ramen!
I ordered spicy miso tonkotsu pork belly with an egg. First impressions: this is probably the largest bowl of ramen that I’ve eaten in Houston. The tonkotsu (pork) broth is so rich and well seasoned, perfect for the noodles have a really nice chew to them. Also, Samurai isn’t kidding with the term spicy. It’s not an overbearing hellfire, but the heat will definitely catch up to you.
Definitely order an egg with your ramen — it’s a classic Japanese add-​in, and Samurai’s is CRAZY good. Apparently they have a special cooking process for their eggs, and it pays off — subtly nuanced flavors, creamy yolk texture, seriously rivals what I’ve eaten in Japan.
If you’re still hungry and have quite a bit of soup leftover, you can order extra noodles for $ 1.55, but I was more than stuffed after finishing my original bowl. And drinking some of the broth. Because it was THAT addictive.
I’m so glad Seattle’s Samurai opened their first out-​of-​state shop here in Houston. They do ramen justice, and for it to be so close to home? Definitely my new go-​to! Aside from when I make instant AT home…

I finally made it here to have ramen in Houston for the first time in years. This was definitely better stuff than what I had a while back elsewhere. I came on a weeknight evening and it was fairly empty and the food came out fast.
I went with my usual ramen order at most places: spicy miso tonkotsu + added green onions. I would’ve added mushrooms too, but they told me they’re the shredded black kind… no thanks! It came with a nice amount of bean sprouts and corn, and a couple of slices of pork. The broth was not really spicy at all, which was a bit of a letdown, but it was creamy, flavorful, and filling. The noodles were a nice «medium» firmness, as they were advertised. I also had the gyoza and thought they were good. The filling is very flavorful, making them stand out a bit more from other places.
The atmosphere is not the most inviting. It’s a place I’d rather do take-​out than eat in, since there’s no chair backs to hang a purse, and it’s so open and small. They’re probably trying to make the most out of a tiny space, but it could be better. Fortunately, the ramen is tasty enough to entice me back.

Went here for a friend’s birthday and she decided on the place. Thought it was a great idea at the time since I’ve never tried it before. It was a decent size and very spacious for the amount of tables they had. The seats were a bit uncomfortable. just wooden chairs and benches. More of a family dining experience or extremely casual place to eat. Loved the concept that were able to see the kitchen from anywhere the customers would sit.
We started off with 2 appetizers which I can’t recall what they were. I have pictures. I tried cross reference on their site but it seems as though they’re down! The gyozas were interesting because they were all still connected with a thin layer of. I’m not sure what it was! lolll. The taste was decent… but it was a bit oily and it seemed as though they didn’t filter it or something. I had the Tampopo. The broth was a bit bland for my taste and so I added soy sauce to balance it out a bit for me.
Overall the experience was decent, but not enough for me to go a second time. Authentic or not. The waiter was definitely friendly and he was extremely attentive. Thanks for the awesome experience! Have to admit though, the food was light but definitely filling. :)

The moment you walk into this joint, you will feel like walking into a butcher shop with that unsettling porky smell! Located on Durham and I10, it can be tricky to get here due to the one way traffic on Durham unless if you know the neighborhood well.
Now on to my beloved ramen… Similar to good bowl of phở, the broth can be either too heavy on herbs or protein (beef/​meat). As for tonkotsu, I do prefer it to be rich, creamy and it didnt have that greasy after taste! As my first visit to any ramen place, I will order the basic tonkotsu and in my opinion, the broth here is way too greasy and heavy on the pork that was a little unappealing! As for the single slice of pork belly that was just being boiled not even braise, it was just inedible, chewy and only about 5% of lean meat and the rest was fat! In addition, you have to pay extra for the egg, dont waste your money on that… It was salty and badly marinated!
So, if you are in midtown, the only option now is Jinya, which is quite good but I will rather drive to Tiger Den or Jin!

Let me start off by saying that I was born and raised in Japan. I lived there for 16 years. My mom is Japanese. With that being said, this place is as authentic as it gets. I found it be accident looking through Unilocal and boy am I glad that I did. I’ve been here three times and absolutely love it. The broth is flavorable and delicious!!! Noodles are made fresh daily with the perfect texture. My favorite is the shoyu ramen. Gyoza is good too.
My boyfriend loves the spicy ramen. I personally think it’s too spicy but that’s because I’m not big on spicy food. If you like it spicy then this one is perfect for you.
I heard that they’re thinking about one in the woodlands. I can’t wait for that location to open. Saves us 45 minutes of drive time :)

Samurai Noodle is one of the more underrated ramen shops in Houston, and I’m shocked that it only has 3.5 stars! I placed my trust in Tiffany N.‘s review, and I was NOT disappointed!
My absolute favorite ramen dish to get here is the «Shoyu Tonkotsu,» which is a mixture of chicken and pork broths. It’s perfect for people like me who can sometimes feel sick from the richness of Tonkotsu broths (Samurai’s regular Tonkotsu broth does not make me feel sick, btw). The wavy egg noodles are perrrrrfect.
The gyoza (pan fried dumplings) is also one of my favorites. They’re served upside down and the fried portion of the dumplings are all morphed into a super thin layer of crispy goodness. UGHHH, you gotta try it.
The only downside is that most of the soups don’t come with an egg, so you’ll have to pay extra to get it.
I also love that there is an actual parking lot with ample spaces! A rare find in the Heights!

Another great ramen place in Houston! The bf and I came for dinner one night, and we were pleasantly surprised with the tonkotsu ramen. The noodles are made in house (you can watch them make it!). They were nice and chewy, although the texture was a little bit off to me for some reason. I do like how they ask how hard you like your noodles to be, though. I always get firm, so that when the broth soaks into the noodles, it doesn’t make it as soggy.
With the tonkotsu broth, you can get it normal or extra rich (they add some more oil from cooking the pork). I got the normal and the bf got the extra rich. The broths tasted a little bit different, but both were really good. The tonkotsu broth has a really rich porky flavor without being too oily or salty. I wish some of the toppings were included in the ramen, but you have to add all of them as extras, including the soft boiled egg. The bf was really excited about adding additional chasu pieces, because they’re only 85 cents per piece and the pieces are pretty big.
Samurai noodle is a welcome addition to the Houston ramen scene, and I’m sure I’ll be back. I heard the chef went all around Japan eating different kinds of ramen in order to recreate it here, which is pretty cool!

I wanted to try this place despite the fact that most items seemed to be an add on. I tried the tonkotsu and added an egg and garlic. I only received one piece of garlic and they did not carry the black garlic oil. To make it spicier I had to order a red like spice bomb but it turns the ramen to an unappetizing red broth.
They claim they make their tonkotsu broth just like the original Hikari style in Japan. While it had a nice creaminess it overall was lacking sufficient green onions and mushrooms. I also would of liked either more garlic or garlic oil. Overall it was bland. My ramen had two pieces of chashu. The first one was like a long piece of fatty flabby looking bacon. The second piece was circular but was very fatty. I make chashu at home and buy a leaner cut. Plus their chashu was not charred on the edges so the fatty flabby chashu flavor was very pronounced and not in a good way.
One nice feature is Samurai offers their noodles in 5 different textures. Mine were perfect.
The waitstaff was pleasant. I personally think the restaurant would have more appeal if they put up curtains or blocked all their mops, cleaning supplies and containers on the far right back wall. Was not appealing at all to look at.
I was told their Shoyu ramen was their real stand out ramen. I guess I’ll give that one a try next time. Hopefully I can bump them up in the star rating :)!
Unilocal Review #340

Oh samurai noodle, we almost skipped out on you heading to another ramen place nearby. We almost turned you away because of your low Unilocal reviews. You deserve so much more!
This ramen place has the best ramen broth we have tried in Houston! The ramen is pretty cheap if you don’t add on. However, it comes with less than most places so you end up adding on more and the price goes up. So that’s the only sad thing.
However, the ramen is well worth it! Compared to Tiger Den and Jinya, this place has the most flavorful broth! Yum yum, when can we go back?!