Nan Cha Tei

Finding this place was tricky because we were looking for FuFuTei in Monterey Park but we arrived!
I enjoyed my time here and I think I will be coming back! This place is not too big, but decorated with menu items all over the wall. Therefore, you are like pictures… this is a good place go.
I ordered the shin shin ramen, which is the spicy ramen noodles that comes with veggies and seafood (clams and squid). I thought the prices were reasonable and the service was pretty fast. I liked my order, but I think that if you do come here. you have to try to Nan Cha Tei Ramen which is the house special. It comes with this creamy color soup base and is probably one of the more popular noodles. I really liked the egg that they give you because it’s almost cooked, but just a little runny! Delicious! Also, you could always order more noodles for about a buck!
FYI — The bathroom is located outside, which is a little ghetto. Other than that, it was a good ramen place and I’m glad I tried it.

Their ramen is really good, but some of it is a bit salty so if you are afraid of sodium stay away from picking the ramen with miso or shiyo soup bases.
You can also ask them to make it less salty. I love their vast range of selections here, but the choices are too much! It’s really hard to pick a dish here.
It’s not cheap but it won’t break the bank. The portions are large and you’ll be plenty full, but you can always order extra ramen on the side to put into your bowl. I recommend ordering extra ramen only if you have already finished your ramen in the bowl – the noodles get sticky so it’s hard to put in.
I also love getting extra seaweed and pork in my ramen, along with a gyoza side dish if I’m with a group. And of course the Japanese soft drinks like the melon soda are available here.
Their service is good. What’s fun is that you’ll want to come back again and again to try all the different combos and ramen there – it’s impossible to know them all unless you come back at least 10 times!

The relationship between this restaurant and Foo Foo Tei in the City of Industry is mysterious. It started out with the same name and the same wood panel menu on the wall. But if you ask, both restaurants deny any affiliation with the other. Finally, it has changed its name to Nan Cha Tei. It hasn’t taken down the wooden menu but that’s not relevant because you can’t order off it anyway.
My favorite: Hot and Sour Soup. Imagine a real hot and sour soup — pork broth, lots of mushrooms and wood ear fungus and tofu, and then add ramen. It’s completely addictive especially in the winter time. The vinegar and black pepper clear your throat and sinuses and warm you from the inside out.
SO GOOD.

This was our second time here. The bf reviewed the first visit but I wanted to throw in my opinion. The first time we went here, we ordered the Miso with Pork Slices and the Curry Ramen. The Miso had a large helping of vegetables but needed a little salt. The Curry Ramen on the other hand, was full of flavor. I complained a little and so the bf offered to share his Curry Ramen with me. I’m so lucky. :)
On our second trip I debated about ordering the Curry Ramen again or trying something else. I decided to try something new so ordered the Hot and Sour Ramen, while the bf ordered curry with omelet and pork katsu. Both of us loved our dishes. I think that the Curry Ramen may still be the favorite of the three ramens we have tried but I definitely enjoyed the Hot and Sour. I ate beyond being full and loved every minute of it.

This is the worst Ramen house that I have ever been to, my wife and I heard of this place from a TV commercial and decided to give it a try, the service at the begining was ok, and price seems reasonable.
My wife ordered a Veggi Rammen and I ordered a Rammen combination.
The food is too salty, and while eating it, my wife finds a dead fly floating in the soup, we asked the waitress to come take a look and take it away, a few minutes later she comes back and asks us if we want to oreder something else, she said «the fly must have got in by some accident», we said we were not interested in ordering anything else.
Later I asked to speak to the owner, the owner never showed up, the waitress just told me that the owner had some urgent matter to take care of.
I would have at least expected the owner to show up and apologize, we have the right to let him know that this kind of quality and service is not acceptable.
But I guess they just don’t care about losing customers.

Just 2 ½ stars
This place used to be Foo Foo Tei, which I gave a 4 as pretty good ramen place. Now that I think of it, Foo Foo (Monterey Park site) should have been a 3 ½. Anyway, changed ownership, changed name. Basically same menu. I had some of the appetizers plus the cold, soupless noodle dish. I think it’s called hayashi ramen? Appetizers weren’t very good. The noodles were good, but half the dish was that green, gelatinous seaweed that I hate, so threw that all away. I think they just opened, because the wait for this mediocre food was unreasonably long. If I give them another try in a couple months I’ll update this. But in the meantime, I can’t recommend it to Unilocalers. I no longer know of any decent ramen places in MPK. I’ll have to go a little further, to Tamaya, in Alhambra.

A friend of mine introduced me to this place this last week, and I must say it was a pretty good spot to have Ramen. I ordered the Hot and Sour Ramen, which I wanted to compare with with the version I eat at the local chinese restaurant.
Without a doubt, the Japanese Ramen version was far better. The noodles alone are a huge difference and the bowl was hearty, full of veggies; this place did not skimp out on it’s ingredients.
Service was excellent and the environment was pleasant. They have a wide assortment of ramen choices, including Menudo Ramen, which I am quite tempted to try next time because it sounds unique. Location might be a bit hard to find on your first trip to this place because it’s tucked inside the center. My friend had a Tofu Miso Ramen (?) that also looked quite good. I’d say portions for the both of our meals were quite good considering the reasonable price.

Foo Foo Tei For Lunch (soup noodles):
We got here early and waited until they open at 11:30 am. It’s next to Yei Mei (Taiwanese food). The place is clean and the food came out fast. Service was friendly. There wasn’t much people here on a Sunday lunch, maybe there’s too much Chinese restaurants and dim sum nearby.
We ordered the nanchatte special — it came with 1) a bowl of milky nanchatte ramen noodle soup has contains half an egg, two pieces of pork meat, and some other toppings, 2) a two piece potato cake (similar to crab cake, but without the crab), 3) an icy pink calipico drink. Portions are good.
Also ordered the Shin Shin Ramen with the very spicy menu warning… but it was just regular spicy. Both ramen were okay, but I think the Shin Shin ramen was better. The meat in the Nanchatte ramen was kind of overcooked.
Tried the broiled squid. The presentation was awesome when they brought it out, but the taste was just average. The squid could of been more tender.
They have a lot of side orders to choose and a great selection of ramen. I didn’t try the rice, b/​c the other reviews didn’t recommend it.
Will be back again. I think the price for the ramen were a little high. The side orders are very affordable. The waitresses were speaking Cantonese and one of them didn’t, which was unlike the Industry sister restaurant where they all spoke Japanese.
It’s an unique experience.

This is a hole in the wall Japanese noodle place in Monterey Park. The location of the restaurant is quite strange (tucked away next to a staircase), but the quality of the food more than made up for it.
First of all, try their RAMEN! I highly recommend the chanpon ramen. I’ve never had anything this good before! The texture of the noodle is just right, and they serve you with enough seafood to go with all of the noodles. Another dish I’d recommend is the grilled squid. It is delicious and inexpensive! Their rice dish, however, is anything but spectacular.
Overall, I’d recommend this restaurant. The service has consistently been good.

I go to this place often because it’s close to home, the prices are adequate, the waiters are attentive, the food is pretty good, and I never have to wait for a seat.
I have to take a star off because of the setting. It’s in an awkward corner of a small strip mall behind a stairwell, which makes it hard to believe that there’s a restaurant there. The other thing is that the inside is so awkward. They have these semi-​modern track lights to light the booths, the walls are kinda plain and colored in a weird peachish pink color, and there’s this awkward large traditional table in the middle of the room. They need to be on Design on a Dime on HGTV.
But other than that the food is good. I usually order the miso ramen with a mini bowl of egg pork cutlet. I actually like the egg pork cutlet better because I like the way they make their rice, and the egg covered pork cutlet is very good indeed. The ramen is nothing special, and the soup is jus tlike any other miso soup but I still like it.
They have a small bunch of imported japanese soft drinks and they make their own calpico shakes too which are pretty good.

No match compare to Foo Foo Tei of the other location, this ramen fail in two most important area (soup and noodle) both are worst than most ramen place i been. The noodle isn’t made of egg but flour (cheap) the soup is not good at all. The main thing that shine is there’s no line and price and it has combo price, unless you live nearvy i won’t recommanded

I seriously don’t see the appeal to this place. I’ve heard rave reviews how great the ramen is, and how authentic it is to the real thing. But I’m not that impressed by this place at all.
I order the pork miso ramen and my boyfriend order the Nanchatte combo (2 pieces of potato croquette & your choice of pink calpico or ramune) The flavor of both broths were decent, and the noodles were just okay. But I still consider there are better ramen houses out there, in terms of taste and price.
They do offer a huge selection of different types of ramen and appetizers! And we did order the fried sword fish, which was pretty yummy! That and the potato croquette was the only items I was satisfy with!

Met up with Miki W on what I think is becoming a ramen hunt for her.
Plenty of parking out front and around to the side. Place itself is quite simple and quiet. I guess we got there early for dinner because the place was almost empty. I think part of the reason being is that it’s not easily visible from the street because the store front is kind of hidden behind a stairwell. Strange design…
We sat down and both got the Nanchatte combo, which was a ramen with a broth that Miki described as «rich and buttery». It had a couple slices of pork and a couple of other items, but it was mostly ramen and broth. I don’t go to a lot of ramen houses and don’t eat ramen THAT often, but I liked this. I liked the broth. It didn’t seem watery and though it could’ve used a little bit more seasoning, I would’ve slurped the whole thing down was I not in the company of a lady. The ramen was also a nice consistency.
We also got an order of fried chicken and that was good. We both got a can of Calpico which we were given with a cup of ice and a straw.
Would I come back? If was in the area or someone wanted to try it, sure. But there are a few ramen houses that are closer to me.

This was the best ramen place in the Monterey Park before Daikokuya opened in Monterey Park. Beyond this I would head over to Little Tokyo to either Daikokuya (#1), Koraku, Orochon, or even Tamaya in Alhambra. But I’m happy to have Foo Foo Tei as another ramen choice on the east side.
They have a very good selection of ramen flavors and ingredients from the basic shio (salt), miso, and soy to my favorite which is hot and sour ramen. It took me about 6 months before I took a chance on the hot and sour ramen as it just sounds weird to me. But I like it a lot as it’s not really very sour but it does pack some heat. It has some density which makes it more satisfying with egg drop in it. To be honest I was a little bored until I tried the hot and sour — i would recommend it for something different and good.
They expanded the menu from when it first opened so now you can get all kinds of side dishes or entrees other than ramen. I usually share my ramen so I can order a few other items. The fried rice is a little weak compared to other ramen places, but I still order it as a combo option with the salad. The ginger beef dish is tasty, and it’s nice to be able to order a little broiled fish (saba), fried chicken, tonkotsu, natto, or curry to go with some steamed rice.
i haven’t had a bad ramen or food here yet. The only issue is that parking can sometimes be a problem and that it can fill up as the restaurant is relatively small.

I was impressed with many choices of ramen available on the menu. The prices are decent and ramen was a good size.
I chowed down the tasty ramen and found a STAPLE among the noodles in my mouth. The staple poked the roof of my mouth and I was bleeding.
I pulled out the staple and spitted whatever was in my mouth to show it to the owner. He apologized and said that it was accidentally dropped into the ramen.
Check before you eat to make sure that you are not getting additional ingredient of Foo Foo Tei stationary supplies in your bowl of ramen. Be careful…

I haven’t been here recently even though it’s only a few minutes from my house. I usually head over to Shinsegumi or Orochon for ramen now, but Foo Foo Tei is honestly okay. In my opinion, their ramen isn’t anything special, but it isn’t bad either.
They have a decent variety of ramen/​foods. The service was good. The place is pretty small, so it’s tough to not have decent service. Overall, if you’re craving some ramen or some Japanese food in general, Foo Foo Tei is a decent place to satisfy your hunger.

The restaurant is cluttered and feels dirty.
I don’t know about you, but something about a filthy restaurant just kills my appetite. Although, I do give them props for having a wide variety of ramen, it just didn’t taste good.
My Suggestion:
Grab a Cup-​of Noodle to tie you over and take that $ 7 you saved and use it towards gas to get some real ramen in J-​town «Daikokuya.»

Didn’t dig the noodles nor the broth.
I came here a while back, so I don’t know if it has improved. Everything tasted bland and/​or weird. My palates were utterly confused. It tasted like a bowl of Chinese-​styled top ramen. The only thing missing was wontons.
Based on rameniac’s review, the OTHER foo foo tei (the originator) is actually really good. I think it’s in the Hacienda Heights area.
It has never hit the spot from the few times I’ve visted. I will continue to make the extra drive through heavy traffic and no parking for Daikokuya, Hakata, and my newly found Santouka.

From the other japanese noodle places around here… I think this is the best one. With authenticity and variety. My fav is the creamy based soup… I forgot what it was called. I get it every time. The fish dishes are good there too. If you go at a good time, theres hardly a wait.

I heard they changed owners… and now the food is crap.
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Place is good and its just «down the street». The ramen isn’t that great but the rice dishes are good. I usually rotate between a couple of dishes
1) Miso Salmon with rice set
2) Beef Teriyaki Bowl
3) Chicken Teriyaki Plate
4) Katsu-​don
Service is friendly… maybe because I’m a regular. They always give me a pitcher of water cuz I save no water for the fish. Prices are decent… around 6 – 9 dollars a person for dinner without a drink. The entrees come with a salad (orange sauce) and miso soup.
This place is probably one of my favorite local japanese restaurants.