Kappo Nara Ramen

It’s the best ramen I have had in this area. It has a similar flavor of the famous Japanese 「一風堂」ramen that I had in Osaka. The restaurant is clean and comfortable and has ample parking spaces. The staff is friendly.

Definitely recommend coming here, lunch or dinner! Best family run Japanese spot in Norfolk! I come here on just about a weekly basis, and everything from the service to the food is consistently great.
The food: great quality and price. Spicy miso is the absolute best. I can barely finish a whole bowl because they are so big! All their appetizers are delicious, especially the hamachi kama and chicken karaage. Also, no other Japanese restaurants have corrokke; I’m extremely happy they have them here. The food always comes out great, never different and never anything wrong. They also have an option for vegan noodles.
The service: super friendly and fast waitresses always greet me and make sure everything’s okay while I’m eating. I never have to ask for drink refills, napkins, etc. They always are on top of things.
Small restaurants like this are definitely my go-​to instead of giant chain restaurants. You’ll see the same staff, and they’ll treat you as family, with more respect instead of as money signs. It’s important to support local business.

We ate here while visiting my daughter and absolutely LOVED it. My husband and I ordered an appetizer and Ramen to share between us. He chose the Ika Sansai (Marinated octopus &
seaweed salad) and I chose the Spicy Miso. I was pleasantly surprised that the octopus was not as bouncy as a lot I’ve had before (squid too!). Whatever the dressing was that they used, was perfect. The Spicy Miso was, well… pretty damn spicy! My mouth was tingly for quite a while! All in all, VERY good!!!

This establishment is by far one of the most authentic ramen places I have had in the local area. The food was quick, hot, and definitely delisious. There was only one hiccup with our order and the management handled it better than I thought they would. They took my order completely off of my ticket which I thought was very generous. I highly recommend this place.

I’ve been a fan of this place since they first opened. It makes a huge difference when a Japanese restaurant is ran by owners who actually lived in Japan. The service is always great and the food comes so quickly.
I always order the Shoyu ramen, which is Soy based. Just the aroma coming off makes my mouth water. I’ve also tried their Curry and Grilled Saba (Mackerel) and boy, thinking about those dishes makes me want to pay a visit real soon. Ghent is lucky to have an authentic Japanese restaurant in their area.

Let me start by saying the food itself is fine. Not the best ramen, but not bad either. The décor is whatever, and ambience is easy going.
My real problem is with the girls who work there. The first time we went, the service was fine. Our waitress was great. However, the second time we went, we were greeted hastily by a waitress who sat us down with the menus, walked away for maybe one minute, and rushed back asking «DO YOU GUYS KNOW WHAT YOU WANT YET?» and when we said we needed some more time, she made a face and walked away. Now, I’m not a snob, by any means, but the tone and lackadaisical attitude started our meal off to a bad start.
Two minutes later, the girl returns again asking if we know what we want yet and we order. Then she asks, again in an annoyed tone, if we want any appetizers. We say no thank you.
Flash forward to when we receive our food, I begin to hear chatter with the waitresses in the background increasing. I get there are moments where one may get bored during their shift, but to loudly talk about partying, getting drunk, and talking about guys as if they are in high school is something that no one really cares to listen to while trying to eat. Grow up and be a tiny bit professional.
But here comes the best part. While halfway through our meal, a group of nicely dressed young women walk in and good god, the stink eyes and the nasty faces the waitresses and (presumably) owner/​manager of the restaurant that were made were so ridiculous, I started laughing. It was like being in middle school again. Now, I get the resting bitch face. It happens and this is what was happening to these girls. But to put the cherry on top, the waitresses begin to talk smack about the group of women who walked in, making negative comments about their outfits and how they «would NEVER wear that.»
It’s a shame. This place could be great and has decent enough food but I will not be returning any time soon, nor will I suggest anyone go. The complete unprofessionalism and lack of maturity at this place is astounding, to say the least. So if you want decent ramen, go to Alkaline instead. Way better food, way better employees.

What can I say, I was excited to try it when I saw the place and then saw the reviews when I looked it up later. I love miso! And their soups are miso based, and you can add chile oil to bump up the spice level. I love the house ramen noodles. I haven’t tried their rice dishes, which are probably healthier, but I can say the ramen is delicious. I like to add fishcakes (what are those made of anyways??) and shiitake mushrooms. On a whim I tried the fried squid legs (way different than calamari)…I wish I could say they were terrible because I’m sure they aren’t easy on the waist line, but they were amazing! I also have to comment on the customer service side. Very polite and impersonal, know the menu, and give accurate times on how long the food will take to prepare (is it just me or do so many places tell you 20 mins and it will be an hour???) An Extra bonus is that everybody who answers the phone speaks English well. I don’t mean to sound like I think everybody should be able to speak English, not at all, but I enjoy being able to ask their input and opinions over the phone and getting some insight.
I do think that I went to the one in Kempsville though, so maybe the experience is different other places.

3.8 *** I was extremely excited when this place first opened around 2014. Nothing sounds more exciting than a ramen joint here in the Hampton Roads area especially after living in Japan for five years. I mean, there is so much more to Japanese cuisine than sushi ;)
Whenever I come here, my go to ramen is the Tonkatsu because it’s the closest to the ramen I’ve experienced in Japan. After coming here a handful of times, I would say that this is a very fun place to go and take friends to especially if they’ve never had ramen but I wouldn’t really call this place authentic. Close … But no cigar.
It’s still delicious though. However, they do have some vegan options which is great! Also, when the first opened they gave out a lot of free stuff. There are 2 Kappo Nara’s now and the one near ODU offers student discount. Thankful for its existence in the Hampton Roads area & the service is okay

I’ve eaten here a few times over the past year, and I must say this is an excellent little treasure in ghent to experience. When you first walk in there are strips of beads falling through to get to the main dining entrance so you have to pull them back and walk though to get inside. Everytime I do so I feel like I’m making a fabulous grand arrival and I live for it, but I digress … on to the food.
My first time here I had lunch Xerxes and ordered the corrokke fried potoato cakes and fell in love with them; The sauce they use with them is magical. (They were so good thay they were the only reason I went the sencond time.) During my first visit I also got a bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen; however, I wasn’t crazy about it. This wasn’t because it wasn’t good, I think it was honeslty because I’m just not a huge fan of Ramen. While we were dining, the ladies gave use a sample of their curry on top of a rice ball and it was delicious, so much so that it made me want to come back and try a bigger portion, so during my most recent visit I did exactly that.
I ordered the pork katsu curry and of course the corrokke because they’re my fave. Everything was excellent and it was so nice to see this place offeres more than just excellent ramen for those like me who are not huge fans.
Service here is also always friendly and on point from what I see. Your waiter/​waitress will constantly check up on you during your meal and ask if you need a refill. All in all, what I’m saying is you have to try this place at least once, weather you like ramen or not. Just order accordingly and you won’t be dissappointed.

My last visit here with my co-​worker was sadly disappointing. She enjoyed her ramen, but I did not enjoy my curry. It was served with ice cold rice! But why!!! We also weren’t as warmly greeted as I usually am when I come with my husband. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but the curry was such a disappointment. It didn’t have much content and the pickled side was so little. And, again, the rice was cold! I should’ve stuck to the ramen.

The fam got the Shoyu ramen, I opted for the Spicy Miso, no extras. We recalled that ramen is filling, so no appetizers were ordered. Man, the spicy is not for novices! I love spicy anything. Two napkins for my runny nose, two green teas later, I was able get it all down. I’d do it all over!

I went to a Unilocal Elite event here a few weeks ago and wasn’t sure what to expect. knew this restaurant was here but never ventured in. My only basis of knowledge for ramen before tonight was the hard 45 cent bricks college kids eat. I’m so glad real ramen is nothing like that!
Well, it was so good on the event night we went back a week later. We have now tried the spicy miso Ramen and the curry Ramen. Both delicious! The fried octopus, the Japanese sausages and the pork gyoza were very yummy appetizers. We also got the potato cakes but they weren’t to our taste. So far we haven’t had any desert.
If you like Asian food I’d highly recommended coming here and branching out your taste buds.

I’m glad I was able to make this event. This was my first time reading real ramen and I enjoyed it very much.
They started is off with multiple samples which were delicious. All of these samples would complement the ramen. We had sausages, beans, stuffed cakes ect. The ramen they served was curried. The broth was outstanding. I like the fact it had a bit of a kick.
The service was excellent. The staff was friendly, knowledgeable and funny.
I also need new purple at this particular meet up. I think it’s good to sit with different people at the events. We also got some cool trinkets as well. I’m a definite fan of ramen and will return.

I’m still learning the ways of ramen. Those were my opening words in my original review in September of 2014.
Fast forward to today. I have learned a little more about ramen since then and can now justify an upgrade to a 5-​star rating. This is based upon my evolving appreciation of the taste and texture of their ramen dishes, as well as the authenticity of their preparation in accordance with Japanese tradition.
Their authenticity is immediately evident in the preparation of their eggs. Their ramen dishes are served with the traditional soft boiled egg, as served in Japan. This is in marked contrast to the sous vide style poached eggs used in some restaurants which serve a nontraditional style of ramen. Some ramen purists call it hipster ramen.
The soft boiled eggs in the ramen dishes I have sampled here exhibit a greater texture and visual definiton, with a creamy, runny, and brightly translucent yolk that oozes right into the broth. This is what I like to see, as the photos shown below will illustrate.
In contrast, the poached eggs in the ramen dishes I have sampled elsewhere tend to reduce the whites to a liquified mass underneath the broth and render the yolks invisible from being already absorbed into the broth. The texture of the egg is decimated .When it comes to ramen, the traditional soft boiled egg gets the win in my book.
My favorite ramen dish here still remains the following:
SPICY MISO RAMEN: Prepared with a miso base, pork broth, and chili oil, it is served with spicy ground pork, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, soft boiled egg, chopped scallions, and nori. I also like to order some red ginger to go with it.
It is my passion and high tolerance for hot and spicy foods which repeatedly draws me to this one. They now offer it in three levels of heat strengths: Single X for regular hot, Double XX for extra hot, and Triple XXX for extremely hot.
The regular Single X is a bit too mild for me. The Double XX is just right and makes my hot tooth sing happily throughout while slurping through the entire bowl and even driving home afterwards.
I had the Triple XXX one time, and it made my hot tooth sing a little louder, almost to the point of screaming. I almost met my match, but I like a challenge and will try it again soon. Oh, it burns so good!
One thing is for certain. They don’t wimp out on the heat here with their Double XX and Triple XXX versions. I applaud this and encourage them to continue to bring on the burn for those who ask for it. I love it.
For the sake of variety, I recently tried an entirely different ramen dish from their menu:
KURO (BLACK TONKOTSU) RAMEN: Prepared with a Tonkotsu base, pork broth, and black sesame paste, it is served with chasu pork, bamboo shoots, fish cakes, red ginger, soft boiled egg, shredded scallions, ki-​kurage, and nori.
I loved the rich black broth that was prepared for this one. The chasu pork was tender and delicious. Each of the other ingredients combined very well with this dish to form a most pleasant and unusual symphony of flavors.
The broth in both of theeae ramen dishes has been rich, thick, and flavorful. Their ramen noodles have been cooked to perfection with a thick and spongy texture which has held up well under their broths.
The following appetizer was also ordered during a recent visit:
IKA SANSAI: Marinated Squid and Seaweed Salad. This dish was colorful, delicious, and refreshing. The squid was tender and easy to chew.
There are some kitchens which have not mastered the art of cooking squid, where it has been tough and difficult to chew. Their kitchen has clearly mastered the art here.
I now consider myself a regular. In future visits, I plan to try some at least a couple more of their ramen varieties, as well some more of their appetizers and other dishes.

Great place for what I hear is the closest you will get to real Ramen from Japan.
During lunch, a colleague of mine went and enjoyed some Ramen on a cold day. I ordered the Vegetable Ramen and she the Spicy Ramen. As someone who doesn’t really enjoy meat, I’d say her Ramen blew mine out the water. Don’t get me wrong, the Vegetable Ramen was great but boy, all the flavors in the broth of her Spicy Ramen woke my sinuses and me right up!
Luckily they opened up a new location in the Kempsville area so I hope everything is still the same.

It’s getting cold, and the soup season is on! This was also the first time I try the ramen idea, so I was excited for it!
Food:
We ordered the Corokke as an appetizer to start off. Note: there are only two that come with the serving. The flavor was pretty good, but I feel like we didn’t get the full experience since they came out a little cold. However, the flavor and the sauce/​dip (whatever you call it) went pretty well with it. I ordered the Tonkatsu, which the variety of ingredients in the soup blended really well! I have to admit that the fish cakes looked different than what I’m used to, but tasty nonetheless. I’ve never tried chashu marinade, but it was definitely good, I could have it as a dish by itself! Spice it up with chili oil, it goes well! The lady tried the Spicy Miso, and she like it a lot! I only tried the broth, and the spicy hint with the miso went super well.
Service + ambience:
The lady attending us was on top of it. She was attentive, and never had to call her over for refills. I loved the music they were playing, it electronic lounge and it was very soothing.

We came here after my boyfriend’s disappointment with the Alkaline menu. He took one look at it and said, «If we eat here, I will still be hungry. I need more options.»
Now, my boyfriend is big on ramen. He lived in Japan for a few years and knows how this stuff is supposed to taste. Kappo Nara Ramen comes close to what he’s looking for. It just happens to be close by where he lives. His absolute favorite spot is in Chesapeake and it is called Daikichi Sushi Bistro. But again, Kappo Nara Ramen comes close.
When we arrived here, we were immediately greeted and offered seating of our choice. We have been here a few times and noticed that they had more options on their menu. They also had a small summer menu available which was cool.
Our waitress noticed that we were on Unilocal and we all shared a laugh. I can’t remember her name but she was very friendly and attentive.
I ordered the garden salad, vegetable dumplings, and vegetable ramen. I love their salad and the dumplings were absolutely delicious. The ramen noodles were perfectly prepared. The bean sprouts were fresh and crispy.
My complaints are that the vegetable ramen lacks a variety of vegetables. It’s loaded with corn and one tasteless rubbery mushroom. I love the bean sprouts but I always request to not have any of the bamboo. I’m just not a fan of the bamboo. It takes me forever to chew it. It was flavorful but I’d highly recommend that they provide a variety of vegetables in this dish. Also, where is the vegetable tempura? That’s a must have for me whenever I go to a Japanese restaurant.
We will certainly be returning, but I surely hope that they improve their vegetable ramen and add vegetable tempura to their menu.

Rainy day makes me crave for some ramen. Off to this place we went since there’s only a handful of places that have it. We got greeted and seated immediately.
A look over the menu, there’s a bunch of items to choose from. For the appetizer, we got an order of rice balls filled with salmon. Simple, yet tasty. There were two rice balls which was enough for my boyfriend and I to share. I added some Japanese spice found on the table to my rice ball after a bite just to make it a bit different. I kind of wished there was a SPAM option since it reminded me of some SPAM musabi.
For entrée, we got big bowls of my Miso Ramen and boyfriend’s Tonkatsu Ramen. The broth was big on flavor and I felt like I got enough of all the ingredients to throughly enjoy it. Mine came with some sliced pork, corn, bean sprouts, seaweed, and a boiled egg. My only wish was that I could have more meat options to add to it. Boyfriend really enjoyed his as well. I think we was leaning to try the black tonkatsu, but wanted to make sure we enjoyed what he ordered. Our waitress assured him to try it the next time as the difference is only the black sesame paste which makes it a tad sweeter in broth flavor.
Service was friendly. Our waitress gave us some great suggestions and seemed to really know the menu when we asked about portions size, etc. There looked to be some confusion between her and another guy as to who was gonna take care of us, but both were friendly so we’d be happy with whoever.
This seems for of a tried and true ramen place in the area, but they also serve non ramen items. A nice local operation and perfect for a rainy day.

I totally love this place!
I’ll start by saying that I’m not really a «soup» kinda girl per say; I don’t like Phở, «broth-​y» soups, any typical noodle soups usually. When I do order soups at restaurants, it’s usually more the «bisque» type, anything thicker.
Well, for a random «FriDate» that my boyfriend and I went on, we ended up here. More because of recommendations from friends and pictures I’ve seen. Neither of us had ever tried «gourmet» Ramen before!
So we arrived, walked in, and right away I noticed that it’s not a huge place. Probably super busy when the regular dinner rush happens. We were greeted hello by pretty much everyone working. We sat & looked at the menu right away.
We ordered the Chicken Yakitori for our appetizer and liked it a lot — the meat was very tender, juicy, and had a nice, light flavor to it. Not overly seasoned at all. He ordered the Tonkatsu Ramen, loved it, and I ordered Miso Ramen — it came with pork, corn, bean sprouts (which I removed), & a soft boiled egg. I added «Fish Cakes» and you will totally laugh when I say that the reason I requested those to be added to my ramen bowl is «because I want to finally use that emoji!» (On Instagram of course. If you have an iPhone, you know which emoji I’m talking about. Lol.) Anyway, I LOVED my bowl of ramen! The noodles were great and the broth was so good. Perfect combination. My favorite part had to be the soft boiled egg. It was so creamy and just added that extra «oomph» to the meal. Maybe next time I’ll request an extra egg & not fish cakes since those to me didn’t have much flavor.
The staff is really nice too. Our waitress was friendly and very attentive.
I’m a new fan of this place & totally recommend it to everyone. I’m also really excited abt the one opening in the Kempsville/​Providence area of Virginia Beach, closer to home. Yay!
And as I said in my Instagram post, I totally felt like Naruto! Lol. If you have watched even one episode of that animé series, you’ll know what I mean. :)

Ramen, ramen, ramen… You weren’t even on my radar until my west coast friends were tempting me with their food porn. Words like «Spicy Miso» and «Tonkotsu» that stuck in my mind, making me search for a bowl of good ramen. Originally, I was out of luck because we had no Japanese ramen shop here in Hampton Roads, but it wasn’t until about four months ago when Kappo Nara Ramen (KNR) opened up in Norfolk. *The crowd cheers!* I’ve been there twice now and I’m happy to share with you my experience.
KNR is located in Ghent on 21^st Street – it’s in a strip mall, and has plenty of parking. The first time I went alone, I sat at the bar – the second was with my oldest son at a table. Both times, I received fantastic and friendly customer service. Kappo Nara Seafood & Sushi Restaurant in Newport News is their first location (although a different menu – no ramen), and looking at their reviews on Unilocal,it seems to be that service is one of their top priority.
I knew I wanted to try both their Spicy Miso and Tonkotsu, but I had a hard time deciding. On my virgin ramen voyage, I went with the Spicy Miso (spicy ground pork, bamboo shoots, egg, bean sprouts, green scallions, and nori). I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I started to cough with that first sip, but after that, I enjoyed the spicy-​ness. On the second trip, I tried Tonkotsu (Chashu pork, egg, fish cakes, bamboo, red ginger, white scallions, and nori) and that was even more amazing. Let’s talk about the broth: both Spicy Miso and Tonkotsu had such a depth and complexity of flavor that is out of this world; this is a whole other dimension compared to chicken soup. I would love to take a bath in milky Tonkotsu. The noodles were wonderful, too – perfect texture of chewy and firm. (OMG! Factor)
During lunch, KNR gives you a complimentary item with your meal. On my first time, they brought me a Basil Vegetable Dumpling and it was delicious. The second time they gave me a rice ball that had sesame seeds and nori. I didn’t taste it (I’m not a fan of nori – don’t hate), but my son did and he said it needed some seasoning. Maybe it’s supposed to dunk in the ramen? We also ordered Gyoza (pan-​fried pork dumplings), which looked like handmade. They were good, although not as much flavor as I expected, but the soy dipping sauce was the bomb!
Lastly, value you ask. Well, it is a bit pricy for a bowl of noodles – most are around $ 12. I will say the bowl is large and quality of the food is worth it. I know it’s expensive compared to places in California, but they have ramen shops all over. I hope you try KNR – don’t miss out on one of the best flavors I’ve ever tasted!