Tampopo Restaurant

Ramen must go if you are in the buena park area! Such great customer service! My friend and i were on our way home from Disneyland, starving & called Tampopo to see if they were still open & they took us even tho last call already passed! The tampopo set was perfect! you cant go wrong coming here!

Been coming here for years now. Don’t really have much choice for a good ramen place in the area. However, lately I’ve been finding the taste and quality starting to dwindle. My usual is the Tampopo ramen with crunch roll. The soup is not as flavorful anymore. However, I must admit, the portion is really good. And it’s a convenient drive for me. So until I find another ramen spot, for now this will do.

LOVE this place. I aways get the spicy miso noodle combo with crunch roll & its sooo good. Especially nice on a rainy day!

I love the vegetable Ramen. I add in chicken for an extra price, but overall I love coming to tampopo before attending my job. There is a little old lady that is super sweet. I love when she is present because she teaches me some Korean words like «thank you» and «hello»

Just had lunch there minutes ago and really enjoyed it. $ 10.99 and i got Spicy Ramen, a healthy side of Fried Rice (which was better than average), and a 3 piece Gyoza (also very good, the ponzu that came with it was perfect). The lady that served me was super nice and friendly. The food came out quick and was hot. The broth just needed a bit of soy and seasoning but all-​in-​all i will be coming back every other week or so since it is just a few miles from my work. Aside from Shin Sen Gumi (the best ramen in the world), i would rank this place right up there with any other ramen spot.
Give it a try!

Walked in at 9pm & was told their last call was at 9:30pm… Was seated right away & was asked 5 mins later if we knew what we wanted. First of all, last call is 9:30pm, we walked in at 9pm: THIRTY MINS BEFORE LAST CALL. The old lady, perhaps the manager was very friendly though. The younger man with Harry Potter like glasses was very rude. Second of all, the hours stated on their door is 11a-​10p… So even if I decided to walk in at 9:50pm, you should still be able to serve me! Lazy ass!!! Oh and get this, he just placed our sushi on the table and served ourselves!!!

People rip on their ramen, but it’s pretty much half the price any place around SoCal. No, it’s not the super-​rich tonkatsu that is becoming the standard out here. I usually order the miso tonkatsu and it can be anywhere from very satisfying to satisfactory. But it doesn’t disappoint if you know what you’re in for. Lighter soup, decent noodles, excellent crispy onion rolls. Their chili paste is to die for. Sesame chicken, fried rice, gyoza: not stellar but consistent and well worth the money. Service is usually great.

tip: listen to your friend when she tells you to avoid this place
I love trying new restaurants and the reviews seemed okay so I decided to try this place out tonight.
Ordered the spicy ramen and crunch roll. The crunch roll came out first and it looked pretty typical. The waiter didn’t give us chopsticks so my friend had to go search for some lol. Then the ramen came out and I was surprised because the size was pretty big. When I looked inside though, it was A LOT of broth compared to the noodles they gave. Tried the broth and I was confused. It tasted like a watered down sullungtang (beef bone soup). The ramen in general was VERY bland and the noodles were overcooked. It tasted more like a watered down Korean ramen than the bold, rich Japanese ramen I was craving. The «crunch» roll had a more soft and chewy texture than crunchy. Also, our server never came to our table to check up on us and never refilled our waters either.
Service, taste, quality was all really bad, I now know if your friend tells you don’t go, there is a reason.

Visited this place for the first time. I really liked their veggie Ramen, the prices aren’t too bad and the service is excellent!

I got the Tampopo ramen and the chicken cutley set. My friend got the spicy ramen. The ramen was terrible. It tasted really bland, and it had a weird taste to it. The spicy ramen was basically the Tampopo ramen with a ton of spicy sauce added into it. I couldn’t finish my ramen because of the smell.
However, the chicken cutlet on the side was delicious. I would recommend another ramen restaurant, but if you had to come here, get the chicken cutlet. It cones with rice and sauce and is pretty good.

The service here is very nice and it’s good food if you want something warm and filling.

Came here for dinner on a Sunday night and was pleasantly surprised. The exterior of the shop isn’t the most impressive and the interior is a little small but it’s clean and well-​kept. The service was good. There was a bit of a language barrier since I only speak English and French. However, the servers were still able to efficiently do their jobs and they were very attentive to all the tables. They noticed our empty water cups and refilled them without us asking them to. The food also came out very quickly. We only had to wait about ten minutes despite how packed the restaurant was at the time. Overall, I would recommend this place and would come here again.

I stopped by here with my family for lunch. Our waitress was very polite, friendly, and attentive to our needs; I’d not needed to ask for a refill – she simply saw the lack of water in my cup, approached, and asked if I’d like to replenish my water supply.
The prices for the restaurant are lovely for lunch, with a menu of select rolls under $ 6 each. I myself had their Nabeyaki Udon – a rich soup of thick cut udon, chicken, egg and a piece of shrimp tempura. We chose two rolls to go along with our orders, which were their Tampopo roll and a crunchy spicy tuna roll.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable, casual place to dine in with decent prices to boot. Sure, the food quality isn’t on par with, say, Hoshi Sushi, but their attentive service and freshly made ramen and udon dishes make this a solid 4 star place in my eyes.

It’s a nice little place with yummy food. I love the different combinations and choices you can make. The tempura and ramen is my favorite. If you’re in the neighborhood stop by and enjoy.

Honestly, I used to come here every weekend for dinner with my parents until the new management changed. This is our first back since then and the service is HORRIBLE.
It took about a half an hour to get our food. We walked in about two minutes after an elderly couple did and they got their food quickly. They were done with their food and LEFT, before we even got our food. My dad had to go up to the lady and ask where our food was since everybody after us has been getting their food. When he had asked where it is, they showed no concern as to how long we had to wait. The worst service I had ever experienced here and I probably would never come back to this location. I would much rather drive a little farther for the same food, but with better service.

I have been coming here for the past couple years and it’s always been the same experience, surprisingly. The food always had a great taste and is served hot and steamy.
I always tend to get the Spicy Ramen with the Sesame Chicken. I come here at least 1/​every two weeks and love the food here.
Some might say this is a horrible place for «Japanese style» ramen but in my opinion I personally love the noodles they use. I will choose this place over Kopan Ramen in Downtown Fullerton. Plenty of parking space and the food is by far much tastier and clean.
Great service and great ramen!

I want to start my review by doing something I’ve never done before and that’s call out another review/​reviewer on this place. There’s a 2 star review by Tina and it is just absolutely ridiculous! She claims that since they sell Japanese food, the servers should not accept tips like they do in Japan??! Is she serious?! Are you kidding us all, Tina? So, should they accept tips in Japan at American restaurants?! Your logic is seriously flawed and I think you need to take down your crazy review. This is America and you are supposed to tip (if the service was acceptable or better) at restaurants. I hope you were joking in your review, but either way, it wasn’t funny so it doesn’t count as joking.
OK​.so, now my review of the place. I’ve been here twice in the past month and it was good, reliable, and not too expensive. I had the tonkatsu (pork cutlet) curry both times and the dish comes with a shredded cabbage salad and a bowl of miso soup. The tonkatsu may be a bit thin, but the curry sauce was good. They also give you a side of radish kimchi, which is perfect with this kind of stuff.
Each time I have gone there, there was only one lady server and she does a decent job. If she gets a lot of customers, she does a good job of handling everybody. I did notice that they turn away customers about half hour before closing, so make sure you get there more than 30 mins before closing.

I have never experience a server chase you out the door to ask you to pay tips (which we did and was added to the credit card bill). RUDE! So rude!
Please know that tip is not mandatory payment, and that only United States pays tips to their server. If you are selling ramen (a speciality food from Japan). You should follow the etiquette of a Japanese Ramen restaurant culture, which is not to tip in a restaurant, because tipping is considered rude in Japan. Apparently the place is run by Korean speaking staff, and they don’t understand the Japanese culture.
I came with my friends to have ramen, hearing was a pretty good place, I ordered the Tampopo ramen combo with California roll (4 pieces), $ 8.99. The soup was not amazing but pretty ordinary. I was expecting flavorful soup, but it was clear and salty, and that was about it. Noodle and the sushi tasted very average, and I have had better ramen and sushi somewhere else.
The two stars was for a decent amount of the noodle in the ramen, a well presented California sushi, I finish all of it because I was hungry, and for a 50% off sushi rolls in which I didn’t order. I most likely won’t come here again, because rude server and average tasting ramen is not something I would want to spent money on.

This is a solid ramen option in the area. You get a good amount of food for your money. The service is ok and the food tastes good. I find it best for me as a lunch option. It is a small place.
I usually get the Curry Cutlet Tampopo. The cutlet is breaded and covered in a curry sauce. It also comes with a side of rice. The last thing is a big bowl of ramen. The cutlet is ok. The curry sauce gives it solid flavor. The ramen is solid too. I am not an expert but I enjoy it. You get a good sized bowl of it.
This is a good lunch or casual dinner option. There is plenty of parking.

Decent Japanese ramen joint in the area if you’re craving ramen. Personally I probably would not go back because I don’t like how there’s a really strong pork smell in the broth. I got their spicy ramen w crunch spicy tuna roll which was just ok. My friend ordered their fried rice and it was just ok. They overused black pepper for the fried rice in my opinion. The service was good and the prices cheap. They also have different ramen combos w pretty decent prices. Overall just an ok ramen place.