Shizuma Ramen

Ordered chicken katsu curry. Large portions good seasonings and service.

Watched a dollar movie near by and didn’t even know this place was here. Figured we’d drop in after the movie. but that was a misake.
The ramen just wasn’t good, period.
Only plus I can mention is that they gave me some free ice tea drink.
The staff was nice but sorry the food just wasn’t up to par.

I was actually on my way to another ramen joint but due to some heavy traffic and since I was very impatient, I had to change plans and pretty much find the nearest one. And I’m glad Unilocal led me here.
Where else can you get a ramen combo for about $ 10. Yep, ramen, a side salad and a small side dish so I chose the gyoza.
The tan tan ramen was pretty good, spicy. Never had ground pork on ramen before. But it was decent. And they weren’t skimpy on the meat either. The broth was very soothing, hot and spicy.
The salad was petite but it didn’t distract you from the main course, so I was satisfied. The gyoza was a little off. Not sure what seasoning they put on as the coating but, it wasn’t bad either. Neither good nor bad. But I still ate it.
I was curious about their rice bowls so I also ordered a spicy pork rice bowl to go. For about $ 7, you get over a pound of rice and pork. However it wasn’t at all spicy. Maybe it was just my taste buds telling me this, but I could tell the difference. My tan tan ramen was spicy, but my spicy pork rice bowl was not.
I was still pleased with the ramen and the fact that it was cheap with the combo was also a plus. I would probably skip out on the rice bowls too. Service was pretty good. Ambiance was decent. I like the Japanese music in the background and the Japanese paper lamps were cute too.
I hear the spicy beef ramen is good. I’ll come back and try it out.

NOTE: As of July 2012 this place is now 17 Café Ramen
I’m probably scoring this place with more stars than it deserves.
We went here for lunch. Only about a dozen tables in the restaurant. The décor was simple yet comfortable. Japanese pop music was quietly playing. One woman was taking care of everything in the front of the house. I must say that she was very efficient, unexpectedly friendly, and took the time to check on us a couple of times.
I got the curry pork plate. Salad, rice, breaded pork (tonkatsu) — all were decent and I had no major complaints (although I’ve had better). The curry sauce had a slight spiciness to it but was a bit too runny.
I’m not rating based on my wife’s meal but it is worth noting to ramen lovers that this might not be the best place to come. I forget which ramen she got but she said the broth was not very good and the noodles were only a step above top ramen (she ate a few but left most of them). Her experience was more of a «one star» affair.

Some reviews say this place is cheap. No it’s not. They are overcharging on INSTANT NOODLES that would cost $ 0.25 at 99 Ranch.
You can buy a packet yourself from the grocery store and add your own toppings for three times less than what Shizuma charges you.
I’m sad seeing some high reviews for this place. That’s means you haven’t experienced better. If you want real ramen, try Shin Sen Gumi’s, Santouka, or Kairakutei. Or even, dare I say it, Ajisen, because at least they don’t try to serve you instant noodles.

This is one of those hole in the wall ramen places that you aren’t really sure about. It’s located in the strip mall next to Phở Bac next to the Mexican place. The menu can be described as your typical Americanized Japanese style options with rice bowls, bento boxes, and ramen.
This place is called Shizuma Ramen so we had to try out the signature ramen right? Well i can just say it’s very average if not below average ramen at best. The miso broth tastes like something you get from those instant noodle packets with a very one dimensional salty flavor. The noodles themselves definitely are from packets and aren’t semi chewy like freshly cooked noodles from somewhere like shinsengumi. The Chashu pork itself was slightly on the dry side. The extra added bamboo shoots was seasoned in a super sweet and salty soy vinegar based sauce.
The service was also pretty spotty with quite a delay, a good 5 minutes just even get our menus. We just stood up and went to get the paper to-​go menu’s instead at the door.
I would say if you want authentic or even semi authentic Ramen at least go to Ajisen or simply go to the Asian market and buy a pack from the freezer and cook it yourself at home because that’s pretty much the quality of ramen you’re going to get here.

Odd. The reviews here are really mixed, and before you let this one-​star review deter you, notice my two previous reviews of 3 and 4 stars.
Unfortunately, upon my most recent visit, I experienced something that nobody should ever have to experience either in a restaurant or any place in their lives.
The restaurant smelled of raw sewage. When I brought it to the manager’s attention, he just said in a very casual way, «Yeah, sometimes the pipes leak because the plumbing is so old.»
Uh…okay…I guess I’ll just deal with it then?
The place smelled as if someone had just vomited all over the walls and floor. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the onslaught of fecal odor and putrefaction was more than enough to make me throw up a little in my mouth.
As far as the food is concerned, I’ve brought a friend (on a previous visit that did not stink of vomit) who is visiting from Japan here on several occasions and he says that the food is good. I’m not sure if he’s just being nice but he seems to be genuine. *shrug*
I’m as white as Irvine so I wouldn’t know any different.
But what I DO know is that the stench of the place and the nonchalance of the management regarding the rancidity in the air speaks volumes.
I’m sorry, Shizuma. It may very well be the fault of the property manager and it would be unfair to hold you responsible, but if your restaurant wreaks of stomach contents and diarrhea, I advise that you not open for business that day/​night. It really is beyond any level of repulsion that I’ve experienced in any restaurant, and that says a lot.
Sad to say I won’t be returning.

Meh. Came here with coworkers on a lunch break again, hence my lowered standards haha. I got the vegetable ramen with spicy miso. The broth was decent. Noodles, al dente — good enough for me. But seriously their idea of vegetable is canned corn with some shreds of carrot. Really? All my other coworkers (4) got the spicy beef ramen. They seemed to like it enough.
I“d prefer going to mentatsu or santouka, farther but much more worth it.

We read the reviews on the broth so we wanted to check the place out. It was definitely different.
We tried there shoyu pork ramen combo and substituted the shoyu for the tonkotsu. The broth had a smokiness and a strong salty bite to it. Halfway through the meal we were salted out. It didn’t have anything like traditional tonkotsu which is a bad thing for us.
The noodles were okay.
The meat was plentiful and pretty normal. They didn’t taste old, it had a thicker cut, and it was a little leaner than most places.
The pork fried rice on the side was better than average. It had more of a Chinese style to it.
The restaurant itself was a little more americanized. Pop music playing and baseball on the big screen. The service was nice, and they checked on us on occasion. Wish the lemon didn’t come in the water though.
In the end we ended up wanting to give this place a 2 ½ star rating but the broth really took away from what was a pretty decent ramen.

I’ve been a few times but I’ve yet to order anything outside of the Tantanmen and fried rice. Not because the other stuff is bad but there aren’t that many places that offer it as a menu item. It’s very similar to mabo ramen just without the tofu.
However, the noodles aren’t particularly exceptional and outside of the tantanmen, I haven’t been wowed by their other broths (when I’ve sampled any of my friends’ broths) and their gyoza is just good. Also, the service is a bit hit or miss.
However, the portions are huge, the prices are reasonable and it gives you a decent noodle option in the Irvine area when you are looking for ramen. It’s basically the minimum I expect from a ramen restaurant but I won’t go writing home about it.
Cheers!

My Love and I visited here a couple of weeks ago, as a random stop on the way home. Ramen sounded good so we saw it off the road on Barranca and flipped a U-​ey to come back to it.
We were both nicely suprised!
I tried the Chicken Miso Ramen. It wasn’t too salty, the broth was flavored perfectly, and there was ample slices of juicy roasted chicken, both light and dark meat. The half hard boiled egg was marinated in the broth and the mushrooms and other vegetables were a really nice compliment. I ordered a side of tofu with it, and it was delicately flavored, and very delicious.
My guy had the Chicken Curry plate. It was was a nice looking plate, with ample servings of rice and entrée. I tried a bite and it was very reminicent of The Curry House dish. (Also in Irvine on Culver).
The location is small, but spacious. Nice huge plasma TV to gaze at while you sip your soup. Service was friendly and helpful. Would definately go back.

This is more of a 2.5 stars… because this place is just average, in a town where good Ramen is so abundant.
Get it right though, this is still no maruchan, nissin type of place… the broths are decent (I have tried the shoyu and spicy miso) and most meats (pork, beef, fish cake, etc, even veggie) are pretty good. I prefer their tantan (spicy pork) and their fish cake over anything.
The noodles are a little to al-​dente for me… I like my noodles a little firm, but not that firm! It could have been just the two times I went there… but maybe my luck will change.
I have yet to try the other 2 broths on the menu, maybe those will change this young Ramen-​lovers mind on going 4 stars!
This establishment is located between Philly’s best, and Phở Bac Co. Parking is hard during peak meal hours, as is this place’s waiting time because the size (9 total tables).

Shizuma Ramen is a very good ramen-​ya (ramen restaurant) for those who really feel like they need a good hearty bowl of ramen.
Being someone who has tried ramen in many places, including Japan, Shizuma is pretty good for not being exactly «Japanese.» Their noodles are not entirely authentic and neither is their dashi (ramen soup). Regardless, Shizuma Ramen is able to pull their ramen off in their own unique and still savory way.
Shizuma Ramen has very impressive side dishes, better than those of many Japanese restaurants I have been to. Some of my favorites include their gyoza, chowhan (fried rice), and their agedashi dofu (fried tofu) with signature sauce and scallions.
The waiters and waitresses do their best to be helpful… the first time I went there, we struck a very fun conversation with one of the waitresses. Upon finding out that we were Japanese, she told us that she had been studying some Japanese, and she tested some of her Japanese on us!
Overall, although it is not an authentic Japanese restaurant, it’s a simple establishment with basic ramen, delicious side dishes, and waiters and waitresses who do their best to please you :-)

I’ve been to many ramen houses, from Japan town in San Fransisco to J-​Town in Los Angles and in between. I loves me a good bowl of proper ramen.
I was happy to find this little joint in a strip mall in Irvine one cold night around 9:30pm. I give this place two thumbs up just for the fact they stay open until 10pm. In an area where everything closes by 9pm this was quite a find.
Although I prefer pork based broths, I tried their «Spicy Beef Ramen» due to it being their signature dish… it was perfect. From the broth, not too spicy but well balanced and full of deep flavor and filled with soft slowly braised beef and perfectly cooked noodles. I even think this place can survive with the big boys in J-town…check it out if you’re in Irvine.

Too lazy to drive deep into LA or too scared to maneuver through asiaville without risking fender benders for good quality ramen? Sick of the instant cup/​bag/​bowl noodles? Venture here for your quick fix. Good sized bowl for a decent price. The broth isn’t as rich in flavor as I craved, but it did the trick for a rainy gloomy day here in Irvine.
Got the charsu tonkatsu pork ramen. Came with the usuals — bamboo, egg, like 2 – 3 large slices of pork, and fried shallots in their pork broth. Could have used a lil more flavor. We asked for chili powder and oil. I used a lot of both to spruce up the broth.
El muchacho got the spicy beef shoyu ramen. Not as spicy as we wanted it to be. Beef was tender though… and it came with some greens, which is always a plus for us. He also added some chili powder and oil to kick the heat up a notch cuz it wasn’t spicy enough.
Got the chicken katsu to share because we knew there wouldn’t enough meat in our bowls. What’s with ramen places scrimping on the meat? We need our protein, man! Anyway, it’s your typical katsu on a bed of very thinly sliced cabbage served with a sauce sweeter than L&L’s.
Service is great. Friendly waitress who helped us pick out our choices and was right on point in refilling our drinks and making sure we had everything we needed.
Don’t think I’ll be coming back because there are soooo many other ramen joints I still want/​need to try. Even though the prices are cheaper than most places, I’d rather pay a few more bucks to get some higher quality ramen. No hard feelings, Shizuma Ramen. There’s just so many other fishies in the sea.

All I can say is WOW! I’d seen this place and didn’t even get the chance to look on Unilocal and we decided to just give it a try. I was so skeptical I made everyone order something different just in case we’re all stuck with eating something dismal and I’m glad I did that.
For a ramen place, the ramen was absolutely vile. The noodles were the same type used for HK Cantonese style won ton noodles or ‘gan sui’ noodles which are made with alkaline/​lye water which gives it a distinctive taste. This type of noodles absolutely DOES NOT go with the broth of the ramen, and speaking of the broth of the ramen, it was watery and weak, very tasteless!
We got the Shizuma ramen — not my choice — which had ground pork, chasu, shrimp, bamboo, scallions and half an egg. The chasu was dry and when one compares it to Santouka, there is just no comparison.
Like some of the other reviewers, I was seriously hoping that Irvine would get a decent ramen place, but sadly, it was worse than Ajisen which I thought was already mediocre.
The other thing we ordered was the teriyaki chicken bento box which was actually edible. Upon further inspection, the chicken had been precooked in a marinate, similar to soy sauce chicken and then doused with a teriyaki sauce. The bento comes with gyoza, salad and miso soup. Gyoza were your usual frozen gyozas you can get at the Asian grocery store and the miso soup was served lukewarm.
They also offer handrolls here and I got the salmon skin handroll. The rice was warmer than it should be and the nori was completely destroyed by the time it got to us – absolutely soft and rubbery! The salmon skin was SUPER fishy, so the whole concoction was really awful.
If you want an outstanding salmon skin roll, just go to Sushilicious and it’ is 75 cents cheaper than the one here.
Immensely disappointed because instant ramen tastes better than this! Service was okay, our water was actually refilled and they came back a few times to check that things were okay. It is unfortunate that the food was this subpar.

Believe everyone when they say that they’ve had better ramen from instant noodles. If you want to just get full, get yourself to Shizuma Ramen, but if you want authentic Japanese Ramen, do not come here. You will be sorely disappointed if you came here looking for delicious authentic ramen.
Service:
Pretty good, I honestly can’t complain.
Food:
I got a handroll which wasn’t bad, but their spicy tuna handroll was «meh» at best. What do you expect, right? Their ramen pretty much tastes like the instant noodles that you can buy at a Japanese market (go to H Mart or 99 Ranch Market if you want the same kind of noodles… seriously), but it doesn’t mean that it’s horrible, it just means that it’s not very authentic.
It’s basically a, «do you want to pay $ 7 for ramen that tastes like the instant noodles or buy that huge box of ramen that will last you months from an Asian market for $ 15?» type of situation.
When my boyfriend & I tried this place out, he didn’t have a problem with it, but that’s because he’s caucasian & just wants food in his belly. I didn’t either at first, but I wouldn’t come here again looking for good ramen since I know how to make myself instant noodles.
The noodles are really chewy & the broth is kind of on the salty side. It’s just not that great. The meat was also kind of bland & a bit rubbery.
Price:
The prices aren’t bad, but for the quality of the food it’s pretty much, «BLAGHH you toook our moneyy,» so I’d pretty much avoid this place unless you’re on a quick lunch break.
Environment:
There’s never anyone in here & now I know why.

Scary! First of all the menu was really confusing and hard to understand — without this or with that. I couldn’t make up my mind so ended up with Pork Chasu shoyu ramen. And there weren’t that many choices compared to Shin Sen Gumi and Santouka.
It took the server about twenty minutes to bring out the food. And each dish came out separately.
With my first bite some of the noodles were still stuck together, like they were from a RAMEN PACKET (can you believe that?). The noodles were not fresh, the pork was extremely dry almost chalky. And I had to add white pepper and soy sauce into the broth just to give it some flavor.
The server was bad, the food was bad and to top it off there was annoying teenager with braces screaming and taking pictures of her friends through out the entire meal. I wanted to shoot myself in the face. :P
To say the least i am not coming back here again…

after a million hours of bickering on what to eat, we decided to eat somewhere none of us have eaten. And. we decided to go to Rubys (hahahaah, we all have eaten there before). But we stumbled upon this place by looking out the window…
I ordered the spicy pork tan tan ramen, the manfriend ordered the spicy beef and the brother ordered the second ramen on the menu…(sorry, experiencing a brain fart right now). OH! He had the pork ramen in miso!
Ramen itself wasnt too bad… felt like it was undercooked though.
I could taste the fat on the pork… wasnt very happy about that! you get what u pay for!
broth.a bit on the salty side, otherwise not bad.
portions were hefty… which was a surprise!
honestly, this place isnt a WOW! I dont know if I will come back, in fact, I rather go to Ajisen Ramen!
good place for college students since we are always on a budget!
service was great, though!

This place just opened up on July 1^st.
Very mediocre tasting, but affordable Japanese cuisine. Nothing really stands out or blows your mind. It’s more like the Yoshinoya or Taco Bell of ethnic food. Fast, decent, and affordable.
The place is very clean and has about 8 tables. You have to order and pay at the register first. It’s basically like a To-​Go food stand. And they have pretty decent prices (you can get ramen for $ 5.52 — $ 6.39, not like Ajisen’s $ 9 – 12 bowls). Ramen is traditionally one of Japan’s cheaper meals and should stay that way.
WHAT WE ORDERED:
— Pork Chasu Ramen ($ 6.39): The noodles are chewy and not soggy or «instant-​ramen». The broth is pretty basic and mellow: salty, slightly sweet with hints of pork, but not enough to really stand out. It’s garnished with sliced bamboo shoots, dried shallots, half a hard-​boiled egg, a sprinkling of sesame seeds & green onion, and the mandatory naruto fishcake swirly.
— BBQ Chicken ($ 5.52): Basically a sweet, teriyaki-​like marinated chicken in a bowl steamed rice and topped with teriyaki sauce, garnished with 2 takuan (sweet pickled radish) and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
— Chicken Katsu Bento ($ 7.35): Comes with quite a bit of thin chicken katsu (fried breaded chicken breast) on top of shredded cabbage, salad, 4 pork gyozas, steamed rice, and miso soup. The chicken was a little dry and overcooked. The salad was pretty good. The gyoza decent. Miso soup just tasted like broth, and had more of a kombu-​based (dried seaweed) flavor rather than miso.
The one and only ramen place for me is Santouka, and so far, nothing else has reached Santouka status.