R101 Ramen

came here one night when kosuke was closed and haven’t been back to kosuke since! this place is yummy and the people are really nice! plus they are really close and there’s never been a wait. now I’m not saying that their ramen is better kosuke but I’m not saying that it’s not :)
the only complaint is that they are more pricey and the portions are smaller. also they only have bar stool type seating so it’s a lil difficult if you have some children.
garlic oil is a MUST!

I’ve been to this restaurant twice in the past week. My husband and I loved it so much, we ordered from here two days in a row. Both times ordered take-​out and it took about 10 – 15 minutes for our order to be ready.
So far, I’ve had the Tonkatsu w/​pork (added chili oil) and the LA Tan Tan w/​pork (added sardine oil the second time, on recommendation from the waitress). Total cost of about $ 20 for two smalls.
The broth is really rich and flavorful, pork was tender and they package it nicely for takeout. Service was polite and efficient for lunch take-​out orders. Both times, the restaurant was practically empty, but I went during off-​peak hours.
Parking was easy, but the lot is small, so I could see it being an issue at a busier time of day.
We will be back.

I like that they have a small or large option. The small is just enough for me, the large (which is usually the regular in most ramen places) is overkill. The chicken karaage is overhyped. I ordered it w/​o the white onions on top, and honestly just wasn’t a fan of it. I liked the LA Tan Tan a lot, more than the tonkotsu. It was very flavorful, their tonkotsu– not so much. The seats are a lil weird to me, there’s some tablets on the side and a big ass table in the middle, where we were seated with random people, so it’s like hearing their convos and shit, just felt like no privacy. All in all, nice spot, seems like they put a lot of thought into it and service is good. come here and try the LA Tan Tan ramen!

Being that we’re in LA, the ramen options are endless. So it’s hard to find the best place when it comes to ramen. R101 Ramen gave a valiant effort in proving itself, but unfortunately it cannot gain the title.
Although it is not the best, it is worthy of consideration because the food is good and the portions are generous. Also, the staff is exceedingly warm and friendly. I never felt rushed despite the fact that there was a pretty lengthy wait to eat at this small shop. They consistently came over to check whether we were doing fine. Most of all I’m thankful that our server had ready suggestions for us to customize our ramen bowls.
I had the spicy tonkotsu ramen (mild) with pork belly, and I added a soft boiled egg and minced garlic. The broth was fatty, spicy, and rich with a slight sweetness; just the perfect way to eat on a cold windy day. The pork belly was soft, almost had that melt in your mouth texture. I mention that because I’ve had really thick and chewy pork belly with my ramen in the past, and that wasn’t enjoyable.
Overall, I think four stars represents this place well. The ambiance, the soft melodic tunes playing in the background, the great waiting staff, and lastly the great tasting affordable ramen all make for a pleasant dining experience.

Updating my review to 4 STARS.
Here’s why…
I’ll 1^st give my main negative issue with my last visit.
Arrived around 7pm Sunday & was told there was a 20 min wait. My girlfriend & I waited inside & watched around 3 groups leave, yet no one cleared the tables in order to make room for new customers.
After a large group of 8 left they finally made room for us to seat.
On to why I gave them 4 stars.
— Ordered a small LA tan tan (only thing I order from here). Broth was very rich and tasty.
— Our waitress was friendly & helpful.
— The owner recognized me from past visits & made small talk & was very welcoming.
— Other servers were attentive & helped us when we couldn’t flag down our waitress.
On a side note; our ramen came with less noodles then other ramen places we’ve gone. I would make sure to order a side of noodles if your hungry.
I’ll continue to come to R101 if it remains as good as our last visit.

Delicious! Great place for a quick meal. Filling, great-​tasting, authentic broth. Good for an intro to real Ramen.
Service was good for the most part. Wouldn’t hurt to check in a little more with the patrons though.

Food: 5 stars
Service: 5 stars
First time customer.
We ordered the Tan Tan with egg and Spicy tonkatsu with egg and Japanese garlic oil that was recommended. The tan tan was very good. Very creamy and flavorful broth. One of the best ramen I’ve had and it made my top 5 pick. Food was great and the service was very friendly. Menu was simple. Definitely will come back! Try also the karaage chicken. It was tender and the onions with the sauce adds a perfect touch.

The spicy tonkatsu broth is good, but the LA Tan Tan is amazing — a bit spicy, a little sweetness, a little creaminess.
I love that R101 offers a small size ramen. It’s just big enough that I may or may not be able to finish depending on how hungry I am.
The chicken karage and the sauce that they pour on it are both really good. Get a small size ramen and try this or another side.
They have pick up and keep the noodles and broth separate.
My only complaint is that the seats are all stools with no backs. I would rather sit back to enjoy my ramen. So I would deduct half a star for that if I could.

Not a bad ramen place if you need a fix. The soup base is similar to Shin Sen Gumi, so if you’re looking for that kind of flavor, this place is ok and local. Hakata style broth but definitely not Hakata style noodles. But that’s ok, the ramen noodles are served up well and it has a good bite to it. There aren’t much topping choices, they don’t have kikurage (woodear mushroom) for example, and their buta (pork) is not as soft and tender nor juicy and taste as I would have preferred but it did fix my ramen craving for the night.

Craving Santouka but not willing to trek the 45 min drive out to Culver City. So… on the continuous hunt for good ramen in the immediate (Atwater) area. Where to?
R101 popped up, and based on pictures it looked promising. Free small parking lot in the front shared with a few other stores.
==FOOD ORDERED== *in order of preference*
1. Small garlic pork belly w/​white rice @ $ 3 [5/​5 stars]: YUM! I was astounded by how flavorful and tasty this dish was. Perfect side to go with any ramen (feels comparable to the chasu pork on rice available at Santouka). If anything, maybe a little less juicy pork but stronger flavor.
2. Tonkotsu ramen (large) @ $ 9.25 [3/​5 stars]: Soup is very tasty although a tad bit salty. Not as full bodied as Santouka’s salt ramen, but not too far behind. The biggest con was probably the noodles — although not the worst I’ve had (Silverlake’s noodles are worse), but still kind of thin and slightly instant-​ramen quality. Not much ingredients included except a few OK slices of pork chasu (these are not fat, juicy slices of pork– more like on-​a-​diet skinnier version). The egg came in a separate plate already cut in half (why?! the gooey yolk is spilling out!), and even after putting it in my soup it was completely solid cold. Mental note — never order the egg here again. Tsujita has it slightly lukewarm but it comes already in the soup so I guess that helps to warm it up…
==SERVICE== ²⁄₅ stars
Hm… so we came in on a Saturday afternoon around 1:45pm so the restaurant was pretty empty. The waitress came to take our order, and we ordered 2 large tonkotsu ramen’s, with an extra egg in one of them. 3 minutes later the waitress comes back to ask us how spicy we would like the ramen to be. I looked at her confused, and said «We ordered the original, not spicy.» She looked back at us equally confused, and said ok. 10 min later our ramen finally arrived, and neither bowl had an egg in it. I asked her where the egg was, and she literally asked me «Oh did you order an egg?» Does she have an extreme case of short term memory? I literally ordered less than 15 min ago, specifically asked for an extra egg, and within the 15 min she got confused if we ordered regular vs spicy and completely forgot about the egg. This is especially irritating since the restaurant was so empty, so it’s not like she was being rushed around with many orders.
==OVERALL==
After the meal, I was decently satisfied of my ramen cravings although the food and service fell below expectations. But the slightly worrying factor — I am allergic to heavy doses of MSG and symptoms always include rapid heartbeat and a flushed red face after an MSG packed meal. This is exactly what happened after I ate here — 10 min later while shopping at Sears, I could feel my heart rate go up incredibly fast and my face was red. I also became superr thirsty and downed a good 3 cups of water at home. :/​Maybe I’ll come back, if the craving for ramen becomes too strong and I can’t find another place better that’s also close by.

Service was polite but a bit aloof with errors to our food order and with trying to pay with the new credit cards with the chip.
Ramen was OK. Noodles were cooked well, but the broth was rather lacking with depth of flavor.
While the Kaarage was nice and crispy and flavorful, but would order them next time without the onions on top, especially if they’re not well cooked enough to bring out the sweetness of the onions.
The gyoza was a mess. The wrap was soft and gummy. They easily broke apart when you try to pick them up with chopsticks.
Not very many choices for ramen in Glendale, but this place doesn’t hit the spot well enough for me to want to make a return visit. Rather drive out further to Little Tokyo for solid ramen.

Really inexpensive good quality Ramen near me. If I’m craving ramen I don’t have to look far for a quick fix. Really nice servers here. I highly recommend you dien in because when you do with your bowl of ramen you get a small serving of a refresher they call «zuki». They do not give this out for any takeout. It’s a uniquely light pickled shredded cabbage. It really cuts through the richness if their ramen.
Skip the tonkotsu ramen and trust me on this get their «L.A. Tan Tan» ramen. It is so flavorful and filling. Get the large the small isn’t filling unless you want a snack. The broth is tonkotsu on fleek 10x. WOW! I am craving a bowl as I write it. Wish they had some more topping choices but I forgive them since their chashu pork is so flavorful and a good thick cut, not flimsy thin. The pork is definitely marinated and it’s unique. Ambiance is cool, sleek and modern. Parking can be difficult since they share spots for the entire mini complex with their neighbors

I had a meeting in Glendale on a particularly cold and windy day and ramen sounded good. A quick look to Unilocal and found this place pretty close and decided to give it a try.
It’s located in a little strip mall and the décor and vibe is cool. Service was friendly and quick. I got the tonkotsu ramen with a side of gyoza.
I’m partial to Hakata, Yamadaya and Santouka so by comparison I didn’t enjoy it as much but it still was a nice lunch that hit the spot on a cold day. The broth was milkier (is that a word?) than other ramens I’ve had and the gyoza was also a little different, but not sure how to characterize it.
All in all, I liked it but wasn’t in love.

My mother and I were out Xmas shopping and we stumbled upon this place. It was quite a delight. Exactly what we were looking for. Portions were the proper size. All food was prepared fresh and delicious. I highly recommend the pork belly with any dish .
Well done. A restaurant that concentrates on the excellence of one item. Bravo

Homemade ramen noodles!
Friendly stafff. Cup is never empty. Love that they cleaned up our chopsticks wrapper and napkins while we were eating. Staff was in prompt with their service. Ramen up to par. Great first time experience. Thank you R 101!

Not bad at all for ramen in Glendale! I ordered to-​go & picked up. Waitresses were nice. It’s cheap (~$ 8 for a small) and tasty. My spicy tonkatsu ramen broth was a little too salty for my liking (reminiscent of Silverlake Ramen’s Tonkatsu broth). The fatty chashu was nice & tender. Ramen was al-​dente. Egg was perfectly runny but cooked still.
Parking in this little plaza is really hit or miss. I ended up circling twice and finally found parking on the street.
I’ll be back when the ramen craving hits!

I’m sad that some people haven’t had the experience that we have had, which is nothing short of DELICIOUS!
I compare all ramen to Santouka ramen, which was my favorite until I had R101. We ate it, and all of us are Santouka lovers, and we all didn’t miss Santouka and we now crave this ramen.
We had the tonkatsu ramen, which was addicting. The combination of the chewy noodles, the not too salty but rich and flavorful broth, and the thick cut pork is pretty f’in awesome. I highly recommend adding the egg because it’s cooked to perfection.
The fried rice is decent but not the best I’ve had. The karaage (fried chix) is crispy and comforting. I would ask for the sauce on the side if you like your chix extra crispy.
The even do to go orders, and separate everything out. It’s better there, but for to go, not bad!
Glad to have a to go ramen place nearby!

Stumbled upon this and glad we did.
Great service, relaxing atmosphere, there’s parking and food was great. Soups base not salty like other ramen places.
Pork belly pieces are meaty not fatty and great price. Not having to drive to
Little Tokyo. Well worth it!

My daughter loved the pork-​based tonkotsu ramen. It wasn’t salty, just right.
Nice new place with a great staff. I liked it!
Parking is a challenge.
Worth stopping by!

Great ramen. Very similar to Daikokuya.
This place deserves 5 stars for many reasons
1. Easy order menu with few options of ramen. I ordered the spicy Tonkotsu with chicken and additional charge for an egg. The egg was cooked to perfection where the yolk was still runny but egg white was fully cooked, however, the egg was cold.
Small was a good size for me.
2. Karaage chicken was amazing. Crispy on the outside, tender in the inside. Sauce works perfectly with the chicken
3. Service was friendly, quick, and attentive. My water cup was always filled, and the workers didn’t hesitate to interact with us. 2 thumbs up!
4. 10% with check-​in on Unilocal!
5. Awesome caterpillar ice cream roll. Green tea ice cream wrapped around by soy paper, surrounded by whipped cream and peanuts. Yummy!
Great dinner tonight. Affordable and filling. =)