Yushoken Izakaya & Ramen

Food: (⁵⁄₅)
The ramen is very flavorful and has a good ratio of veggies, meat, and noodles. (⁵⁄₅)
The curry is delicious and has so much flavor! I wish I could finish it. (⁵⁄₅)
Chicken katsu is perfectly crunchy and goes great with curry (⁵⁄₅)
All of the above are great choices
Service: (⁵⁄₅)
They make it a point to greet and say goodbye to every customer– I worked in food before, it gets tiring. So kudos.
Quick to give you water and to bring out the food.
Environment: (⁵⁄₅)
Cute place. You could definitely go on casual dates here.

They now have Togo for Ramen! Surprisingly, I came here around 4 PM on a Friday… I was going to get a chipotle bowl but the line was long so I went ahead and came in here and there’s was only a few tables here. I ordered their Tonkatsu Shoyu Ramen. When the ramen got here, I tasted the pork first and it was cold… Then the egg and it was cold too. The only thing hot or warm is the noodle and the broth. I believe that they have pre cooked the egg and meat first so that it’ll be easier for them to serve food. I have never ate ramen with cold meat so this time was a first. Their pricing is very affordable for it being inside utc near uc Irvine but the quality is just… Meh… The spoon and ice water I got was dirty so I ended up just not using the spoon or drinking the water. :(

Rainy day= Ramen!
Glad I tried this joint– it’s been around for a minute but they didn’t allow take-​out until recently. Ordered the spicy miso ramen. Generous portion, piping hot and super, super spicy! I had to eat it pretty slowly in between blowing my shnoz =]
Amazing flavor– lots of garlic– and the noodles were delicious. The pork was pretty fatty, which most reviewers have written about, but it tasted good. The egg was a little funky because it completely absorbed the soy sauce flavor by the time I got to it. I’d probably only include the egg again if I ate in the restaurant.
I want to try more!

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to check out this restaurant but I think it might be another few years before I venture here again. Ramen is one of those things that I’m particular about because it’s not a dish that I love. It’s one that I occasionally crave and enjoy when properly done. That is probably the main reason why I avoided this place even though I’ve lived in Irvine for 10+ years. But anyways, it was a very cold day when my friend and I met up for dinner and this was the closest place to us that served up hot food. I was surprised by how crowded the restaurant was and they had a steady rush all throughout dinner. Service was good though so that was a plus!
We ordered the Miso Ramen and the Shio Ramen. If you have your UCI student id, they give you a free serving of extra noodles of a bowl of rice. I opted for the bowl of rice (keep those ids handy even after you graduate!) Now when it comes to ramen, I look for two things. The quality of the noodles and the flavor of the broth. I actually liked the noodles for both the miso and shio ramen. It had a good texture and they were pretty generous with the portion size. The broth on the other hand was lacking. It was very salty for both and they didn’t give us enough broth to begin with. The meat was also very bad. We didn’t eat the meat at all and instead just filled up on noodles, rice, and whatever vegetables were in our ramen.
I think that it was clever of them to open up the restaurant near UCI. It pretty much guarantees a steady flow of customers even though the food is mediocre. I personally would rather drive a bit further for my ramen fix but for those who are in a tight fix, this might get you through it. ²⁄₅

Favorite ramen spot in the area. The spicy miso is my favorite — the broth is rich, savory and quite spicy. The noodles arrive al dente (which I love) and soften a bit by the time you reach the bottom of your bowl. The egg is always perfectly cooked, with the yolk just set but still velvety. The Tonkatsu Shoyu is also pretty good, a bit salty but pleasantly so.
They have a great happy hour till 9pm (I think it starts at 5?), with beers at 50% off (from their already reasonable prices).
Definitely stick to the ramen in terms of food, tried some of the other items on the menu (sushi and a fried chicken dish) the first time we came here and found they weren’t great.

Came to this restaurant looking for a quick ramen fix before work and was pleasantly surprised with both the quality of the food and service. As soon as I walked into the door, I was greeted immediately by a friendly waiter who took me to a table and got me started with a menu.
I ordered the spicy miso ramen combo with the chashu bowl on the side which came at a reasonable price of $ 10. The order itself did not take very long, probably around 10 minutes. It said on the menu that the bowl that came with the combo would be half-​sized, but it felt like a really large portion. The ramen itself was excellent, and they gave a generous portion of pork in it as well.
What I liked the most about the restaurant were the friendly waiters. The waiter that served me constantly checked to see if everything was okay and filled up my water whenever it was empty. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience at yushoken. The food quality was excellent, and the waiters were quick and friendly. I would definitely come back here again.

Ok place to get ramen fix but if you can find a better place, save yourself the money. I got the spicy Tokyo Shoyu. They only give you one slice of pork and its sliced super thin and was more than 50% fat. Probably thinner than a piece of pork belly at a kbbq place. And I asked a waitress if this was right and she said they do purposely only give you one piece. The broth is pretty good though but overall not worth it.

Very busy! I think lots of uci students come here to eat. It is a great quick fix especially if you are craving ramen. I don’t like how they don’t take out. Service was pretty fast and attentive though so I’ll give them that. Ramen tasted good but I’d avoid going here at all costs.

Located at UTC (University Town Center), Yushoken is a convenient choice if you’re looking for a quick bite. The reason why I decided to eat here was because of a bogo coupon, courtesy of the O.C. Dining Guide provided by the Irvine Company. It was a great deal and I’m definitely glad I took advantage of it. I always wanted to try Yushoken and this finally pushed me to.
First impressions:
I arrived at Yushoken around 7pm on a weekday. The entire restaurant was buzzing with people eating their Ramen. We were greeted and seated within minutes of walking into the restaurant. Some of the tables are rather small, but that seems like a theme with Ramen places. Our waitress gave us the menu, which is short and concise. I ordered the tonkotsu Ramen, it came out very quickly, which was awesome because I was starving.
The food:
This review is only for the tonkotsu Ramen. The bowl was large, but the portion was on the smaller side. I wish that it came with a little more broth, especially if I’m paying over $ 8 for a bowl. The pork that came with the Ramen was fairly fatty, I prefer pork with less fat, but that’s my personal preference. The best part of the meal was the broth, it was well seasoned and well balanced. It wasn’t the best Ramen I ever had, but it wasn’t the worst either.
Concluding thoughts:
Overall, Yushoken is a decent place for Ramen, if I was in the area and was in the mood for Ramen, I wouldn’t mind eating there. Pro tip: If you bring your UCI student ID your can get a complimentary bowl of rice or extra noodles.

Perfect place for a quick ramen fix!
The last time I dined in at Yushoken I order the special bowl combo — Shio Tonkotsu with the half bowl of spicy tuna (Combo’s come with a small side of salad). They also have other really good options on the menu, but I decided to try their most popular ramen. Oh keep in mind, they do not serve sushi anymore.
The ramen itself was really good! The soup was extra hot, just the way I like it and the texture of the noodles were perfect! Not too hard, and not too soft. If you order the Shio Tonkotsu ramen, highly recommend asking for the chili oil! The chili oil they serve here is amazing! Definitely a must try with the ramen! Their spicy tuna bowl was good, no complaints.
Service was spectacular. Greeted when I walked in, and sat down immediately. Food also came out in a timely manner.
Oh and lastly, they have a new HAPPY HOUR MENU from 6−9pm!

I waited for 50mins for nothing !
awful service I have ever had

I wanted to like this place. I gave them a couple shots to earn my business, but the second visit will be my last. All the reviews rating their food as subpar are true and the restaurant lacks organization.
I ordered their lunch combo #3, which comes with chicken katsu, miso soup, salad and rice. When they brought my order and put it on the table, I saw that they’d brought me a side of curry. Next thing I know, the waitress grabs the curry from my table and says, «Oh sorry, you got the wrong order,» and proceeds to put it on another plate and serve it to another customer.
I also noticed that my combo was missing a side of miso soup, so I flagged her down again and asked her about it. She told me that they no longer include the soup and that their menu had not yet been updated. It would have been helpful for her to tell me at the time that I ordered my food!
If you plan to eat here, be cautious with your orders. You never know what you’ll get or won’t get and if it’s already been served to another customer.

This place used to offer sushi, however this is no longer the case. They only offer Ramen and a few rice bowl dishes. Unfortunately for me all the ramen dishes are pork broth based. There is one ramen dish that is chicken broth based but it has pork pieces added to it.
They have a lunch special for $ 6.50 which comes with either popcorn chicken or chicken cutlet, rice, and salad. For $.50 more one can get some curry. The lunch specials include a brown sauce that goes well with the fried chicken.
The food quality is pretty good and everything tastes fresh. The chicken was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Salad was fresh and the rice was good. I just wish they had more rice dish options as well as healthier ones. I would have preferred grilled chicken. There is quite a bit of rush during lunch. As I looked around most people were ordering ramen dishes. If one doesn’t eat pork, there is only one option and that can get boring real quick.

I pass through the UTC often since I work close by. I know now why I never came in.
Their menu displays items they have discontinued for example, their rolls. Also, my coworker ordered their rice combo plates and they ran out of miso soup, it was barely 1230.
I ordered their miso ramen, which for some reason they did have. Honestly, it tasted fine. It was a bit salty, but nothing too much I would complain about… Usually.
Until hours later I felt like absolute crap. Perhaps they use MSG in their broth? Who knows? But my coworkers who ate with me all felt like crap after eating and they had rice and ramen dishes.
Service was meh, they weren’t consistent in getting us all our orders out at the same time. Being polite people, we waited too long for everyone to get their food before biting in.
Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll come back here for ramen. I would rather much go to Mitsuwa or somewhere else, as there are so many other ramen places close by. What a disappointment!

Keeping the rating at 3 stars, but I would say service is 5 stars thanks to the waitress Gaita!
I came here on a Thursday night and it was pretty packed, but once my friend and I were seated Gaita made sure we had something to drink and was incredibly attentive when we were trying to call her to take our orders. Since I’ve come back to Yushoken, Gaita always seems to be the one that seats me and I’m always satisfied with the service!
I tried the new Spicy Shio Tonkotsu (not sure how new it is now, but seems to be new since it’s not listed on their official menu).
I would say the broth is good and the noodles were just decent (a little too hard for my taste), but I come back to Yushoken because of the convenience of it being right next to campus. If I have time I’ll go to Santouka, but Yushoken isn’t terrible.
Tip: ask for free extra noodles!

Probably the worst ramen place I’ve been to. Such a disappointment! Ramen is all about the broth and noodle, but this place failed at both. The soups are either too salty or too bland, while the noodle just isn’t cooked right.
We got the Tokyo Shoyu Ramen, Shio Tonkotsu, and the Spicy Tuna Roll. Tokyo Shoyu one literally came with 1 piece of meat… JUST ONE. Makes my ramen experience here so unsatisfied with one small bite of meat. Shio tonkotsu soup, on the other hand, was pretty bland. Nothing spectacular that stands out to make me want to come back again. Spicy Tuna Roll is SPICY. I was expecting a more mild/​medium spice like other spicy tuna places, but this place made it SPICY, beware.
Maybe my experience was just terrible, hopefully it tastes better for others. Won’t be coming back here again. I’ll give an extra star for reasonable prices.

I’m kind of confused by the slew of terrible reviews Yushoken has… my guess is they are probably inconsistent, meaning they have their good days and their bad days. I happened to come here on a good day, so my rating would probably lean more towards 4 stars! I gave it 3 stars because I think 1) their salad is really weird, 2) the waitress could have been more attentive (had to ask for our water to be refilled), and 3) they have a really limited lunch menu compared to dinner (we came for lunch, but I was interested in trying out a lot of dishes that they only had for dinner). In general, the food I tried today I would have given 4 stars.
I had #1, which was tonkotsu ramen and it was pretty darn good. The bean sprouts made a nice crunch addition in my opinion. The whole egg and pork pieces (very tender) were a decent amount of protein. Tasty broth & noodles. The ramen dishes took longer than the other dishes ordered, so I wonder if they actually prepare them fresh.
I tried some of my coworker’s fried chicken and it was really good! Crispy and juicy meat; the dipping sauce was a good addition too. I would totally get that lunch combo next time (it’s a lot of food for under $ 7 – 8!). The salad… could be better. It was basically cole-​slaw with mayonnaise on it… how weird. I guess come with your fingers crossed that Yushoken is having a good day because the food is preeetty good on a good day :)

I should have gone with my gut knowing this place would be horrible from the Unilocal Reviews. Had no choice since the guest of the hour picked this for our lunch spot. Service was not stellar and very slow. We sat down and waited to be served. Granted this is a work lunch hour and it’s peak lunch time, you would think they would understand.
NOTE: Don’t let my pictures fool you, very deceiving for our visit.
Lunch orders:
01. Spicy Tuna Bowl $ 7.95 — 3 Stars
— This was my coworker’s order. I’ve never seen spicy tuna spread over rice this way ever and squirted with some spicy mayo sauce. Presentation alone was horrible in my opinion. He says the spicy tuna was okay.
02. Miso Ramen $ 7.95 — 2 Stars
Napa Cabbage, Onions, Carrots, Green Onions, Chashu, Kaiware, Mushrooms, special eggs with Medium thick and wavy noodles.
— Looks can be deceiving. This came out and looked good but taste was so bland. The ramen noodles were over cooked.
03. Shio Tonkotsu Ramen $ 7.95 — 2 Stars
Chashu, Bean Sprouts, Green Onion, Special Egg, Seaweed with Hakata style thin noodles.
— Very light in flavors and the noodles were over cooked. Better Ramen in the next city over.
04. #2 Lunch Combo $ 6.95 — 1 Stars
Fried Chicken + Mini Curry Lunch Combo (Cabbage Salad, Mini Miso Soup, Edamame, Potato Salad, Mini Tofu Cube & Rice)
— Fried Chicken was burnt and chewy. This chicken was not made to order. Clearly the chicken was fried ahead of time hence making the meat very chewy. The burnt taste was hard to ignore. The Miso soup came in a tiny tiny soup bowl (reminds me of a child’s kitchen play toy size). The tofu cube was a tiny mini cube, never seen it that tiny in size. The Curry was too sweet for what I’m used to. Mostly all sauce. The Miso soup came out COLD and looked more like it was in a tea cup than a bowl. Rice was in a tiny bowl as well. Like I mentioned, the pix I took is very deceiving in this case. The most horrible Fried Chicken I’ve ever had in OC.
05. #4 Lunch Combo $ 6.95 — 2 Stars
Katsu Chicken + Mini Curry Combo (Cabbage Salad, Edamame, Potato Salad, Mini Cold Tofu Cube, Mini Miso Soup & Rice) $ 6.95
— Same as the order above this, the Katsu Chicken tasted like it came out of the microwave. It had that chewiness to the meat. Same portion size… MINI in size. Everything was a bit too cold in my opinion. Definitely had better Katsu Chicken.
If you are craving any of the items above, just drive to Costa Mesa where you will find way better quality, taste and service. Not worth the visit or your wallet. This place might be best for the starving college student that misses Asian food but if you know food, you would not like this place… IMO!
SERVICE — Horrible and very slow even though there were plenty of workers there.
LOCATION — Park near the new Mendocino Farms & Eureka restaurant and walk to the center, then make a left and it’s next to Yogurtland.
All in all, this was a horrible eating experience on top of horrible service, I will not be coming back.

I met up with fellow Unilocal buddy Todd M. here for lunch because it was conveniently close to campus and it was somewhat new and neither of us had ever been here.
We both ended up ordering the all day special for $ 8 which got you huge bowl of ramen along with a smaller bowl of another rice dish and a small side salad.
I had already been warned by my coworker that she didn’t like the ramen here but we decided to experience it for ourselves. Service was relatively friendly enough but the food was pretty lackluster.
I forgot the name of the ramen dish I ordered (Tokyo ramen??) but it was supposed to be one of the more popular dishes. For my rice bowl I ordered the teriyaki chicken — both dishes were pretty average and my salad unfortunately came with salmon skin, which I didn’t eat.
Overall the food itself gets a 2.5 star rating but I’m bumping it up to 3 because service was decent. I don’t really have an interest in coming back though — why bother when you can head down to Baker St. in Costa Mesa and get a plethora of delicious ramen.
This place is good for kids and groups if you have a lot of people — there’s plenty of seating.

3 stars if business is slow. Otherwise, Yushoken Izakaya & Ramen is a sub 3
I’ve had the tantanmen ($ 8.45 for sesame paste and spicy sauce soup with napa cabbage, onions, carrots, green onion, malware, mushrooms, and ground pork with medium thick/​wavy noodles). The soup was flavorful and filling. It had a little bit of a kick to it but not enough for me so I added a bit more hot sauce.
Takoyaki was edible but a little too salty/​soggy for my taste.
The sushi is subpar. Not fresh and the rice was under seasoned.
As for the service, it really depends how busy they are. If there is practically nobody around, they will take the time to answer your questions and make menu recommendations. If they are swamped… well…The past few times, there was only one person working the front, taking orders, cleaning tables, bring out the food/​drinks, etc. She hustled but one person can only do so much before they start unravel.
Oh yeah. Sometimes the kitchen is slow too. Had a few orders come out when the rest of us already finished out meal.
I will probably be back but I hope to goodness another ramen place opens up close to campus.