Raku Ramen

I’ve had great experiences at Raku, although I think it’s a bit overpriced. However, my last trip here may not bring me back. It was a rainy evening, and when my boyfriend and I drove by we noticed there was a long line inside. No problem, we’ll pull over and call our order in so we can just run in and pick it up.
However, when he called in, the woman that answered the phone was extremely rude. He asked for two of the classic pork-​based ramens, and told her that he forgot the exact name of it (no menu online or on Unilocal)/requested that she read him the 3 most popular names so that it would ring a bell. She said she had no idea what he was talking about and fed back something random before hanging up.
We arrived 10 minutes later and when he tried to explain the situation to the cashier, she informed him that it had been her on the phone and that she couldn’t hear him, but had an order ready regardless.
We left with the wrong order (which she refused to fix and then blamed it on us), unhappy, and unsatisfied. Will not return.

Absolutely love this place. My daughter took me here and now I’m hooked! Yummy and fresh!

The basil ramen is soooooooo good. Their broth is tasty and the pork just melts in your mouth. Can be busy at lunchtime with limited seating but worth it even if you’re taking it to go.

Love love love this place! Being from Hawaii, it’s hard around here to find ramen places that do any justice.
I always get the shoyu (What Hawaii locals call soy sauce) ramen (locals call this Saimen). Then I mix it up with different sides. I usually get the tempura, but recently got the gyoza (pot stickers) and loved those as well.
The ramen usually comes with enough meat and fish cake in it to satisfy. Wish you had an option for spam, but that’s more of a locals thing.
The price point is a little steep, but on cold days or days where you just need some comfort food to get you through, it hits the spot.

I was really excited to go to this place when I first rolled up. Jaffa was closed and we were in the mood for lamb plates. However, we were more than pleasantly surprised. Raku is AWESOME! I have been back about once a week since our first visit and try something different each time. Love the bone broth ramen.

Excellent lunch, food was very tasty and quick. Priced very well for the quality.
Highly recommend this place in San Luis Obispo.

Friendly staff, decent flavor ramen. Located in a nice neighborhood, not hard to find parking.
For a short visit, I appreciate a hot bowl of ramen.

For some reason although I love ramen, I’d been putting off eating here. Wish I hadn’t! I am no ramen aficionado, but I do enjoy a good ramen. Top Ramen is a disgrace to the name, so don’t let that cloud your judgement!
I ordered the Raku Ramen, and my friend ordered the Shoyu Ramen, with the idea that we could share in order to try multiple items.
The Raku Ramen noodles had the consistency of the Chinese egg noodles, the tonkatsu was perfect, and the corn threw me off a little. I think the biggest let down was the broth. It didn’t have much in the way of flavor to me. Add in some chili sauce, and kick it up a little!
The Shoyu Ramen is what I should have gotten. The noodles seemed closer to what you’d get from a Sapporo Ichiban package, but slightly more firm, which was nice. The broth flavor was awesome though.
All in all, it was an enjoyable experience, looking forward to trying out the rest of the menu.

When you order a small, expect to get a kids size half filled. I’m writing this while my friends are still eating. Ramen is only meh; I would say it’s overpriced.
However, my friend got the spicy tonkatsu and it was delicious. Really depends on what you order.

Great food! We tried the Miso ramen, Tonkotsu ramen with extra bamboo shoots ($ 1), chashu buns, and gyoza. It was all delicious! We especially liked the ramen broths. Very flavorful. The gyoza was okay too. The chashu buns were filled with meat and very tasty.
The price is good for the amount of food. I was a bit surprised about the extra charge for the sides since many things on their extras menu are usually included in ramen places in the Bay Area. But still, great for the area!

Ramen hit the spot on a nice cool evening. Had Miso Ramen and it wasn’t too salty. Kids had Chicken Teriyaki Bowls and they seemed to love it as well. Definitely a place to revisit when we come through town.

One of the Worst meals I’ve ever had. I ordered spicy tonkatsu ramen. The broth was lukewarm, noodles were over cooked, the spicy pork topping was very greasy and not spicy… which made the broth oily. I felt nauseous eating the broth. Chashu pork was tender, but no flavor. I also ordered fried squid legs. They were tough to chew and soaked in grease. The best part of my meal was hot tea. I think it helped my GI system pass the greasy clots. In case you want to feel like you’re in a jail cafeteria, you can take your tray of food and dump all the left over broth, noodles, etc into the open garbage, and please don’t forget to separated utensils into the oily, greasy tub of water to soak. I actually had to throw away my entire soup.

My favorite ramen place. I always get the raku ramen :)
I have tried the spicy tonkatsu to save a few dollars but it tasted very mediocre to me. Never again. To be honest, I understand that they are quite overpriced for ramen but to me their raku ramen worth every penny. It is the best ramen I have ever tried. And trust me, I tried plenty. I have never been to Japan, so I can’t really say anything about how authentic this place is. But it is still good ramen if you give it a try. And don’t let the price tag scary you, try the raku ramen instead.
There are other dishes I have tried but they were just not that memorable.

I ordered gluten free, they served me wheat noodles. When I said I couldn’t eat it they sullenly took it to the back, raked the wheat noodles out, left the broth without telling me and tossed in potato noodles. The broth was still filled with gluten.
Needless to say, I’m feeling pretty ill right now.

Wow, this place cured a mean case of «hanger» for me the other day… Driving down from Monterey, we skipped our planned lunch, and couldn’t find anything promising in Cambria either, so we didn’t stop off to eat til we got to SLO.
This place totally hit the spot for me. Great terriyaki bowls, and ramen, and friendly employees too.
Glad to have this spot as a potential road trip spot for us in the future…

Ramen? In SLO? What?!
Went here on a lunch date with a friend on a Sunday; both of us have been hearing about this place but haven’t gotten a chance to try it! I really wasn’t sure to expect; coming from the Bay Area, I’ve already had my heart stolen by select ramen joints (Santouka is my favorite~).
I was kind of confused when I walked in because I didn’t realize off the bat that the way you order here is kind of like a fast food setup; you have to go up to the counter to order and then you take your seat. I took a seat first and I was like ??? But I mean this isn’t really a bag thing or anything; just letting you guys know so you guys don’t look like an idiot when walking in like I did!
Anyway, I ordered a small tonkotsu ramen ($ 5.99, if I remember correctly), which came with really barely anything… it came with a piece of pork, a hard-​boiled like egg, and a bit of veggies. If you want any other «toppings» it’s $ 1 each. It really does add up if you want all the yummy stuff, but I decided to just add bamboo shoots because I seriously cannot have ramen without bamboo shoots. It just feels incomplete. Total came up to be a little over $ 7.
They then give you a little pager/​beeper thing that vibrates when your food’s done. Once it does go off, you go over to the counter and grab your ramen.
So about the ramen:
For a small girl like me, a small is just the right portion. For the price? Not so much; it’s a bit on the pricey side. Taste? It’s okay! Like I said, growing up in the Bay makes me a bit biased but I mean the ramen isn’t bad at all! It’s just not anything to die for is all.
I wouldn’t mind coming back if I’m seriously, seriously missing a little taste of home, but I’m not going to really go out of my way for it on the norm.
Also, you clean up after yourself, meaning that you put the bowls away. Do not be like me and have to wait for someone to finish their food to find out!

I must say I was very skeptical of this place because of the racial makeup of the town it is located in. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Who knew that SLO could have such a great ramen joint?
I got the spicy tonkatsu ($ 10.95) with spinach noodle (add $ 1) and it was bomb! It came with a big hunk of spicy ground pork which you could break up and dissolve into the broth as needed. Also liked that they didn’t skimp on the flavorful broth and added black garlic oil as well. One thing which i’m disappointed to report is that it didn’t come with a soft boiled egg which was unexpected.
Tea is only $ 1 and they have the brown rice green tea which I love.
Another thing to note is a fast casual restaurant which means you pay up front, they give you a pager and you walk up to get your food.

Only ramen place I have found in SLO, so obviously it gets a lot of stars for being here alone. It is cute and parking is not a big problem.
Pros
— they have ramen
— friendly service
— lots of condiments available (fresh garlic, ginger, spices)
Cons
–they make you pay for your toppings. Yea it may only be $ 1, but that adds up if you want the good stuff.
–almost all their broths or ramen have pork in it. My only ramen option was the veggie one. I would have loved to try the basil ramen if the broth was not made from pork.
–my veggie ramen was good but left a taste and texture consisting of oil in my mouth
For SLO this is as good as it is gonna get. However, this place would not do as great in cities like LA and SD. I guess I have to stop comparing now.

Surely this Tonkotsu doesn’t hold a hashi to some of the bowls of LA and Santa Clara… But this IS San Luis Obispo after all!
Putting it into context, I would say that this was a nice good bowl of ramen.
Broth: Creamy and Mild-​to-​Moderately Fatty. Could use some extra flavor.
Chashu Pork: Tender, but didn’t have that nice chat I’ve experienced elsewhere.
Egg: Overcooked
Noodle: Thin and chewy. Good but not memorable.
Nice to have a ramen-​ya in the land of the rising sandwich!

Who would have thought that you can find a damn good bowl of ramen in the middle of San Luis Obisbo. We were struggling to find places to eat because we already ate at stonefire once that day, and it seems like real good food is few and far between in downtown. On a whim we looked up ramen expecting nothing, but we found that Raku just recently opened up.
It is a very small place. Walk up and order from the nice older lady and sit down waiting for your order to buzz in. Service was fast, and I enjoyed that the add ons to the ramen was cheep. I got double bamboo and it was cooked quite well into my spicy tonkatsu broth. Everything was nice, from the store to the ramen. The broth was a little bit odd that it was super milky. it was enjoyably thick, and very tasty.
It’s definately good ramen that I would recomend and eat again.