Umaya Ramen

Ooooh... Okay. It's been a while since I have done a negative review. But it has also been a while since I have had mediocre service and blah food. And to have it at a ramen joint... Man.. that just grinds my gears! Umaya Ramen in Cerritos. Oh boy. When I first walked in I was half way greeted by a young man in faded jeans, a denim jacket and a ball cap. I couldn't really hear him so I just nodded. It took me a few seconds, but this guy was my greeter! I thought this guy was just another customer. I asked for a table and he basically pointed to any of the open tables. I sat down at a booth that was empty and narrowly missed the edamame beans all over the floor. I asked for a coke and a menu, when the denim clad host pointed to the QR code stand. Ohhhh.. it's one of those ... I have only scanned a qr code once before at a restaurant, but ok. Go with the flow. I felt a little attitude as my host walked off to get my beverage. I eventually ordered the 'Umaya Ramen', which was a tonkotsu ramen. As I waited, I took notice of my surroundings .. supplies... Supplies...and more supplies. Napkins, sauces, order pads, boxes of spoons, all sorts of clutter. Then I noticed the staff. There were five. Three of them were on their phones. Well when it's 12:30 and only 4 other people are in the joint, there is not much to do, like sweep the floor free of fallen food or clean the clutter. My bowl came and the first thing I notice is that I have no chili sauce or pepper . I'll try the soup . Plastic rinky dinky ice cream cup spoon. Where is the ramen!? I see egg, I see a half burnt piece of pork, ginger, naruto and mushrooms. I dig and oh... Chow mein noodles were in my bowl. Not ramen . Definitely not made in house. The broth was decent. It already had some chili oil in it so it had a slight kick. But... What... Wait.. why is there ground beef at the bottom of the bowl? Another waiter pulled himself away from his cellphone asked if I was okay, I lied and just nodded and waved him off. Mr. Faded Jeans came by with my bill before I could even ask for it. Yea... Not coming back. Pics speak for themselves. None of the staff could have been over 30 and it shows. An old school ramen joint master chef would be ashamed. I know I am.

They said the wait was 30-45 minutes. We waited for an hour and half. We checked in to be seated around 6pm on a monday night (10.25.2021). We got a text around 730pm and got seated 735 since we're just waiting outside, right behind the counter where we can see them work. Do the math. We also observed from a good vantage point on how things are being run on this ramen place. We ordered right away since we knew that they move slow. We got our ramen around 745pm. If you're calling to place an order, you will never get your phone order because they never answer the phone. Forget it! I called 5 times to test them and they failed miserably. The waiting line grew and most people waiting to be seated ended up ordering their food for to-go because it takes forever to get a seat. No one's running the traffic and they don't care if their customer waits longer than the initial time they told them. Servers here are not pro-customers. They don't care! Yet their ramen is not something to die for. I tasted better ramen. Heads up, mens bathroom is filthy dirty. Their hand soap dispenser is a sauce dispenser. I thought it was just left there by accident. But nope, it's a handsoap.

My son loves ramen and I hadn't been to anywhere local that served ramen. We decided to try this location as it was close to the movie theatre that we had just left. The location is a little tucked away and the over all vibe of the location is really warm. The staff is extremely nice as well as inviting. My son ordered the Tonkatsu Ramen with chashu, dry nori, green onion, mushrooms and fish cakes and I ordered the Spicy Miso Ramen with chashu, spicy ground pork, spicy paste, bean sprouts, cabbage, sesame seeds, green onion, mushrooms and fish cakes. My son liked the Tonkatsu and I tried it as well. The broth was savory but I felt liked they added just a bit too much nori for my taste. It overpowered the soup and the overall taste of the ramen. Over all it wasn't that bad. When I ordered the spicy miso, I ordered it with medium heat and that was plenty. Now I love spicy food and the overall spicy wasn't too hot but it was spicy enough that again, it was overpowering the taste of the broth and the ramen. On both orders the chashu was really tough and not tender at all. The taste of the chashu wasn't bad but I felt like if the precook would have been a bit longer it would have been more tender. Over all the experience wasn't bad and I feel like I should give it a second shot. Maybe try something different. I would recommend for someone to give it a shot.

Loveeeeed the Umaya burger. Definitely worth a try. Their ramen is also pretty good. The spicy paste brought my experience to a new level! I've never seen another place have something like that. It's made of Habanero peppers and actually gives a good kick of spice. As someone who loves spicy food this was a really amazing surprise to Japanese food that isn't usually spicy in that way. Atmosphere is really nice. Good for groups, one on one's or even alone in my opinion. Staff are amazingly friendly and accommodating!