Kukku Ramen — Restaurant in Ulm

First of all, this place seems to follow a rather strict online reservation policy. So I booked a slot at 5 pm (when it opens) and had a third of the restaurant to myself. (You also have to say if you intend to stay an hour or one and a half.) I was given a specific table still. (Apparently the place is full later on.) Instead of a printed menu I needed to scan a code with my phone to know my options.

I ordered three things - a kimchi starter, a vegan ramen option, and a citrus fruit mix with soda called Fuji.

The drink was a decent size, had ice cubes, several different pieces of citrus fruit and ginger in soda water, a metal reusable straw, and was... very sweet. Too sweet. I'd say the sweetness came from cane sugar, and I'm sure one can order it to be less sweet. It tasted good.

The kimchi came also in a decent sized portion, and the menu advertised it as "spicy cabbage" and it sure was! While not extremely hot, I found it too hot on that particular day. It was also very sour. It had a nice crunch to it. Sometimes kimchi has a sweet note (when it ferments longer, I guess), but this one did not. It really depends on what you expect. It was nicely served and with spring onions on top.

Finally, the ramen. I appreciated being asked if I wanted egg since I eat vegetarian, not vegan. I chose the "Teriyaki Austernpilze" (marinated mushrooms) as my topping. It had the 3 miso mix as base, and I tried the soup base and I really liked it! The noodles, however, didn't really taste of anything much, neither their own flavor, nor the stock. (They were advertised as "hausgemacht," so made in-store.) The portion of the noodles was big enough.

Given that the main dish cost 15€ by itself, there weren't enough toppings. There were sprouts, "Korean potatoes," the mushrooms, two egg halves, some corn, and a bit of green. I'm not sure if there were two or three Korean potatoes - they were excellent but at their small size, there could have been more. The biggest specimen you can see float atop on my photo. The stripes are the mushrooms. They didn't strike me as particularly teriyaki-flavored. The egg was big. The food itself was visually appealing.

One thing I wasn't so happy with were the chopsticks. In keeping with the reusable metal straws and online menu, these were plastic. I'm fine with reusable chopsticks, but these were somehow especially slippery, so eating ramen with them was a bit more challenging.

In general, the restaurant had a modern look to it, staff was friendly. Main dishes took quite a bit to arrive, even though there were initially only three customers present.

Another oddity is how the check was calculated. The menu said: Kimchi 6€, Miso Ramen 15€, Fuji 7€. That's 28€. I chose the 10% tip option when paying electronically. (Tipping about 10% is customary in Germany.) But I did not pay 30,80€, I paid 32,45€ (which is the amount the electronic payment device showed me, just to be clear). This would mean the base price was 29,50€. I see no disclaimer on the menu for this. Maybe I was charged for the egg? It would come at 1,50€ then, making the vegan ramen with egg 0.5€ more expensive than the non-vegan miso ramen which includes an egg. Unfortunately I did not request a paper receipt (but I was offered one), so I cannot clarify this.

All in all, it was decent, with room for...

This is the worst experience I ever had in my life. We went in the restaurant at the same time with another couple. It took 5 minutes for the couple to find a place. Then the waitress left us alone standing in front of the door, obviously they saw us, but no greeting not even a word. After 5 minutes I asked if still table available. Then the answer was inside only with reservation. Ok, then we can also sit outside, no problem. We waited outside another 5 minutes, nobody serve us, even no Menu. Then again I asked if we can have a menu. After we have the menu, another 10minutes passed already, and the couple before us already have their noodles on table. Then I have to went in and asked again if we can order something. After the waitress took the order, the real waiting time began. After 20 minutes we asked when the noodles will be ready. The answer was, today is too busy (20 customers only and 3 waitress, busy?!!!) and the noodle will be ready in another 10 minutes. But now the couple before us already finished, paid and left. We waited another 10 minutes and came one waitress and said we can cancel the order if we want! Of course not, we wasted 40 minutes already, another 10 we can waste!! So after 10 minutes, the noodle came. They are super salty! I doubt the people who said the noodle lecker, maybe they have never been to Japan and have no idea what the real Ramen is! Anyway, 16 Euro for this noodle this service, is really not worthy the money. The waitress maybe need more trainings, the most important and first impressions for the customers, is how you greet the customers, isn’t this the basic knowledge for a...

I saw most low-ratings are about their service, to me, it is not particularly too bad, neither was it good. They simply bring the food to your table and that’s all. Reasons why I give this place two stars are as follows: The scent in this establishment is really appetite-losing for me. The minute I stepped into here, the scent/perfume just rushed into my nose, which is the one thing I hate the most about any restaurant. But this place makes itself like a cosmetic store. We asked for non-spicy fried chicken for the kid, yet it is still spicy and some nuggets are even raw-ish looking in the middle. In one word worse than super market deep frozen Japanese fried chicken. We didnt ask for a change as we think we would give the miso ramen a chance, and the kid might be able to wat that. Ramen is also a bit disappointing, too salty and too oily. Lastly, it’s really stuffy in the shop, I dont know if they have turned on their AC or not, or they have set the temperature a little bit too high on a 30-degree afternoon, it sure is very uncomfortable.

So all in all, I don’t recommend this place, especially when there are so many asian bistro in Ulm to...