Higuma Ramen & Izakaya — Restaurant in Addison

This place has a great setting with a very nice chill atmosphere. The interior has lots of dark wood & makes for a calming effect (for me at least). On Saturday @ 8pm, there were available tables and it never felt packed or uncomfortable.

We hit the tapas hard. Mini salads, panzu butter scallops, chicken karaage, spicy edamame, cucumber salad, takoyaki, dynamite shrimp, and the kamonegi duck.

I enjoyed the salad, my friend was not a fan of the dressing...I could have used more, and there were a few wilted greens in mine that I removed. Insert sad face here.

The scallops were really tasty, would order those again for sure... nice to see them come out on the shell instead of fully manicured. Good flavor & very tender.

Next, a personal favorite of mine, the Karaage chicken. I get this every time I see it available. Here, the batter was thin & really crisp (on point), and the chicken was so moist. As a dry version with the sauce on the side, near perfection. The dipping sauce was small, but honestly not really even needed in my opinion.

The spicy edamame is a go to as well, and my friend was very excited even though she doesn't really do spicy. She thought it was really good, but it was above her heat level by a few steps & she instantly asked me if they had milk available 😆 🤣 ...I, on the other hand thought it was really good & devoured all of it after my friend called it quits due to the 4 alarm fire in her mouth. Caution if you have a sensitivity to spicy awesomeness.

If you do have an aversion to spicy... or just want something refreshing & light... the cucumber salad is where it's at! This was a great balancer of the spicy & also served as a palate cleanser. It was very good & complimented all the other flavors nicely.

The takoyaki is also something I always get whenever available. I did enjoy them, but I believe the ratio of ingredients could have been better. Each ball was cooked well & had the pillowy softness of the dough when biting into it, but the small bits of octopus were insufficient to balance out the amount of dough. In addition the sauce drizzled over the top was a little excessive on the mayo side & just created more of a slippery mayo taste/ texture which overpowered the flavor of the ball itself. The octopus should be the star, it is the prize inside after all.

Coming back around to spicy again... the dynamite shrimp. This was a table favorite. The flavor, the texture of the semi crisp edges on the shrimp, it was a great suggestion from our very polite & friendly waitress. I would order two of these next time, very tasty. Not nearly as spicy as the edamame, fyi.

We also were suggested the duck by our waitress. When it arrived, we had to retrieve it from the grass lol, as it was almost hidden. I ate some of the grass, not bad... but once I got a taste of the duck, the grass was scraped aside. I thought it was tender, but lacked flavor. I ended up dipping it in another sauce to liven it up. Not bad, but not my cup of tea. **forgot to take a pic of this dish, but you can see it in the upper left corner of the shrimp dish picture.

For drinks we ordered the house infused pineapple sake. I also ordered a Lychee soda, which I really, really enjoyed (I rarely drink soda), and then opened it and ate the fruit when I was finished. The sake was pretty good, but it kinda got lost in the other flavors & wasn't really memorable. However, I felt great when I left, so it was effective and I would dance with her again.

I will absolutely go back to try other items & indulge in a few of the new favorites again. Overall, very...

Drove 45 minutes expecting something special because of the alleged “great reviews”, and got mediocre at best. Unimpressed and will not return. Ordered their recommended “best” large signature ramen bowl, it was only warm when delivered (not piping hot like it should be, and not even hot at all really — only warm), and it just wasn’t anything special at all. Not very large and the flavor was lacking.. We also didn’t appreciate the fact that they wouldn’t substitute fried rice for the white rice that came with the chicken katsu even when I permitted and expected an up-charge — common sense and the ability to reason goes a long way in my book. The miso soup was basically a broth after the first semi-solid spoonful, and not piping hot as it should be. They refused to sell us a side of fried rice; only a full entree was permitted. The mochi may or may not have been store-bought; to me, it was the exact same product I buy at Whole Foods topped with whip cream. The space, ambience, and table settings were not at all what I was anticipating; not the quality Japanese restaurant feel we were aiming for. And the food, the food was simply not “made with love” — simply put. Serving a large bowl of their “signature” and most-expensive ramen lukewarm breaks an intolerable threshold for me. This one fact alone is what really did me in; ramen should ONLY be served piping hot, and the “large” bowl should be enough to fill anyone up — I left hungry after spending $60 for myself and my 9-yo daughter. In my opinion, either the previous reviews are bogus, or they are for another restaurant. Chicken katsu was the one item that was better than average… *12 hours later: I spoke too soon… I changed my two star rating to a one star rating once I experienced this food leaving my body [explosively] ; whatever they served was highly questionable — it was uneventful going in and very eventful going out. AVOID THIS PLACE. FOOD WAS CLEARLY NOT FIT FOR...

I want to start out by saying that I am only giving a 4/5 star because the online menu prices on their website, not Google, do not match the in person menu prices. Even some of the menu prices is different than what you’re charged. For example, the website says $2 for extra noodle, in person said $3, and we were charged $4 for extra noodles. That’s one example. Some of the ramen have different ingredients as well, but you can still customize it as you please. The prices are a little bit more expensive, and they offer three bowl sizes now; small, medium and large. Depending on which ramen you get, the price is different. My medium miso ramun without any extra add ins was $14. My husband had a large Garlic Tonkotsu ramen which was 16.50. This was before taxes. We originally came here for the reflected menu prices on their actual website.

However, the flavor of the ramen and broth were really good. The broth was creamy, and the noodles were cooked perfectly. The flavor was definitely there for both of our different types of choices. It’s better than a lot of ramen from other places we had before, and the service was decent.

Our complaint is the deceptive pricing. We don’t go by the Google menu pricing because we know that can be inaccurate. But if I am reading something from an establishment’s website, I expect it to be updated and correct. Especially with their website looking more professional and not built off of a website builder like free webs. If you can afford to hire someone to build your website nicely and flashy, have them update the prices as well. Also, update your in store menu or at least let us know if there was a recent change. A more petty person could claim false...