Japhy's Soup & Noodles — Restaurant in Arcata

To be fair, it's no authentic Asian noodle soup you would find in somewhere like the SF Bay Area or LA, but if you want a healthy, tasty, and filling bowl of noodle soup in the Eureka/Arcata area, this is the place to have it. We found the noodle soup comforting. Service was excellent.

Keep in mind that when they're busy, they'll be slow as they have only two chefs (one head chef) that prepare ALL the dishes and are limited by kitchen size; there are only so many pots with which to drop the noodles into for cooking.

A few nits. The miso soup was saltier than we liked (though the kids were fine with it, so it depends on your taste). The udon noodles aren't what you expect in a Japanese restaurant (they're thinner, but not quite as thin as ramen). The age was sweeter than typical as well.

Overall, though, one of the satisfying meals on our road trip...

The chicken curry is really just 4 tiny pieces of breast meat with cartilage and a couple slivers of green onion. All your $12 pays for the sauce which I'll admit is very good. The rice is bloated and overcooked.

Their ramen soups are a very poor imitations of actual ramen. Little effort has been put into the broth. There is merely a taste of miso and nothing else bolstering the flavor and making it seem like an actual soup stock. They pad the bowl out with noodles to make it seem like you're eating a substantial meal, but when you pay extra for vegetables in your ramen, all you are given is a handful of spinach and a spoonful of canned corn kernels. All this for $12, cash only, and they aren't open on weekends. It's a trendy joint, but the feeling of being ripped off while you eat a mediocre imitation of the real thing was a very...

Twenty minutes for ramen/soup is ludicrious. I saw loads of people after me getting pick up orders. Is this the usual? I thought i could stop off after work for a bowl of ramen for myself and chicken curry for my wife. Twenty minutes it took. I was able to walk right up and order with no one in front. A customer two spots behind me got their soup and curry before I did.

Ive worked in the boh of kitchens for 10+ years and understand how flows of the kitchen work and you dont get 15 minutes to even cook some entres from scratch. This is soup for god sakes. They even use a microwave. There's no cooking involved. Now im not knocking using a microwave, I used mine to reheat some leftovers.

I gave two stars because my wife was pleased with her...