Hokkaido Ramen — Restaurant in Bradley

The first thing that I noticed was the entry glass door. It was very smudged, dirty and appeared to have been washed with a very dirty wet towel. Homemade paper notices were taped to the glass. I really wanted to like this place, but we were off to a shaky start. In fairness to the restaurant, I need to mention that this was their “soft opening”. Since they do not have a website of any kind, and Hokkaido corporate site only directs you to Google Maps, and the local newspaper is as dead as our mall, there was no way to know that they were only seating parties with reservations. Thus the notices on the door (!). A little late to be told. After a short barter session with a young male that appeared to be in charge, we were reluctantly seated- a party of four-at a table near the porcelain diorama of two large men in diapers squaring off in an imaginary wrestling match. The table was near the west all-glass wall where the sun was shining so brightly that it was very uncomfortable for diners facing the window. There were no shades of any kind. The table next to us made it clear in his very loud conversation with his dining partner that he knew the owner of the restaurant from his patronisation of his other restaurant. His clout wasn’t much help since the couple was forced to switch seats to avoid the bright sunlight in their faces. The calamari appetiser was rubbery and consisted of eight (8) pieces. Not good. The seared tuna appetiser was served without wasabi, without ginger and was kind of mushy. The stuffed jalapeños with spicy tuna was not on the misprinted menus. The ramen dishes were pretty good except when considering the price point. In the final analysis, it’s RAMEN! Service was nonexistent until we flagged down a server at a nearby table. Our order was correct but took about 45 minutes. The most remarkable thing to me is that the owner of the business was on the premises and visibly up front most of the time we were there. Except for the reunion with our neighbors, he never appeared to be concerned with our table of four, squinting from the sun in our faces, without drinks nor food for as long as we waited. There was never an offer to refill drinks or to provide any additional service by our server. She just disappeared. As we were sitting at our table, I noticed several paper items discarded in the dining room’s . The employees simply stepped over or on the garbage and went about their business. No one cared. I imagined what the kitchen looked like. Very unprofessional and careless. As we left, I saw a young couple walk in. It was around 8 PM. The young male at the register explained that it was reservations only tonight. The restaurant was very nearly empty including the rear section that was completely empty. The customers, or wannabe customers, politely left. I was embarrassed for the restaurant for being so impolite. Thanks but no thanks to future visits to Hokkaido or any of the restaurants in the owner’s empire. Disorganised, unclean, untrained waitstaff, oblivious owner, rude uncaring management, topped off with overpriced food makes for a very bad experience.

Two stars because it’s a new business. Although our server explained that some employees, if not all, were from the owner’s other restaurants. Some of the other reviews lead me to think I was in a different restaurant than the one I’m commenting on.

Remember, it’s just my...

Pretty interior and service was immediate and kind. I got two different kinds of buns: pork belly and kobe beef. The pork belly is more traditional and I know them from vietnam as banh mi and in Tokyo as "cha bao" but both dishes colloquially as Bao which 'buns' and is kind of like a general category of food, like saying, "for dinner we ate BBQ". These were balanced flavor with very high quality ingredients with a light, subtle terriaki drizzle. The buns are like a cloud in the sky. They are small as they are intended as a street food snack but $7 for two is a great price. $8 for Kobe is an amazing value! And the slices of steak were delicate, tender, and cooked perfectly. These occupy a tiny footprint on the menu below the appetizers but I will be having them every time I am anywhere near this place. Bao are small so I ordered the Hokkaido fried rice for $13. House, or combo fried rice is usually in the $10-$12 price range for a quart size. This was a large plastic to go container piled high that I would guess was about 24 oz. Almost every bite had a dice sided hunk of pork chashu. It had a notably glossy appearance and the rice was perfectly cooked. I added a tiny bit of sriracha to mine as the flavor is rich and meaty with a slightly sweet unseen dressing.... maybe stir fried with a teaspoon of oyster sauce? My addition is preference only as this easily would of held up as a main course because of the meat. (I would suggest sharing this fried rice and sharing a bowl of ramen with a partner because the portions are pretty big. If you are not experienced with ramen or pho this type of dish may feel like you are lacking substance. The idea is the broth is the flavor and the ramen is the delivery method. With the egg, pork or brisket upping the flavor and protein. The boba teas were pretty standard. We got peach, peach mango, chocolate milk tea, brown sugar milk tea and Melon. All were good. But if you are an adult, I would suggest dialing down the sweetness to %70 or %50. Also the popping boba appear to be made on site as they are delicate. We spent $64 and fed four people a light lunch type meal. ($30 of our tab was boba so you could dial down the cost by half by drinking water or soda). Amazing that we are lucky to have such good asian options. This place should have billboards on I57 and the tourists...

Place is great! Was worried about the reservations and I went in with a group,without any reservations and we expected the wait to be super long but it really wasn’t at all. I wanna say it was only like 5-10 minutes maybe. And the wait on the food wasn’t as long as I expected either. We went at a fairly busy time,almost no tables available and we got everything we ordered within about 20 minutes,maybe a little over but I’ve had longer waits for much less demand. The staff we talked to was super friendly,super nice as well. Love the decoration. There’s some flowers by the waiting area behind the benches,these two massive sumo wrestlers in the middle of the restaurant and a very pretty tree that ties everything together

And the quality of the food was great! Mi familia got these sesame balls and they were like the right amount of sweet and the texture was nice,mi hijo got this chicken,didn’t know what he ordered but it was alright! I liked the breading on it. Never had calamari before and this calamari was pretty good! And I got a ramen bowl personally and I forgot what it was,I think it was the number 5 on the menu,but the broth had the right amount of spice to it where it didn’t mask the flavor,the noodles were good,as well as the bean sprouts and the chicken. And I liked the boba tea! It’s not the best I’ve had,I will say that,but it’s far from the worst. I had this gentrified boba up in Chicago and it just tasted like they threw a little milk and a whole lot of sugar in there,just very off from my usual,and the quality of the boba balls itself was not great either,but with this place,it was good! I got the Brown Sugar Milk Tea Boba and it just tastes like how you’d expect it to,pretty good! Very glad to have a boba place closer to home and on top of that,the food and dine in experience is pretty good! I...