Oozu Ramen — Restaurant in Champaign

As a bit of background, I'm an avid ramen eater but I went to school in Champaign before this restaurant cropped up. So now many years after I've graduated, I am finally eating at this ramen joint. I ordered their Tonkotsu Black ramen which was a tonkotsu ramen topped with pork, menma, naruto, kikurage mushrooms, and an egg. We'll start with the broth since that was the highlight. It was a very solid, full bodied broth with an intense garlic flavor. As good as they come when you want a punch of flavor. The noodles themselves were interesting. They were like good instant ramen noodles. A bit firmer and thicker, and they did taste good. Not the typical thin noodles you get with tonkotsu. Now the toppings were almost all pretty disappointing. Only the menma was any good. It had a nice bite to it and good flavors. The mushrooms were chewy and bland. The pork was dry. The egg, while nicely soft boiled, didn't have any of the marinade penetrate through the white. Overall, pretty disappointing as far as toppings go. The broth came in clutch to make this an above average bowl. Pretty good for a campus food joint at...

I was really craving ramen and so I decided to give this place a try. The restaurant itself has a lovely atmosphere and nice music playing. It felt very inviting and the waitress/waiter was very attentive. I ordered the vegetable ramen because I am vegan, and didn’t particularly enjoy it. It wasn’t awful, but I found the broth quite bland and the noodles are quite thick. Some people might enjoy a thicker noodle, so that comes down to personal preference. The ramen had a good variety of toppings which I liked, but the broccoli was completely uncooked when it came out so I had to let it sit in the broth a while before eating it. Overall, I found the meal to be pretty unsatisfying, especially for the price. They have another vegan option I believe, but it was labeled as spicy and I have quite low spice tolerance, so I don’t think I will be returning.

tldr: If you are not vegan, you will likely have much better luck than me with your food. Steer clear of the vegetable ramen because it is bland and...

The food has never let me down. Absolutely delicious selection of ramen, and some amazing appetizers. Wonderfully filling and rich ramen, with plenty of toppings, and very fresh noodles, (they taste homemade). Prices are average, not cheap but not overpriced, the portions are very large, so you do get what you pay for.

I have a few minor complaints, however neither of them major enough for me to warrant taking a star out of this review:

1. The menus contain several "coming soon" items, while it's great to see that they are working on expanding their menu, I don't think it is very professional to have items listed on the menu that cannot be ordered.
2. The decor is very bland, it almost feels as if the restaurants interior design was never finished. It would be nice to see the Japanese street vendor theme that is on one of the walls expanded to the rest of the restaurant. Again neither of these are by any means major flaws in the restaurant, and hardly, if at all, detracted from...