Kujira Ramen — Restaurant in Fort Collins

A friend and I ventured up to Ft. Collins to have a fun day together. Since he knows I'm a ramen fiend, he suggested Kujira. After checking out the reviews and photos on my favorite review site (yep, you guessed it. Yelp!) I was down to give it a try. I'm so glad we did!

On our way to the restaurant, we called to make reservations, but they don't take reservations. We were expecting kind of a wait but ended up walking right in and grabbing a table. This was on a Sunday at 1:30pm.

We both ordered hot tea, and they brought out a really fancy glass pitcher of hot water, some honey, and a little box with all sorts of Yamamotoyama teas. I love this brand of tea! I had the Genmatcha Green Tea, and my friend chose the Genmai-Cha Green Tea.

For appetizers, we ordered the Shishito Peppers and the Takoyaki. Both were great. The Shishito Peppers were a bit crunchy for my liking, I like mine a little more blistered and cooked through. The Takoyaki was delicious.

I ordered the Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen and added bamboo shoots. I selected mild spice (because I read in reviews that the bowl was too-hot-to-handle for some), and it was not spicy at all. Total mistake on my part because I usually order medium spice. Next time (because there will be a next time), I will totally get medium spice. The broth tasted authentic, rich, and dreamy. The noodles had a pleasant texture and consistency. The egg was super soft, it seemed lightly poached. I prefer mine ramen-egg style where it's medium boiled in the shell and peeled.

The food was filling and delicious. The restaurant was cute and felt authentic. The service was a bit lacking, as stated in other reviews. The plastic dishes were well-used and chipped. They could use an upgrade. I will definitely be back for another bowl of tonkotsu ramen, some more takoyaki, and to try a few of their...

food poisoning from beef ramen. honestly is beef supposed to taste like this? don't think so. tastes so cheap and gamey.. uhhhh. bad meat. love the ramen here, it's always a risk ordering beef, is this gamey taste a Japanese thing? No, its rotten. This tastes like low grade beef. Your food is supposed to keep people alive, doesn't seem to be working.

Is it possible to get NOT fried chicken in ramen? No one would fry good quality chicken. Good chicken is not fried. Only crap is fried, to disguise that it's crap. Real chicken in big Tokyo or little Tokyo is cooked delicately and it goes great in ramen.

step up the meat, so low grade. par for the course in the land of mediocrity. just because you're here doesn't mean you have to lower yourself. You're making people sick. This place has good ramen but not sure if it would last in a place like Boulder where people are more picky aka normal. Fort Collins has extremely low standards, especially when it comes to meat and burgers. if you serve quality ingredients there will be a line out the door. There is literally no good food in Fort Collins. Nothing. zero. You have a chance to easily be the best restaurant in town, serve better meat!!! very simple request --- better ingredients, I'll come here every day. if you don't have a line out the door in a mediocre town like this you pretty much blow.

I think at this point the only option is the veggie ramen. I don't care what it costs, nor does anyone else. But i of course will not be returning. Love, Gringo Jr.

p.s. their front door is constantly slamming, it's so insanely annoying. i thought japanese had more pride. restaurant is understaffed. there's no manager. I feel so bad for the ladies up front because it's so busy. oh yea,...

Definitely a wonderful find for a Japanese restaurant. We were driving through Ft Collins on the way to Idaho and stayed in the area overnight we were looking for a good Asian restaurant. Oh boy, did we find it! The restaurant boasts a large interior with many Japanese & Japanime design elements. It feels very minimalist meets cozy. The menu has all the standard Japanese staples one would expect to find and some fusion options that weren’t expected but very glad they offered - think xiaolong bao (chinese soup dumplings) or shrimp shumai (Cantonese egg wrapper shrimp dumplings). We ordered the xiaolong bao and were pleased with the taste of the dumplings (4 per order) and dipping sauce. We also ordered tonkotsu (regular comes with bamboo) ramen made spicy and the spicy tonkotsu (no bamboo but comes with mushroom) ramen. The flavor was some of the best I’ve ever tasted. The pork chashu was thankfully on the more lean side - which was a nice finish… sometimes there’s WAY too much fat - not so here. Our teas were refilled without having to be empty or having to ask for them. Very nice service but he staff. The food came out in a pretty timely manner. The only negative thing was the kitchen ventilation wasn’t super great so we left the restaurant smelling very strongly of smokey Asian food… which is a bit of a bummer when that leads to your hotel room smelling of smokey Asian food for the rest of the stay. I’d definitely come back, even with the less than great kitchen...