MYMEN RAMEN — Restaurant in Garden Grove

BEST RAMEN IN THE WORLD!! Ever since this restaurant opened 1 or 2 years ago, I always come back whenever I’m in Orange County. I’ve been to many ramen restaurants in my life: all over SoCal (including little Tokyo), San Francisco (including Japantown), San Jose, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Kyoto, Tokyo, etc. none of them have been as good as this restaurant.

FOOD: I always get the creamy vegan ramen, it’s $16. Worth it for the best ramen I’ve ever eaten!! And that means better than all of the non-vegan ramen I’ve eaten too! Only one size but as an average sized man with a void for a stomach, it’s the perfect portion imo. The noodles are the perfect texture and the broth is, as correctly named, creamy. It comes with bean sprouts, diced onions, green onions, corn, and this really good deep fried cauliflower.

SERVICE: The staff is really friendly/kind! It’s a small business so not that much staff, and in my experience they’re all wonderful. Even with the small staff, the ramen usually comes out really quickly!

ATMOSPHERE: It’s a small restaurant with usually just a few other people eating. The decor is nice! There’s an impressive manga shelf behind the counter and a bunch of pretty paper lanterns hung around. Music is questionable (not bad) but everyone has their own tastes. It changes from time to time however most of the times I’ve been, the music has been pop song covers or edm.

OVERALL: Highly recommend!!! Their vegan ramen is the best ramen...

I left feeling underwhelmed by this restaurant and likely won't be returning.

The positives:

Open late, which is convenient. The food tasted decent, and I had no issues with how it was served. The decor with manga books was a nice touch. Even though they were in Japanese and I couldn't read them, it added charm. I initially expected more of a ramen/manga-themed cafe, though it wasn't quite that.

However, there were a few reasons I wouldn't come back:

Overpriced. I understand that most ramen/noodle places charge around $20-25 per person, but I was surprised they charge an extra dollar for each spice level. Their prices are listed on the menu, but I missed that detail. Most places I've been to have chili powder or seasonings available on the side--here, there was nothing like that. While it's common to charge for extra items, the base bowl felt very basic compared to other ramen spots where more is typically included. They did play J-pop, but it was so quiet it barely added to the atmosphere.

I do appreciate supporting small businesses, so if you're curious and hungry, the food does taste decent--just be aware that it's fairly basic...

I don’t usually leave bad reviews, but this place genuinely shocked me. I came around 10 PM and ordered the Tonkotsu ramen ($18) and one chicken bao bun ($7). The bao bun was very very tiny and took 35 minutes to come out. After waiting an entire hour, my ramen finally arrived lukewarm, with barely any noodles and just one small, thin slice of meat. I finished it in under two minutes because there was so little in the bowl. For the price, the portion and quality were so incredibly disappointing that I thought I was dreaming. DO NOT COME HERE AT NIGHT THEY HAVE NO INGREDIANTS. I scared that they still expected a tip after overcharging for such low-quality food and terrible service. I later checked other reviews and saw their replies saying things like “No tipper, why do you expect service?”. This shocked me and I was shaking in the restaurant which I should've felt safe in. AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COST THE...