Kazzan Ramen & Bar — Restaurant in Houston

Kazzan Ramen & Bar is a ramen concept from Osaka, Japan and made its American debut recently in Los Angeles, California. It has now opened its second location in Houston's Heights neighborhood (as of July 22nd, 2024). The restaurant is tucked away in a strip mall, sharing a free, but often full parking lot with neighboring businesses. It's housed in a space formerly occupied by the fancy seafood restaurant Star Fish/1751 Sea & Bar and retained a similar aesthetic, featuring a beautiful bar.

Our visit to Kazzan on a Friday evening was marked by a notable wait time; we were left at our table for 20 minutes without service until we approached the host. The restaurant, clearly understaffed, struggled to keep up with the demand.

Kazzan, meaning "volcano" in Japanese, presents its ramen in a unique way. The noodles are served in a stone bowl heated to over 650 degrees Fahrenheit. When the broth is poured tableside from a glass coffee beaker, the dish is capped, and steam shoots out like a volcanic eruption. While visually impressive, the ramen itself was not particularly hot.

[SIDE DISHES]

+Black Pepper Edamame for $5.40 - This tasted like frozen edamame served cold in a lackluster black pepper sauce. This dish was disappointing and not recommended. - 2/5

[KAZZAN RAMEN]

+Beef Sukiyaki Kazzan Ramen (original tonkatsu broth enhanced with special blended sukiyaki soy sauce paste) for $24.80 - This dish was supposedly the highlight of the menu, but it was also underwhelming. The broth, enhanced with sukiyaki soy sauce paste, was poured tableside with the characteristic volcanic steam effect. However, adding typical ramen toppings like egg, chashu, and green onions requires an additional $6.30! These toppings, served on a cold plate, made the bowl messy and difficult to eat once added. The beef sukiyaki was chewy and seemed overcooked, while the chashu was thick and bland. Including rice to add to the broth after finishing the noodles was an interesting touch, but overall, the dish fell short of expectations. - 2/5

Despite the challenges, our final server, Natasha, provided excellent service and genuinely cared about our experience. Her kindness was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing evening. Kazzan Ramen & Bar offers a unique dining experience with its volcanic ramen presentation. However, the food quality and service issues detract significantly from the overall experience. While it's currently a trendy spot, largely due to social media buzz, I struggle to see its long-term success in Houston. I would not recommend eating...

This place is a 10/10. The decor is incredibly cool. There is this wall in the dinning area that was painted by an incredible artist that really stole my attention. The walls surrounding the kitchen and ramen bar has even more art that just captures your attention. Even the booth’s dragon details were incredible. You can tell this place was designed with an eye for beauty.

I had the Kazzan curry and it was absolutely delicious! The curry broth had a rich flavor that makes me excited to try their curry port or chicken cutlet bowls one day. Also tried the Kazzan karamiso which also had a rich broth with extremely tender pork. The food portions are so big I’d recommend small for one person and large if you plan on sharing. I enjoyed the experience of watching my meal cook, smoke, and bubble. It’ll make you want to record the entire experience. The stone bowl was so hot my meal remained hot all through. Had the assorted appetizers with Takoyaki, edemas, and karaage. Takoyaki was delicious! My motto is try everything twice and the first time I had Takoyaki from a restaurant I was absolutely disappointed. This restaurant definitely washed that memory away. Mango soda is a must have it has mango syrup with soda on top with cubed mangos. After stirring with the spoon provided, it was a perfect drink for my meal. Fried chicken wings were very juicy with a nice crispy skin and flavor. We also had some casing Arnold ciders which was between 5.6 - 5.8 ABV. My favorite was the dry cider, it had that dry apple taste with a hint of sweetness. If wine and beer had a baby, its cider! For dessert, I wanted My matcha but the birthday boy wanted mango magic and the birthday boy made a magical decision! Honestly you can never go wrong with shaved ice! The menu is so rich I have to come back to try their other sections. Especially their bar, the variety of drinks is incredible. Definitely...

A new restaurant in the Heights area with a really nice interior space. Very spacious, but not empty as it's seemed pretty consistently filled with customers and modern decor including a very nice painted mural. Prices equivalent or cheaper than Jinya and other similar ramen restaurants in the Houston area, especially worth if for the appetizers and dessert. The chashu salad had a larger selection of ingredients in it than usually found at ramen restaurants which added much to the flavor and was very filling, almost as large as the ramen bowl. The cuts of meat used in their ramen tends to be leaner and healthier than I typically end up getting at other ramen places which is a nice change as it didn't sit heavily afterwards. The shaved ice desserts are large and extremely flavorful with the condensed milk drizzle over it, and as big as it was, I found myself wanting to order a second just to see if the other flavors were equally as good. The bar selection is also very extensive for a place of this size and you will definitely be able to find a drink to go with your meal. Both servers I've had were extremely friendly and offered opinions on the food which were greatly appreciated and I can't think of the last time I've had that kind of service somewhere else. During my first visit at their grand opening, there were some minor stumbling blocks as far as servers still learning the menu and apps and entrees getting fine tuned - but by the second visit the staff had clearly been receptive to any criticisms and are learning and adapting to customers wants without losing their original concepts and ideas. It's been extremely refreshing to see and I will definitely...