HiroNori Craft Ramen — Restaurant in Irvine

This is a long awaited review but I wanted to have a dine-in experience before I put words on this one. We’ve ordered take out from here a ton considering how we had discovered this place at the start of Covid. As the stars aligned on a random weekday, we were in the area before peak dinner time and managed to snag a table. The dining room has expanded out towards a small makeshift patio which gives ample seating for the long waitlist. The eatery is also in a decent area, situated in a plaza that holds multiple different options for food with a mini food hall a couple doors down. Service and food was exceptionally fast, our food came out pippin’ hot.

Our go-to order has been the traditional Tonkotsu Ramen - ($14.80) - be certain to ask for the additional garlic and their house spicy sauce! The noodles have the perfect bounce to them with slurp worthy texture, the broth is pretty well balanced as a whole but both the hubby and I couldn’t help but add in their house spicy sauce with a bit of garlic to get more of an umph factor. The one thing I'll note about the bowl is that the chashu is lacking tenderness. I’m more of a fan of the melt in your mouth juicy slices of pork that bring in a meaty texture and flavor to your ramen bite, but the chashu slices here are very underwhelming when paired with the rest of the bowl.

Crispy Chicken - ($7.00) - Basically their version of Taiwanese fried chicken bites. Their marinade on their chicken is impeccable! Really enjoyed this appi! Definitely Recommend!

Overall, HiroNori is definitely one of the top ramen places i’ve tried. The broth and noodles are super tasty, and you can definitely see the quality in each bowl. Both take out and dining in my experience were decently pleasant! Would definitely recommend this spot for future...

okay okay okay

so i work 80 hours a week so i only eat fast food to save time

im from a small town in minnesota so i normally just stick to like chipotle and things i know

after working near hironori for almost a year i finally got dragged a bowl by my friend who force fed me hironori

here are my notes

they have optional spicy sauce on the side, which was the spiciest food i’ve had in like a year. love 🔥

i didn’t feel like the staff hated me. this is common for some reason i go to restaurants and the employees are all like angry. meanwhile at hironori it was like new friends. such good vibes 😎

hiro nori gives me NO food poisoning, and despite the high spiciness, the food is REALLY VERY friendly to my stomach. zero pain or illness. Wow! magic. meanwhile other chains like buffalo wild wings, chipotle, mcdonald’s ALWAYS give me food poisoning. 🏥

HiroNori portion sizes are SUPER generous, always leaves me completely full, and if i didn’t leave a big tip it would be cheaper than anywhere else for a once daily meal. 🥘

the food itself is fresh and normal ingredients, rice and chicken for example, it doesn’t make me feel guilty for eating!! 🙏

healthy AND yummy AND cheap AND clean AND spicy (optional) ???!?! it’s like i died and went to food heaven. for real 😇 how is this even possible in irvine???

i think im in love with hironori craft ramen specifically the chicken bowl. i just filed paperwork for a divorce from chipotle ✌️

thank you so much for blessing me with this food 🤍

I go to fancy restaurants a lot and honestly the quality of my experience at this hironori chain was unironically better than some michelin star restaurants ive...

It’s super understandable why this place is always busy! Like wow. Tonight my mom and I came for some dominos pizza but we saw a small crowd of people in front of this restaurant and we had to know what the hype was about ! So we took the risk and said forget about the pizza, since the ramen smelt so sooo good ! The wait was a little long but honestly, the waiting is like the drumroll before the delicious show !

I heard about HiroNori, I was a little nervous to try it since I’m honestly super picky with my ramen but I’m telling you this place did not disappoint ! First time eating here so we had a lot of questions. A LOT, the staff was so patient with my mom and I. Answered all of our questions, everyone was so very sweet (:

okay so the food, Vegan Ramen, Oh my goodness. It’s huge, packed with delicious flavors and I can’t believe it’s all vegan!!! Same with the Vegan Gyoza, that sauce it comes with makes it so yummy!!!! My mom got the Shoyu ramen which was much lighter but still so good, it was addicting! Like a good sippin soup. They had many refreshment options, like fruit infused water, that was free! I downed like two of them 😄 I am very happy with my decision, I’m definitely coming back to explore more of there items.

They also have an optional 10% service charge, they said I can take it off but honestly, I think they deserve a lot more.

Shout out to the staff, & Braxton, thank you for taking...