Kaiju Ramen & Curry — Restaurant in Isla Vista

I really would give this two stars except that I will be coming back from time to time and don't want to make things worse for myself.

The ramen was nothing special. I wanted seafood but that was not an option. You have to get meat in order to get tiny bits of processed fish. The meat was fatty and not wholesome. The broth was also fatty and not wholesome.

The fried octopus was sad. Such a shame to take all those little octopuses and deep fry them so you can't even taste them. All you taste is the greasy deep fried coating. No other flavor.

The edamame is usually tolerable, but this last time it was so overcooked it was really slimy.

The only things I have found here that are good? The gyoza is delicious and that is why I will come back again. The seaweed salad is good, too. I am guessing they just buy it and there is no way to mess it up. I come here for lunch and there is no way to get the dinner plates during the day which seems really annoying.

As for the service? Every time it takes at least 20 minutes to get served. And not once have they made any effort to come out and let me know it was ready. Every time I had to go back in to see what was going on.

As far as I am concerned, the only reason to come here is for the gyoza. But bring a good book to read as you will probably be...

If this wasn't in Isla Vista it would probably get 2 stars. But I keep seeing student reviews saying it's good food for IV, so I get it. I got the tonkotsu ramen and my husband got the tonkotsu curry. Both were okay. The ramen looked like it was just thrown together, the soup was luke-warm and the noodles were pretty standard. The broth had some richness to it, and was decent, but I wish it had actually been hot. The slices of pork were excellent, and the egg was the perfect balance of soft & hard-boiled. The curry sauce and the pork katsu was good, well flavored, but the sauce had maybe 5 little veggies in it..not super substantial in that department. Service was okay. But our server came around with the bill even though we were far from finished eating, kinda awkward. Overall I can see how students find this to be a decent spot for ramen...

The music taste has my ears in 87 countries during my time here. And in most of those countries I was jumped and robbed. Aka music no bueno. Don’t let that distract from the fact that the food was no muy bueno. The food tastes like a bad high. Some of the menu items are good tho. But that will be up to interpretation because each soul that walks through the door has a different food item linked to the fabric of their existence. The fabric may rip and that’s what happened to me. The post it note wall is arguably the best thing about this restaurant. Very cool to see the artwork of others. It says something about the restaurant when the best thing about it was made by someone else. Take this review with a grain of salt, I’m high while writing this. All I had was mediocre food with no real value and that sparked me to lay all these words...