Kai Ramen Westchester — Restaurant in Los Angeles

We had a bittersweet experience at this place.

Service: My husband and I went around 7:15 pm on Saturday. It was fairly busy, but we got our order in pretty quickly. Lots of people came after us and started receiving their food. After 20 min in we found out that the server forgot to punch in our order. We didn't mind much because we had time plus the server was brand new so we didn't want to make it hard on him. Our food arrived after 1 hour of placing an order and the appetizers came after the food. I got black tonokatsu ramen. It seemed a little dry and the additonal topping I asked for was missing, so after voicing the concern I got little more broth and topping on side. After eating few bites I found a hair in my bowl so I complained to the 2nd server and she ordered a replacement. As disgusting as it sounds, we agreed to get the fresh bowl. Food: My husband loved his vegan ramen. Vegan Bun was ok, I wouldn't order it. It was dry and chewy. I loved my new bowl of black tonokatsu ramen. I would highly recommend trying it. We also had chocolate mochi which was good.

Parking: Street parking could be hard to find, but we parked in the large shopping complex with Bristol farms, CVS, etc. From there Kai is only couple buildings down which takes few seconds to walk.

Rating: Despite of our experience I'm giving 4 star because this place has a great potential and the food is amazing. It is a brand new place with short staff. They had total 2 servers, 2 cooks and no manager. I would like to give them a benefit of doubt because they might need more time to be fully staffed and pick up on their service. Mai was incredibly helpful to us even though she wasn't our server.

I'll update my review based on the future...

I have to start by saying that I have really enjoyed their ramen in the past. It's very tasty and I would definitely have it again. Today I ordered a chicken teriyaki rice bowl and a spicy tuna poke. I have to say I'm quite disappointed. The spiky poke didn't have much flavor. In the menu is says it comes with avocado and cucumbers, but there were no cucumbers. As for the chicken teriyaki bowl, also not much flavor either. It's a little odd that they add two cherry tomatoes to the bowl, but they also add corn which is also a bit strange. More than anything, the wait time at this restaurant is way too long. It's not the first time we have had to wait a long time for our food to be ready, but this time I ordered my food for pick at 2:30pm through Uber Eats and it stated that it would be ready at 2:45pm. I arrived at 2:50pm and did not get my food until 3:15pm. Which means it was late by 30 minutes. The server and cook were both very nice and offered a drink on the house, which I appreciate, but that's just way to long for a simple two plates to be prepared. It took them 45 minutes to have my order ready. Anyway, I do recommend the ramen, it's very tasty, but be prepared to wait a long time...

Love the interior design and atmosphere of this place! I would give them 6 stars on this criteria if I could.

I loved the Bomb Ramen even more! I was craving ground pork in my ramen that day so I initially came in for their dandan ramen. But the waiter heavily discouraged me from getting it (a little off-putting since why keep it on the menu if it’s not something they want to serve, but it might have been just a language barrier, idk). But glad the Bomb Ramen still fulfilled my cravings! Creamy, a little mala from the sichuan peppercorns, but it was so perfectly light, nothing too strong to handle. But what do you expect to eat when you order the “Bomb” ramen?

Server was polite but like I mentioned above, he was too pushy/aggressive when it came to choosing what to order (which was off-putting to me). It kind of took away from my experience, since I didn’t expect being turned down what I really wanted to get from there originally (dandan), but glad they had something similar.

Parking is street at front, but it was too busy at the time I came. Thankfully they have spots in the back you can get through the alley and it was much...