Tatsu Ramen — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Went back for the first time in 3 years, used to be regulars here. The kitchen staff completely changed as it seems like; nothing tasted good or remotely like the way it tased before. Yes, the lines used to be crazy but the food used to be high quality. Tonight we ordered 6 different things from the menu; each one of them sucked; even the garlic edamame-- overcooked, bland and dried out. The cheeky ramen had too much cream and no chicken flavor, the bold was no longer bold; only oily and burnt after taste. None of the depth of the taste you used to get from the art of sophisticated Japanese broth making. The pork buns were stale, reheated to make it sort of warm but terribly failed at it. The meat inside the pork buns were just some mediocre pork; not the pork chase that it used to be. The meat in the ramen also; used to be individually seared and oddly shaped; it was perfect rectangular with no flavor and were served cold. last but not least; the pork rice was disgusting. It was reheated. overcooked. smooshly and watery in the middle. I couldn't take more than one bite. The previous owners/cooks/chefs were meticulous about the quality and the attention to detail here. None of it remains; hence the detailed review... There were no more lines though, customers are not stupid, they can tell the quality being completely given up on in this place. Even the small room they were hand-making the ramens is gone. So sad. We will never, ever return, wish we didn't go back tonight either; could have stayed a great ramen shop with long lines in our memories...

Tatsu on Melrose has always been my go-to place. I used to eat there at least 2-3 times per month for years and I know their menu by heart. I was lucky to find it before it got cool and the lines were around the block.

Today I went back, excited, after not having eaten there for ~3 years. I tried their NY location in the meanwhile which was horrible but now I was finally "coming home".

When I got to the Tatsu on Melrose it was like a parallel universe, where the food looks as it used to but everything tastes bad. Reinvented. Cheap. Wrong. Everything tasted like a fake version of the old stuff.. like someone swapped all the old ingredients and the way they were cooked saying "oh, they'll never notice.." From the noodles to the oily and burnt-tasting broth, from overcooked bland rice to yellow edamame, from the texture of the 2-day-old bun to the overcooked egg in the ramen. My heart brakes but something (bad) has happened. This was the first time I left half a bowl of ramen.

The staff changed as well. It used to be a bunch of cool-looking tatted up cooks, cramped up in that small kitchen, throwing ladels of perfectly cooked in-house noodles up in the air and choreographing between giant pots of boiling ramen. It was loud and hot and cool and they were awesome. Today the service was good and the waiters were nice and friendly. But the magic is gone. It was quiet. And the...

I never leave bad reviews, but I actually like Tatsu Ramen and wanted to give some honest feedback on their new Natsu Ramen in hopes of them improving. This review is coming from me, a Japanese person that grew up in Japan and spent a majority of my life there.

I was excited to try their natsu ramen because it has the ume plum and shiso herb which are beautiful and delicious ingredients that are hard to find in the US. The sauce was wayyy too spicy and all the beautiful flavors and fragrances of the shiso and ume got lost in the overpowering spiciness. I was definitely expecting something more light to complement those key flavors, and a regular tsuyu sauce with a different type of noodle. Unfortunately it turned out to be more of a failed attempt of a classic reimen (japanese cold noodle). If you guys are going to use the reimen sauce, then I recommend going for the classic version with cut up cucumbers, tomatoes, eggs, ham etc as toppings.

Otherwise I advise you guys to try something with either soba or udon noodles with regular tsuyu (diluted with water as the instructions say) and add those beautiful toppings on that instead.

A light salt/chicken broth ramen is another popular choice in Japan that compliments ume and shiso as well.

I was definitely excited to try something new from them, but am going to stick to their regular tonkotsu...