HOT Ramen & Grill — Restaurant in San Angelo

As close to Japan as you can get in Texas

Graded on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being worst and 5 being amazing. Time ordered: 1100 Presentation: 2 out of 5 Flavor: 4 out of 5 Quickness: 5 out of 5 (10 minute wait) Price: $16ish Dish ordered: Misou Ramen and Takoyaki. (I also tried Chicken Katsu Curry at another point but not added in this total) Order Method: Pick Up

I will start by saying I was stationed in Japan for 4 years and in that time I have sampled multiple dishes from that country. From wagyu steak to shark fin soup. Any "Asian" themed restaurant I visit in San Angelo is usually compared to how close they can get it to that country of origin. I am very critical of any place that puts "Japense" in their list of dishes.

I got out of the military in 2012 and since that time I have been searching for a restaurant that can get as close as possible to an actual bowl of Japanese Ramen. There was this one place I always went to with my friends called "Ramen Sora". The dish I always ordered was Spicy Misou Ramen. I have tried multiple places all over texas and different areas. Closest one yet was a place in Austin. Then House of Teriyaki came to town.

I was quite skeptical at first. The inside decorations does not really give it a Japanese feel. It felt like I was sitting inside a freebirds with a new coat of paint and nothing was done to change the restaurant at all to give it that feel. However, the food was on point. The Takoyaki (Octopus balls) was ALMOST the way it would have been from a street vendor in japan. However there are a few minor inconsistencies in terms of texture and flavor.

Then there was the ramen, I had to see what the spice bomb was about and it truly gave me the spicy misou ramen. I disliked the pickled ginger or adding corn as that was not what normally goes in a bowl of ramen. Usually its thinly diced green onions and bean sprouts. The flavor I had been looking for was there though! I tried other ramen bowls that just seemed like ways to americanize it. They were good, but the noodles were always the same.

I may or may not be correct but it seems like the noodles are of the instant variety. In Japan they make the noodles themselves. Regardless it was great.

The Chicken Katsu Curry was good. however, curry sauce should be thick and runny not wattery. They got all the flavors right but again the presentation was lackluster. Curry should go across the rice like a Syrup. The chicken was also quite dry. I enjoyed the dish and its flavor, but its still not as authentic.

Feedback: You guys are like...so close to being just like a restaurant I would eat at in Japan. Try to make the inside of your restaurant feel like you are walking into Japan (Take a note from your neighbor Nakamuras). Some decorations and things of that nature would be wonderful. Try to get as close as you can to the actual Japanese dish, do something about your wattery curry if you can. Try to get other authentic japanese dishes like Omurice and beef bowls (Those are so easy to make and just as delicious) I love the restaurant and eat there when I miss Japan, but you guys can do better.

Overall Score 4 out of 5 TLDR: Almost like authentic Japanese, but some improvements...

Wonderful atmosphere and I enjoyed the piano music very much. The waitress was very kind and welcoming.

Unfortunately, the food was not as lovely as the vibe. I ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry and Karaage Chicken.

Got the Karaage first, was pretty bland and mostly dry, so I had to use the sauce they provided, which helped a lot. Unfortunately 1 of them had a very large bone in it, in which I basically just ate dough and barely in chicken for that piece. Karaage shouldn't ever have bone in it. They told me, sometimes it has bone in it... They need to put that into their menu if that's the case, because it is NOT normal.

The Chicken Katsu Curry came, and the first thing I noticed was the curry itself looked more like soup, and unfortunately, it was basically soup. Even worse, there wasn't really much flavor at all. Did they have frozen vegetables mixed in with a lot of water and something, I have no idea. It's not curry. The Chicken Katsu itself was surprisingly very crispy and tasted fine, albeit a little bit drier than I would have liked. I couldn't really enjoy the steamed rice because normally you'd mix the rice with curry and chicken, but I couldn't really do that because mixing the soup and rice was already painful.

Perhaps I should have gotten ramen or chicken teriyaki, but I surely wasn't expecting bone in my karaage, nor was I expecting soup...

System was down on the register. They took our order at the table and would charge us later. The waitress took all three of our orders. Two of our orders where the same. Well minutes later she arrives with one meal. I was thinking ok maybe they will bring the rest here in just a few moments. Well no it took them maybe about 30 minutes to bring me my food, by then my fiance had already finished his meal. I was already not too happy about that, cause we all wanted to eat at the same time. Well after I got my food they never brought my neaces food. After about another 30 damn minutes I asked what was up why haven't they brought her food they then told us that they never got an order for her. Being that they took all three of our orders at the same time! We had paid for what we thought was all three meals and even after all the waiting and that they never took her order apparently cause as I remember she repeated all three of our orders to us. Her order wasn't put in so they charged us even after all their f$%k up! She was the last one to eat. Food was good, but not the experience..it was...