Kumako Den — Restaurant in San Jose

We came 30 min before closing straight from the airport and were concerned they'd be closing for the night, but to our surprise, they happily welcomed us and struck up a fun conversation, which made the experience all the better.

We are ramen lovers and came because of the high reviews.

What we had: note that all portions are huge. Their noodles are wavy and seem to be egg-based pasta (vs buckwheat - but this is pure observation).

Chicken karaage: Delicious and juicy. Good portion of it with a side dollop of Japanese mayo on one end and pickled radish on the other end of the appetizer.

Stir fry ramen: I had never had a stir fry ramen and let me tell you....game changer. I wish they were in my state. Think delicious veggie stir fry with a smoky flavor over a rich, but not too intense broth and a hefty portion of delicious noodles.

Tonkostu ramen: their broth is unlike any other tonkostu ramen we've had and we loved it. It's more black pepper-y and rich in the tonkostu flavor.

The special treat: they make their own hot chili paste which includes the chili pepper seeds, and let me tell you - it's deliciously hot 🔥🥵. You don't get that overwhelming chemical type of heat because their paste is organic and house made daily. One half spoon portion of their hot sauce paste is all you need. I did a full spoon and loved it but could have been equally satisfied with half...

Overall, this place is very good. Yummy and tasty ramen. Service and ambience could be better though.

Quantity: They offer huge quantities here, every other ramen shop in the area will probably not be able to offer this much quantity to be honest.

Quality: Ramen and the hot sauce are very fresh. Spicy Miso ramen was very good. Added corn toppings (you have to pay extra for any additional topping), and it tasted very good. You can customize the spice level as well, which is great.

Ambience: Ambience is decent. Very small place. I could live with that though -- because food was yummy.

Service: Uhm, honestly, there was some weirdness on this. Edamame was really bland (just steamed and salted), and we asked for some extra soy sauce and chili sauce. The response we got was "Did you not check the menu? The edamame is just steamed and salted, nothing more". For which I'm like "Sure, but I still get some sauce on the side?". I didn't get a Yes/No for that, and it took quite some time for us to the get the side -- we almost finished eating by then..... Service was decent otherwise.

3 vegetarian options on the ramen side, and 3-4 vegetarian appetizers (which IMO is considered "good" for variety compared to other ramen places in the area).

I highly recommend the Spicy...

We visited Kumako Den on July 4th, and it was bustling with activity when we arrived. After around 20min wait to be seated, our expectations were high due to the glowing reviews we'd seen on Google.

Nikki, who we believe is the owner, stood out as an attentive and hardworking host. He made an effort to engage with each customer, creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

We ordered the miso soup ramen and what we expected to be tonkatsu with rice. However, there was a mix-up, and we received a bowl of deep-fried pork chop served in a curry soup base instead. Unfortunately, curry isn't our favorite Japanese flavor, as we find it tends to be on the sweeter side.

Given the restaurant's busy environment and the lengthy wait for our food, we decided not to address the order mix-up with Nikki. Additionally, the miso soup ramen was a bit saltier than we anticipated, which may have been influenced by the restaurant's hectic pace that day.

Despite these hiccups, we genuinely enjoyed our meal, largely thanks to Nikki's dedication to customer service.

One suggestion for improvement would be to serve the tonkatsu pork separately when it's included in a soup base. We found that the pork slices became soggy when left to soak in the soup, which detracted from the...