Kappo Nara Ramen — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

I've been wanting to go to Kappo Nara for a while now. My oldest son & his g/f have been raving about it for the past year. We finally all got together and went there a 7:00 p.m. on a Thursday night. There were 7 of us. It's a small and very casual place, attached to Ninja Tea (same owner). I tasted my son's Green Honey Tea (hot) which was a little too sweet for my tastes, so I ordered black tea. I did not realize you can control sweetness by staying 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, no sugar, honey, etc. My tea came to my table so sweet, I thought my blood sugar would go through the roof. I then ordered unsweet green tea, which was fine. Next time I will experiment with much lower levels of sweetness. I like the selection they offer on their menu.

Now onto the food. My son ordered several apps for the table. I'm not very adventurous with Japanese food, but I did sample a few. He ordered Shumai (shrimp), Cashu Bau-Side (pork), Shumai, and Kimchi Fries. We all decided to order ramen. I, being the most conservative palate, went with the Grilled Chicken Ramen, which was absolutely delicious! I enjoyed every bite and took home half of it for a 2nd meal. My wife ordered the Kappo Nara House (loaded with seafood) minus the mussels. She loved it! The rest of the gang ordered the Spicy Miso, Kuro Black Tonkotsu (pork), & some others. We all dove into our bowl of Ramen with enthusiasm on this chilly night! I would go back again tomorrow! This is my new go-to place whenever I feel a cold coming on. Nothing says comfort food like ramen soup!

Let's talk service and ambience. Tight quarters (and I heard they recently expanded!), super busy the entire night, and extremely slooooooowwwww service. Our waitress was nice, but don't go there if you need to get in and out fast. It even took a long time to get our original tea orders from the Ninja Tea bar. We were in good company, so we didn't let that bother us.

Overall, the food was righteous and the ingredients fresh and spot on! We will go back again, even though it's a good 30 mins from our house. Worth the drive! Two...

Finally got some time to visit this place because their hours are short and I always couldn't find a good time to visit. The atmosphere is quite like Izakaya from Japan (Finally not a Chinese-ish Japanese restaurant!).

The food: The two of us had the Takoyaki, Ika Geso Karaage, Kuro Tonkotsu Ramen, and Tonkotsu.

Takoyaki is a deep-fried ball-shape appetizer filled with octopus, flour and some vegetables, topped with mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce. The flavor of it is good but there are too much flour instead of vegetables or a bigger octopus. However, I recommend you to try it because it still tasted good, just not as good at the best one I had (Gindako).

Ika Geso Karaage is deep-fried squid legs. Idk I think it's octopus but it tasted good. It tasted fresh and I like the flavor. O think it would be good with beer or sake. However, the ouside of them are too oily and not crunchy.

Kuro Tonkotsu is a pork borth with black sesame soup base ramen. The soup was warm, I'd prefer hotter. The egg is on point, it is well-seasoned and the egg yolk is so good. The noodles are not bad but of course not as good as I had in other places not from this area, but it's not bad. I love the two fish cakes too. The worst part of the ramen or even my visit is the chashu. They tasted bland and not fat.

Tonkotsu Ramen is actually same as the Kuro one but just without the black sesame. However, the soup is hotter and it tasted stronger. And once again the chasui is totally disappointment.

The servers are nice. They are...

I absolutely LOVED this place, and I am making myself become a regular. I had the Tori Karaage (deep fried chicken) and two Salmon Onigiri (rice balls), and my god, I felt so pleasantly full and satisfied. It was so good.

I also got some Ice Cream Mochi Bon Bon (both the green tea and red bean) and they were so unexpectedly good! I never thought mochi would be so great with ice cream, and it was my first time trying red bean or matcha, and I loved them both.

I got the Yakitori for my brother and father has yet to be tried, but there were only two tiny skewers for 4.59$ which is probably my only take away. But everything else was amazing!

Not to mention, the waitress had been so pleasantly wonderful with everyone that had come in, and was very speedy. The food came very decently timed too! All in all, definitely worth 5 stars.

Keep in mind, I saw another comment that said they had many more selections for Onigiri, but there was only Ume [japanese plum], Salmon, and some type of japanese seaweed (that I don't remember the name of). I had the salmon, and it was definitely a good choice! Lightly salted, filled with perfection, haha.

I think I'll go for the ume next time. I'm very curious to try it, and it was so pleasant to find myself trying new things without a hint of hesitation! Not to mention cleaning my plates too, haha.

If you're going with a party, be sure to try the Tori Karaage, it was so good, and there were lots of it too! Two plates should be good for a party of...