Ramen Hiroshi — Restaurant in Walnut Creek

I had high expectations as Ramen Hiroshi is the closest authentic ramen shop I could find in East Bay without having to drive into South Bay or Berkeley. Let's start with the positives first. The two pieces of kara age that came with the ramen were garlicky and fried to perfection. However, you do need to get here around 11:15 to get them hot - after 11:30, they've probably been sitting in a metal tray and will come out cold. I ordered the namesake ramen. The chashu was superb, with a perfect balance of fattiness and marinated flavors. The toppings and tonkotsu soup were good, but the soup was not hot enough. I recommend a spoonful of their chili paste for an added kick. When I test various ramen shops, toppings that are not of the best quality or soup that isn't great can be forgiven, but here, they committed the cardinal sin: the noodles were subpar. It drives me crazy when ramen shops use noodles that have the texture of spaghetti. Here, it's actually worse - the somen-like texture made me do something I never do - leave a bunch of noodles unfinished. If you don't mind soft thin noodles or if you haven't had real Hakata ramen in Kyushu, you can try this shop. But for me, overall, I actually prefer the non-authentic ramen I had in Castro Valley yesterday (Shumi Ramen). Maybe one day, I'll come back to try their TanTan men (which should have thick noodles, but will lose the chashu for ground pork). There are two hour city parking spaces in the area for $1/30 minutes.

7/23/17 Update: if you go on a weekday (less crowded, kara-age included with lunch ramen) and order their thick noodles, this place warrants 4.5 stars. Using Ippudo (一風堂) as the reference Hakata ramen, the regular noodles here are too soft/not starchy enough. Hiroshi's thick noodles (like regular noodles elsewhere) have better consistency.

8/10/17 Update: their Tan Tan men (担々麺) was excellent, with just two faults: not enough soup and noodles not thick enough. Even when I asked them to cook the noodles harder with their thicker noodles, it still wasn't quite right. Otherwise, the ground pork, the sesame, and the thick, orange soup were just right.

9/12/17 Update: Had their Tan Tan Men and the Hiroshi Hakata Ramen. For the Hiroshi, I'm glad to report that they have switched out their noodles to the correct consistency! Also, even though I arrived around 1PM, the kara-age was made fresh - perhaps the notice from the Contra Costa health department posted (cited for cleanliness, food temperature) had some effect. Unfortunately, they left the door open and there were flies coming in and out - no fun swatting flies while trying to down ramen. The Tan Tan Men noodles were overcooked. Overall, the Hiroshi Hakata Ramen is worth getting for a weekday lunch (includes the kara age), if you sit closer inside and avoid...

Always loved this place until yesterday. My friend and I went here yesterday and all we said was id pay for her extra noodles and to put it on my tab. first lady didn't understand, told her 3-4 times calmly, and she stormed off to go get another waitress. Took her 10 minutes to tell us someone else will be coming over and we waited. She comes over, we explain it again and even hand wrote it, and I asked for a water. Never got the water, took her another 10 minutes to come to us with the checks, and all she did was split it. it wouldn't be a problem if my friend had the money but she didn't, so now we call her over again, explain it to her one more time, didn't even allow us to finish our sentence, ripped the checks out of our hands and stormed off. We were still calm with the whole situation, but I was on the merge of tears, and we were about to leave because it took them ANOTHER 10 minutes to hand us the proper checks. The food is great, but horrible communication from both of them, my friend and I will never come back which is unfortunate since it was our favorite noodle place. Only reason I haven't dropped it to a 1 star is because the food is good. my advice...

It’s too bad negative stars aren’t possible. This restaurant having a 4 star rating is proof that reviews can be purchased…

Paid almost $50 not including delivery fee for two orders of Tonkatsu Ramen with extra lotus root and extra noodles. The broth they sent wouldn’t be enough to rehydrate the dry, hockey-puck like clump of noodles alone, let alone actually qualify as a ramen dish. The broth is disgusting, extremely salty and has the flavor of a 50c cup of instant noodles. The lotus root is a joke, I’ve seen thicker slices of deli meat at Safeway, and it has the consistency of a wet piece of paper…

They must be too busy to care, because no business with any self-respect or modicum of quality standards would let this be served to a customer. I would be embarrassed giving something like this to my dog, let alone a paying customer.

Save yourself the money, you’ll get a better meal at a holiday...