Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya (Carmel) — Restaurant in Westfield

So this was my first time going here. I have never had Japanese ramen before. but with my fascination of the people, culture, and cuisine of Japan I just had to hunt down in authentic Japanese ramen restaurant. They seem to be the best place to tr that was suggested by Google and few othrrd, they seem to be pretty good according to the suggestions. The place seems pretty tiny, It can probably only hold about 50 or 60 people. The hours of operation are a little strange as well, as for the dinner time, they only open around 5 PM. As I said this was my first time there and I ordered the shoyu ramen. I also ordered an authentic Japanese lager, and was offered a small tiny glass of sake complementary. the guy said that with the logger that I got, I should drop the small glass of sake in it and drink it that way, but I enjoy new beers by themself. So I tasted the sake and it was pretty decent but I've had better, now I know why it was complimentary with the certain beers that they offer. The Japanese lager that they offered was very dry and very tasty. It took about 15 minutes for our food to arrive and we did not order appetizers. I decided to brave the new experience and use only chopsticks for my entire experience. I was able to eat all my ramen as well as the meat and greens with the chopsticks with no issues, but we will all offered forks without asking for them, especially for the kids, of course for the broth they give you a nice Japanese spoon to use but I felt it was way too much broth to consume the entire bowl. Being new to Japanese ramen perhaps this was an error on my part, as my wife did devour the entire thing and was able to get her bowl completely empty and display a nice Japanese message at the bottom of her bowl. it was a missed opportunity to pull out Google translate to see what it said. So the next time I go back this is what I'll be doing. My goal will be to empty the bowl and figure out what the message at the bottom is. The staff seemed very pleasant, but I think a couple of the guys that were working seemed overwhelmed, or at least that's the vibe I got from them, which made them seem, not less friendly, but less focused on the experience of their customers. The pricing was not bad as a family of four was under $60 with tip. But one of the four of us is under the age of 10 and did not order much for herself to eat as she was kind of scared of everything on the menu. We actually ended up getting her something else after we left the restaurant. I know that Japanese ramen is not a main stay here in the United States, but being someone who has explored many aspects of Japanese culture and has been following their economy and pricing, compared to getting a nice ramen dish in Tokyo, Japanese ramen in the United States is double the price and you have to tip on top.

The one cool thing about this location is that it is literally 30 steps around the corner from Handel's ice cream. So after we were done with Japanese ramen we went around the corner of the stores and got a nice ice cream dessert. There is a ton of really awesome places in the shopping center such as Dunkin donuts, as well as handles ice cream as I mentioned. There are other places to eat in the same shopping center such as the famous McAlister's Deli and BoomBozz pizza. I've been to all these other places and they're pretty common to me, but it was really great to find something new and to be honest I can't wait to go back. I know I'll probably never get on a plane and visit Japan, nor will I have the life experience of walking around Tokyo and trying authentic ramen. And while I'd be glad to find other ramen places to try out, this one is literally 12 to 15 minutes from my house by car so I will be going...

$$. Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya is the absolute best ramen restaurant experience in the U.S. This Japanese ramen restaurant chain was opened in Japan in 2002 under the name of Kukai / Kookai, and quickly expanded internationally. If you have visited any of its other locations, this location will feel very familiar, as it shares the identical menu served in its Japanese locations, shares the identical decor and customer-centric experience (warm, friendly, immediately attentive and very considerate service — exactly what you would experience in Japan, well without the loud いらっしゃいませ welcoming bellow of 'come in', and less bowing). This restaurant is kept immaculately clean, has a lovely view into the kitchen area, and provides a comfortable and enjoyable dining experience. In my opinion, a family-friendly, very authentic Japanese ramen restaurant, and the best ramen restaurant experience in the U.S.

Their food preparation and presentation is literally an art form. Everything on the menu is made with high-quality ingredients. Their pork broths are slowly simmered for 15 hours to provide an incredibly rich taste. Their pork and beef are very tender, and the fresh vegetables taste great, all very thoughtfully arranged in its presentation.

Their ramen noodles are slippery and have a springy, slightly chewy and firm texture intentionally, but not quite al dente, which prevents them from becoming soggy and mushy in the rich, very hot broth. Don't be embarrassed about making some noise when eating, ramen is loudly slurped in Japan. They also offer a large selection of additional toppings that can be added to your order. For really hungry folks, they offer additional orders of ramen noodles for $2 that can be added when you initially place your order, or anytime after that, and quickly arrive from the kitchen really hot ready to swim in your bowl of ramen broth. Really big eaters might want to add two or three extra orders of ramen noodles. Every table has authentic, made in Japan condiments that really compliment the taste of the ramen and izakaya (side orders).

The miso ramen is clearly the star of the show, but the garlic tonkotsu shoyu ramen and spicy ramen are hugely popular too. No matter which ramen you select, it will come with an incredibly delicious very rich broth (lower sodium options are available upon request) that are beautifully topped with various garnishes. They offer a variety of rice bowls too that look good, but come on, this is a ramen restaurant.

The most popular izakaya (little plates / side dishes) are: edamame (boiled soybeans with French sea salt), vegetable tempura, takoyaki (fried octopus wheat and tempura battered balls), cold tofu, gyoza (pork dumplings), agedeshi tofu (deep-fried tofu), chicken karaage (deep-fried chicken with spicy mayonnaise), and geso karaage (calamari /...

I've only had the tsukemen, and was pleasantly surprised at the broth. The sides that came with the tsukemen, however, were very few. It was 90% noodles, 5% the meat of choice, 3% veggies, 2% the extra egg I ordered.

That's not bad persay--I love my carbs! I was just a bit disappointed that $13 was mostly noodles. I'll complain about portions and still give a resturuant 5 stars if it's good, but for such a highly acclaimed resutaunt ... I'm not sure I want to rate it 5 stars.

The broth is richly flavored, and I had no problems with it.

My reason for 4 stars (I'd actually give 3.5 if I could) is because of the noodles. The noodles were dry and clumped together, so it was extremely difficult to separate the noodles. This happens when a chief boils and cooks the noodles and then leaves them out for an extended period of time before serving them.

I'd know because my family and I often deal with cooking noodles (Vietnamese cuisine has a lot of it). When a lot of guests had to be served Pho, my grandma used to cook the noodles in batch before serving them. Of course the noodles would dry out and clump together.

I understand my grandma having to do this.

I don't understand a highly acclaimed and raved about resturaunt doing this.

Serving noodles that were so badly clumped together that I had to manhandle my chopsticks as knives to separate them is a sign of laziness from the kitchen I'm not sure deserves my 5 stars. Tsukemen's noodles most likely take longer to boil as a result of being thicker, which makes bulk cooking them understandable -- but serving a customer extremely dried out noodles? Really? Who knows how long did those noodles sit on a counter? And they could have "rejuvenated" the noodles with a quick dip in some hot water.

I'm picky with my noodles being done right, I'll admit. Everything else was great. The waitress was kind, and the rest of the food was...