Volcano ramen — Restaurant in Westminster

My experience as a sushi/ ramen lover and reviewer comes from my time growing up in Guam where having access to authentic asian cuisine is a daily lifestyle. That being said, my food experience at Volcano Ramen was a disappointment for my first time dining in.

I came in eat on 3/23/24 at like 5:40pm with an appetite and based on what I saw their menu, I figured that I may have finally found a decent ramen spot.

What was ordered: Tonkotsu Ramen, kaarage chicken, and Agedashi Tofu

Prior to taking my order I had asked the young lady if the ramen egg was indeed SOFT BOILED, in which she replied yes it was.

First to arrive was my Kaarage Chicken. Normally Kaarage is made with chicken thigh amd double fried in order to lock in all the juices. However, it looks like the restaurant is using chicken breast in order to save on cost and so their kaarage isnt juicy at all. As hungry as I was, I still ate the dish as I understood about this particular situation.

Second to arrive was the Agedashi Tofu appetizer. What I was expecting was tofu that was lightly fried with a nice light layer of fried starch skin sitting in a nice dashi broth (as is how its traditionally made), BUT instead what was given to me was a small plate of thinly sliced tofu in what appeared to be drizzled light teriyaki sauce. I was in shock as I couldn't believe that this restaurant was attempting to pass this off as Agedashi. Im sure most state siders who are not familiar with japanese cuisine wouldnt bat an eye at this and just take it as it is, but experience japanese food eaters will know that this is an absolute slap in the face . Of course I flagged my server down and had her send the dish back and cancel the order.

But the nail in the coffin was the Ramen dish itself. Upon receiving the dish, the first thing that stood out was that the Ramen egg was NOT SOFT BOILED but instead just "slightly" HARD BOILED (as seen in picture). True ramen fanatics will know that a ramen eggs are traditionally paired with a soft boiled egg with an almost jelly-like yolk. The noodles were also a cheaper kind of noodle as what is being used is something a kin to instant ramen noodle quality, not your traditional noodle for ramen. But what made me really disappointed, was the fact that the Tonkotsu broth tasted watered down. Tonkotsu Ramen is reputable for its intense creamy Pork broth and that is NOT WHAT my dish tasted but like soda that had too much ice in it and all the ice melted and diluted the drink, THATS what my broth tasted like. For a well known ramen such as Tonkotsu, this was a BIG LET DOWN.

Im summary, Volcano Ramen just blended in as another "quick ramen place". The nice 10/10 restaurant atmosphere actually really great but I wish their food matched the level of care put...

As someone who lives walking distance from the restaurant, I was really excited when this place was opening up. I’ve been several times since the restaurant’s opening and every time the food is excellent. The service, not so much. My last two visits in particular stand out as both times it took almost half an hour after getting seated for someone to even come by and ask for our drink order. Not even an acknowledgement — servers would just walk past our table several times when we even tried closing our menus to communicate we were ready.

In general the servers come off a bit rude, but I also understand that this is maybe just not the kind of place where you should expect to get a chipper, chatty server - it’s more cut-and-dry and taking food orders is simply a business transaction. And that’s fine. But I often am made to feel like I’m an annoyance/inconvenience by being in their restaurant.

This is probably me being entitled but I’ll share anyway: There was one visit several months ago where myself and a coworker stopped in with the intention of having some lunch and doing some work together over lunch. We brought our laptops. It was a weekday early afternoon and the restaurant was fairly quiet, so I didn’t think we’d be bothering anyone. I asked if we could use their wifi and the employee shot back with something along the lines of, “No, it’s for employees only.” And that’s fine I guess, they’re under no obligation to offer wifi… but as most who frequent this area probably know, cell reception in this area is absolute garbage. I can’t even check my phone while in the area or inside this restaurant - nothing will load and I don’t receive messages. I mainly wanted to share this as feedback and pose that the restaurant staff consider having a wifi network for customers. To conclude this story, I think we were annoyed but ended up staying for a hurried lunch so we could go somewhere else to work, since we couldn’t even use our phones to check emails and such.

All in all the service is mediocre at best but the food is pretty awesome… enough so that, honestly, we’ll probably keep coming back on occasion. But we’re starting to explore other local...

I never thought I’d have to give a ramen restaurant one star, but here we are.

We arrived around 7:15 p.m. (they close at 9), and the restaurant was mostly empty. Still, we were seated in a section where our server, Esther, was sweeping and cleaning up for the night. Why seat guests in an area you’re already closing down?

The biggest issue: she wore the same blue gloves to sweep, pick things up off the floor, handle payments, and serve food and drinks without ever changing them. It was unhygienic and honestly disgusting.

Trying to give the place a chance, I ordered the Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen and subbed corn for fungus. My bowl arrived with corn anyway. Esther asked if I had a food allergy or if I wanted her to take it back and have the cooks remove it for me, but since I don’t like sending food back for a variety of reasons, I decided to pick it out myself. The broth was bland and not spicy at all; it tasted like chicken broth.

The issue is that they use chili oil to make the broth spicy, but I’m not sure that’s the right way to build spice in a ramen broth. I’ve been to plenty of ramen restaurants that use spicy miso to add depth and heat, and it makes a big difference. My bowl was also missing bamboo, which was listed on the menu. When I mentioned it, she offered to bring bamboo and another bowl of broth, which did taste better, but by that point the experience was already ruined.

What made it worse was overhearing her tell another table that she was “distracted” because of my situation, more than once, while I was sitting right there. Completely unprofessional.

We also ordered the Kobe Beef Roll, which was supposed to come with fried asparagus but had sautéed asparagus instead. When it arrived, we had to ask for appetizer plates and soy sauce cups. Then she reached over our table mid-meal to take the soy sauce bottle to refill it, and reached back over again to return it.

Overall, this was one of the worst dining experiences we’ve had in a long time. Between the poor hygiene, incorrect orders, bland food, and unprofessional service, our date night was completely ruined. I would not recommend this...