Gaku Ramen

I am a freshman BHS student, and this is week 2 of my 🍴Student Eateries Series🍴 Today I am craving some Ramen since my throat is sore, and Gaku Ramen was the perfect choice. I ordered a Tonkotsu Ramen, and added a soft boiled egg. It may be my opinion, but I think they should add in a boiled egg in the ramen for free, because that’s what most ramen restaurants I visited do. The flavor was quite good, a little umami flavor, and not sweet, which means it’s a little authentic. However, the broth could be hotter, like close to boiling hot. The atmosphere was great. A TV displaying the shaggy cartoon, and calm music! The service was pretty good, but when I paid, I didn’t receive the 5 cents change. I DIDN’T MIND THIS AT ALL, but if the waiter actually cared enough to give the 5 cents, the service would’ve been 5 stars. Overall, great atmosphere, a little flawed in service and food, but this restaurant is good overall!

For me, there's an elegance to simplicity when it's done well. The food here is not pretentious or pretending to be something it's not (I also happen to love noodles so there could be bias there). It is delicious, prepared well and full of flavor. We ordered more than we needed on purpose but instead of taking some home, we stuffed ourselves. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable with kind energy. Our server, Katherine was engaging and happy. I'd eat here a lot if I were local, no question. Easy, tasty and delightful.

Ramen was great and our server Dorothy was fantastic. The place had such a cool vibe. Would totally recommend!

Awesome service! Sad they didn’t have a miso soup appetizer, but the dumplings i had were delicious 😋

Showed up with our small, well behaved dog. It was a beautiful summer afternoon but for some reason they did not have their outdoor tables set up. Some high school kid behind the bar flat out tells us we’re not welcome. Doesn’t even offer us take out, just pushes us out the door. I understand that dogs aren’t allowed in restaurants but don’t understand why a mostly empty restaurant wouldn’t want our business. The food here is pretty good but after this poor experience with an overly entitled staff member I can’t say if we’ll be back.

Stopped in for lunch during a day trip. Food was great, we loved the Gaku Buns and ramen. Seth was attentive and friendly. We’ll be back!

My wife and I visited last night. She ordered just apps, chicken, gyoza, cucumber and shishito peppers. All were amazing. I ordered the ramen with extra noodles. I also ordered extra spicy (menu option) because I like spicy. 🙂 I would have liked to have tried it the regular way to compare because I think I would have liked it better. All in all, it was a great meal. If you're fortunate enough to get Kelly as your server, your night will be perfect, as ours was!

Yummy yummy yummy!!! Got edamame, gyoza, and shishito peppers. Great service.

***Just a heads up it seems this place may be permanently closed. My group went here last year when it was open. This year it had a "closed for the holidays" sign still on, in early March. --Edit: A manager reached out to me, they did have to close abruptly, although they hope to be staffed back up soon! I wish the best of luck to them! ~April 7th is their goal to reopen. Food: 8/10 Service: 7/10 Ambience: 7/10 We all got bowls of ramen here, all were absolutely delicious, and soul warming on such a cold day. Service was certainly a bit slow, we easily waited 45mins to an hour for our food. If we weren't absolutely famished, it would've been a bigger issue than it actually was. Ambience is a typical small scale intimate experience, nothing to complain about.

I cannot say enough good things about Gaku! We started with the Gaku buns and those were the best bao I have ever eaten in my entire lift. We had it with chicken. The pickled veggies were just top notch. We live in MI and were on vacation when we stopped here - I've joked with hubby that for my bday I want to come back to Gaku for dinner. Hubby ordered a shrimp ramen bowl. The broth was incredible! Very savory and flavorful. I wound up drinking a bit of the broth. On to my meal - I have a bad stomach. I was feeling a little rough from eating out over the past few days so I ordered white rice with a piece of grilled salmon. It was perfect - just what my poor stomach needed! In the pic, you will see a few noodles that my hubby put in my bowl for me to try.

I'm a ramen snob and quite hard to please, but the ramen here is phenomenal. I would eat it every day if I could. It's flavorful, the noodles aren't mushy or starchy, and they use actual pork belly for the pork roll. Also big fan of the Gaku buns, though they do seem to run out of those pretty regularly. The chicken appetizer is something special and I can't stop eating it. Service is generally fine, sometimes one server is over-extended and doing the whole room alone, which impacts service speed and interactions, but not in any profoundly negative way. If it's busy, food will be slightly slower to hit the table, but not appreciably so. Ambiance is good... It's clean, minimally decorated, and generally an anime is playing at the bar which is a fun touch. Bathrooms are always in very good condition. Only complaint is that it can get very loud if it's busy, more so than a normal restaurant. They are closed right now and I guess they plan on reopening... I hope they do because my kids miss it terribly and I'm dying for plum wine, a Gaku bun, all enjoyed by the window so I can people watch (which, in Burlington, is always next level).

This place deserves better ratings - out of all the places I've had lunch on Church street, Gaku has been consistently so good. Their ramen is great - I love the vegetable shoyu and my friends have enjoyed the chicken ramen and the friend rice options. They have lovely outdoor seating, friendly staff, prompt service, nice drinks in the evening (recommend the lychee martini) and in the summer the interior opens up so you can get a cool breeze and people-watch. It's great, was shocked to see it had anything less than 4 stars.

The chashu in this ramen were hands down amazing. Perfectly barbecued, very juicy and fatty! Glad to see that @gakuramen brings good Japanese ramen to Vermont, and was definitely surprised to see the price point to be closed to NYC's as well...!

We tried them a couple of times in 2023. The drinks were fine. The ramen was pedestrian. Not the cleanest. Only one functioning restroom, and insufficient staff to seat every table. The atmosphere could charitably be described as "bohemian." It'll get the job done (a) if you're desperate, (b) if you have a perverse disinclination toward enjoyable dining, or (c) you care more about the vibes than you do the food.

Absolutely horrible service and food! I found the owners email and I'll be sending a very detailed account of our meal. I advise all the bad reviewers do the same. This place needs to close and stop ripping of the people of Burlington! Kelley Jones 6787 W. Tropicana Ave. Suite 240 Las Vegas, NV 89103 702-553-7771 kelley@trust3hospitality.com Of course this guy isn't even local

Very nice and very attentive server, food was amazing, really good, tasteful, just perfect!! The place has a very good ambiance . We will come back next time we come back in Burlington ..

The place advertised being open online and I went all the way there to find them closed through the holidays

Everything was OK. Chicken shoyu and tonkatsu were just average. The only good part is they are not salty. The kaarage and the pork buns however are very salty. Vermont weather it was really nice to have a warm pot of noodle soups. So we still glad we chose this as our early lunch. Just don't expect great ramen.

I had gone during family weekend for Champlain College, so the wait was a little longer than usual, but SO worth it! The food was great and the service even better!

Stopped for lunch with two of my favorite people, we ordered Gaku chicken buns, and pork buns for appetizers, the pork ones really were the winners. Tonkotsu ramen was tasty but not stellar, vegetable shoyu, was ordered with a little spice, it came out and the broth was to spicy to finish. My pork belly fried rice, was good, It had a slight taste of vinegar which I could have done without, and the bowl needed a little soy to liven it up. The pork belly was delicious with nice crisp edges, It would have been nice to have a few more pieces in it for the price of the bowl...

We waited 30 minutes and nobody even brought us water! I did however, observe the waitress change the music, bus 4 tables and make sure every other table was fine like 3 times before we finally got up to leave and she gave us a half-hearted "oh...sorry". Just unfortunate , we were really looking forward to trying it but if I have to wait 30 mins just to be noticed it usually means the wait for food will be super long too. We left and went to the Farmhouse.

Spouse and I are foodies from Washington, DC, and I've also lived i Japan for a few months. I went here via recommendation from a local friend but was honestly skeptical getting served by what appeared to be an all-white staff. Typical Vermont, though, to be fair. I was quite impressed. In also typical Vermont fashion, everyone was friendly and welcoming. As for the food, the broth was quite good. I got the chicken shoyu ramen, subbing chicken with tofu and adding spicy kick + black garlic. The broth was savory yet light, the tofu was fried well, and the garlic and spice just elevated the dish to the next level. Truly the garlic... The noodles were thick and fine. My criticism was I wish more toppings than the main protein, egg, and scallions were included. Other ramen places in DC and NYC are more generous, typically including things like nori, fishcake, and/or corn without extra fees. My spouse had the miso ramen with pork chashu. It came with thin noodles. A thicker broth. He liked it as well but preferred my noodles. I may have preferred *his* noodles. We came here on a Friday for lunch in August, shortly after it first opened that day. Unlike other reviewers, i found the service to be good on our day. The ramen did seem to take longer than usual to come out, but not to the point where I would complain, and the food was nice and hot. Decor props were kinda stereotypical japanese samurai swords and such. The art along the back wall is quite cool and different. Spacious for social distancing, plenty of natural light from the window wall facing the main street. To the reviewer who said "gaku" doesn't mean anything in Japanese or Chinese, it means several things in Japanese: picture frame, learning/scholarship/knowledge. I cannot speak for Chinese, nor do I think that is relevant given this is a Japanese restaurant.

I was waiting for food for almost an hour and decided to tell them to make it Take out. I got home and they forgot meat in my noodle I basically just ate noodles and broth. Never again

This place must be doing great. Too bad I didn't get to experience what Vermont has to offer when it comes to Ramen. If I'm going to come eat & be a paying customer , I only ask be able to sit somewhere im comfortable with sitting. Although there were a handful of empty tables , the guy behind the bar only offered us to either sit between 2 other parties (too close in my opinion , It was almost shoulder to shoulder) or at a high seated table which was located in an awkward centered location. Those kinds of seats are not comfortable especially for a woman of my size and I like to be comfortable when I'm eating. I asked if we could sit at another table and he said no. Offered no other options. Not even outside seating or maybe offer us to wait. I felt as if they didn't need us to come eat and spend our money there anyway. If tables are clearly available , you should let customers come in , not wait for ghost customers to maybe show up to fill them up. Weird business practice but okay. First time I turned around and left a restaurant for this reason which is fine because there is plenty of other places to eat within walking distance.

I have eaten at Gaku probably 7 times, and almost every time either the wait has been extremely long or the service was extremely slow. I love ramen, and this used to be one of the only places that served ramen on church st, so I tried it repeatedly in hopes that every time it would be better. One time we put our name in and they said it would be an hour wait. We came back after an hour and they didn't have our name because the piece of paper with our name on it was gone, so we waited again and then they sat us. One of the employees must have been fired that day because she was extremely drunk and taking orders over the phone and seating random people who walked in even though other people had been waiting for over 30 minutes. We kept hearing her say she was leaving in an uber and that it was her last day, but then she would come back and started harassing the customers sitting outside and taking pictures with all the tables. Like I said, I love ramen, so I wanted to try it again despite this very strange experience. We tried to go again tonight and we were sat right away outside which was nice, but then no one came back to our table even though all the tables around us were being served and getting their orders taken. We waited 15 minutes and ended up leaving because we hadn't even gotten waters and didn't want to wait a long time for food. When I went inside to put the menus back on the bar I saw the waitress who was serving our section just texting on her phone. I have never written a Yelp review before but feel strongly enough about Gaku that I felt compelled to. They have a prime location on church st and could have an amazing business, and instead have been beyond sub par since they opened. Finally, the thing that is the worst is that they charge extra for a soft boiled egg in ramen....which is pretty much a crime.

The service is terrible, served us raw chicken and our food took an hour. The ramen was great but not worth your time downtown

Cold broth, slimy pork, raw onions. How much worse can it possibly be? I guess it could have been filthy...? But with 15 health inspection violations- maybe it was filthy also?...

I have always walked by this place and I have always heard mixed reviews. In my opinion it is not very good. The ramen that I got was very wrong in a few aspects. The broth tasted a bit luke warm and like it was watery soy sauce. There were pieces of raw onion in it and the noodles were all clumped together and not very fresh. What I did like was the appetizers, if you want good drinks and a few appetizers this is the place to go. But, if you want quality ramen, which I have experienced other places don't go here.

Ramen was bland and they used spaghetti instead of ramen noodles. This place is gross.

Very very very BAD. They were out of everything we wanted, at least 5 items listed on the menu and it's only ramen and RICE. Buns tasted like freaking cardboard and the ramen like dish water. No flavor at all, when we did not eat any of our food we were not offered any compensation - what type of place is this! Service was just o k but could have been more inviting to me and my wife. I like these new types 2022 of cuisine but this was CRAP! p.S - restaurant is full of lying staff. I wanted eggs in my soup and they said no we don't have eggs but when I went to use the John I saw a full carton of eggs on the COUNTER in the kitchen. I used to boil soft boiled eggs and it takes seven minutes!!!!!!!!! - Frank s

If you sit in certain places the light is really odd and hard to see but at other places it is fine. Very dim but bright enough to see. Chicken shoyu was delicious.

So I actually enjoy the food here, that's why I always come back - However, the "staffing shortage" has completely exacerbated what was already very slow service. There was one server for the whole restaurant (props to her, working very hard) and the manager pitches in when he feels like it. Ultimately, after my 20 minute travel time I ended up waiting another 35 minutes for my pickup order at the actual restaurant. When I got it, the food was lukewarm like it had been sitting. (Wouldn't surprise me) Probably won't be back for a while.

Food was fantastic, wait times for said food were questionable. Hopefully just a one off, but keep in mind if you're in a rush.

Despite others' reviews, I've never had a bad experience here. Solid cocktails, good local beers on tap, rich ramen broths (get the chicken shoyu!), and great appetizers. Start off with the karaage, pork buns, and a Fiddlehead to wash it down. You will not be disappointed.

We ate here for lunch and sat outside. An appetizer of Gaku Buns with pork, entrees of Chicken Shoyu Ramen and Pork Belly Rice Bowl, all of which we shared. Service was on the slow side after ordering. The drinks came fairly soon but the food took too long and the appetizer and entrees arrived together. I'd be more understanding if the place was busy but it was not. I don't fault the servers for this though; they were mostly attentive and personable. Gaku buns were simple: just a piece of seasoned pork wrapped with a soft doughy bun. We liked them. I did have to locate soy sauce though from another table. The ramen was unimpressive: the broth lacked complexity, seemed "tinny" in flavor. The onions were raw and cut too large. The chicken, though there wasn't really enough of it, was good: not dry at all and was probably thigh not breast which I'm not a fan of. The rice bowl was fried rice with scallions, shiitake mushrooms, corn, and more, with the pork belly prepared as a single slice on top. The pork itself was quite good: not overly fatty but far more interesting than a leaner cut. But as with the ramen the meat portion was too small. At first I liked this dish. But as I continued to eat I began to notice the oilyness of the rice, which became more objectionable as it cooled. My drink: a cocktail made with tequila, grapefruit, and cinnamon. Interesting; I've never had that combination before. Plenty of tequila. Her drink: prosecco. What can I say? Prosecco. Bubbly. Refreshing. "Make It Spicy - 0.50"? Yes they actually printed that on the menu! What's up with that? Sheesh!

Ramen was adequate but not the best I've ever had. The black garlic is worth adding, especially since I'm not sure it would have had much flavor otherwise. Pork was not seasoned at all. Server was pleasant, but again, service was just adequate. Bathrooms were gross. Another person in the party had a rice bowl and said he liked the flavor, but the rice was crunchy.

Extremely bad and disrespectful to customers. I made a reservation for dine in dinner around 8pm, the waiter tells us we have to wait tills 9pm, but when we arriving at 9pm, we were met with shocking indifference. The waiter informed us that noodle shop was closed, leaving us shock and disappoint dumbfounded. During waiting time, we back to shop and double check the waitlist, every time we check, the waiter tells us we HAVE to wait at 9pm! This level of incompetence and lack of consideration for customers' time is utterly unacceptable. It's basic courtesy to honor a reservation, and this establishment failed miserably. I won't be returning, and I strongly advise others to steer clear.

I don't know why the reviews are so bad. Soup was tasty . The only thing I wish is that the broth can be steamy hot but it was still tasty . You can tell they more workers but everywhere there's a shortage of workers . I'll come back for sure

You pay 20$ for a ramen bowl that comes with spaghetti noodles instead of ramen noodles a one tiny piece of pork deli cut floating limp in the bowl. Only good thing is the broth is done well. Every time I've ordered delivery and paid 5-12$ extra for extra meat they never even add it. 35$ for a bowl of noodles with a small piece of pork deli cut..not worth it and not traditional.

Ordered apps, had to inquire about them twice. Entrees came out and still no apps. By the time we were finished eating, the apps finally came out so we had to send then back. Ramen was pretty bad, tbh. Broth was barely warm, onions were raw and noodles under cooked. Menu said it was supposed to have scallions, but there were none. They up-charge for toppings, but the portion did not match the cost. Overall, not worth it.

Service was fairly slow, which was surprising for a Ramen restaurant. Tonkotsu was served with no bamboo shoots, and the pork was quite fatty. Chicken shoyu was served without the soft boiled egg, and the sliced onion was raw. Broth was okay for both dishes. Chicken fried rice had almost no cabbage or shiitake mushrooms. Rice was almost completely flavorless. Would not return to this restaurant.

The service was very slow, we arrived at 11:30 and our food did not get to us until 1:20. It was busy but not packed. They were out of chicken. My family all had the ramen and enjoyed their meals. I had the fried rice due to being gluten free. It was very oily and not super flavorful.

Food is great and service is pretty quick also. I'd definitely recommend to anyone looking to have real ramen.

RAMEN ON CHURCH STREET Wanted to sit outside and close, but not too close, to the outside live music at the bar up the way. We also wanted ramen. Perfect match. While we were able to quickly choose our seats outside among many available tables, the waiter was slow to come by and get our drink order. When he finally made it over, he really turned on the charm and was a socially affable guy. Also, the time from order to food being served was relatively quick. Everyone liked the large ramen bowls. So my ramen came with corn. I don't know why but I thought it was a strange combo with noodles but it worked. It was definitely a hearty portion for the price. If you feel like sitting outside on Church street, eating good ramen, and listening to live music at an easy decibel level...this is the place.

Tonkatsu ramen was good, but the broth was so salty I actually couldn't enjoy it with my noodles (never thought I'd comment that a ramen broth was too salty). Toppings were still nice and fresh. Family enjoyed their meals. The server put the bill on the table while we were all halfway through our dishes, which is always an awkward feeling. All in all I'd say they're on the good end of average.

I'm upgrading to a 4-star review at my daughter's request. She insisted! She said that a 4 is a b performance and I concur it's a b and not a c performance here at Gaku. Cook down that broth more and I'd be very happy! A lovely place with fine service and pleasant ambiance. The restaurant was warm and inviting and noodles just sounded great on a chilly winter evening. We were seated promptly and drinks came promptly. These are all good things. We ordered Japanese cucumber salad, which i thought would be sunomono. Instead, the clues were dressed in a slightly peppery avocado oil vinaigrette. It was good but fusion-y. I ordered the black garlic tonkatsu and DD orders the straight up tonkatsu. The broth was on the thin side. The black garlic did offer a nice flavor however. The mushrooms were really something like wood ear fungus, which both DD and I love. But I wish there had been *actual* mushrooms as the menu had indicated.And overall, we both enjoyed our experience very much. In spite of the three stars, I'd consider coming back. It's a nice spot in a cute area. The lychee martini was too thick and sweet for my taste. Martinis should be refreshing. Less sugar and more lime perhaps and maybe some ginger would make it so that I would drink so many that I would have to walk home.

Second review: I gave it a few years thinking it might improve. Nope. I called in an order today after hanging holiday lights outside in the blustery cold. Obvi a perfect day for ramen. I called ahead and a woman answered, took my order and said it'd be ready in 20 minutes. Wonderful, I was driving in from Williston. I arrived and to my great surprise no order. . They said the manager took my order but never put it in to the kitchen. I asked to speak to her but she never showed up and the two spacey guys working avoided answering me. They did comp some of the food which like, thanks, but wow. The manager on duty took my order and then forgot. Sigh.

Just want to take a minute and appreciate this place. As someone who's have been traveling to 35 countries and 41 states so far this is the best Ramen soup that I've had. I've order Sakina Shouya( I hope the spelling is correct) it's was absolutely fantastic. Great flavors and the just right amount of spice and Salt! I would never thought that Ramen would taste better in Vermont than California! But I guess you never know! Give it a try it's absolutely worth it!

This place was a little bit disappointing. I ordered the tonkatsu ramen and it was not hot (temp), no flavor, the only good thing about this ramen was the chashu pork. The gyoza was good though.

This is my 14-year-old niece's very favorite place to eat in Vermont! And she lives near Boston where there is plenty good ramen to be had in every neighborhood, and she's been to Japan, so she would know good ramen when she sees it--and this, folks, is good ramen! She gets the vegetable ramen, spicy, and I like the tonkatsu (pork) ramen, spicy. Those tender disks of pork or so good!!! We also get the blistered shishito peppers, which I find addictively good, but which she just tolerates politely. The ramen broth is right where it should be--flavorful with lots of umami, but not too salty. I do wish they had more fresh veggies in the pork ramen and that it came with the egg. Raised in ramen with egg the way others were on PB&J, I must have egg in my ramen, and this egg is a perfectly cooked jammy egg! The noodles are the perfect texture, never overcooked. The portion is perfect: even though my mouth wants more, my stomach says we're happy--3 bites more would put it in pain! During Covid summer, they have about 6-8 tables outside under the trees, and they have some seating inside, which is not bad since the entire front of the store opens up, garage-door style. The service is efficient and friendly, the perfect compliment to some awesome ramen for lunch with my favorite niece.

Eating in there last week I saw a man who looked to be in his mid 40's putting his hands on our server Maggie who looked to be 16. You could clearly tell that this attention was not wanted. I understand that employees are hard to find but what the heck is going on in that place!?!

Owners info Kelley Jones 6787 W. Tropicana Ave. Suite 240 Las Vegas, NV 89103 702-553-7771 kelley@trust3hospitality.com Of course this guy isn't even local... Absolutely horrible service and food! I found the owners email and I'll be sending a very detailed account of our meal. I advise all the bad reviewers do the same. This place needs to close and stop ripping of the people of Burlington!

Perfect little ramen place on church street! Excellent food and excellent service! Already dreaming of the next bowl of ramen! Get the pork buns btw!

Wish I could give this place more than two stars but went in on a Tuesday evening around 4:30... got seated and then we were told they were out of a "few" things Which were salmon,shrimp, all chicken and buns. Ummmm that effects about 70 % of your menu. Drinks were good but really wanted to try ANY chicken dish... also wish were told this before being seated.. also chopsticks and spoons are in a communal container on the table...which kinda creeped me out as hope they get cleaned regularly and people don't put them back.. but we didn't eat food so it was fine

I guess it could be rounded up to 3 stars for location - the tonkatsu ramen was a bland broth, and the pork seemed was thin slices of ungrilled pork belly. They were out of Miso so we got a black garlic tonkatsu as well, which was more flavorful but incredibly unbalanced and just tasted like garlic. I've been to Japan, have eaten ramen in major west coast cities (LA, SF, PDX, YVR, SEA), blah blah blah so I know what good ramen tastes like. :) It wasn't terrible, but it was a dissapointing.

I really enjoyed this place! It was pretty busy but thankfully we had called and made a reservation and that sat us immediately on arrival! They had run out of pork for the Gaku Buns but they had chicken and they were quite delicious! It was good..your basic ramen place not anything too different but was very tasty! The Spicy Tonkotsu was very good and nice and spicy! I added a soft boil egg which was just a tadddd past soft boil but a nice addition!

A fine ramen place. I don't go to very many but this place caught our attention because they were open late and the atmosphere looked nice. We started off with some chicken bao bun appetizers. They were okay. I really liked the sauce it came with but the chicken was pretty dry. You get 2 buns so plan accordingly if more than 2 people want to share this dish. The ramen took awhile to make. When it finally did come out it looked pretty good. There wasn't a lot of chicken, which I guess should be expected, but even the ramen was a little on the scarce side. It was not enough for 2 people to share. What I also must point out is the smell of the ramen was really weird. It didn't smell good like other ramen I have enjoyed. I actually had to hold my breath to eat the food!! The waitress was super sweet and welcoming so I didn't want to dock too many stars from the restaurant. But I think we will try other restaurants in the neighborhood before coming here again.

We ordered miso ramen dish and pork rice dish over the phone, and they didn't even put in our order. We were left waiting for over an hour, and when we were served our food; the order was wrong and it was cold. The servers never followed up with us or provided us with any accommodation while we were waiting. Worst dining experience I've ever had.