Michael X.
Yelp
Arriving a bit later into the San Jose area and was looking to try some community recommended places nearby. HiroNori looked to be highly rated and well liked by reviewers and went to go and check this place out! I stopped by on a Wednesday around 7:30pm, and the restaurant was popping - all tables filled and lots of people waiting in line for a seat, and also a 15-25 minutes wait for a table, so I decided to do takeout as it was a bit faster.
The restaurant is located in a line of shopping/restaurants off of a busy street. Parking was difficult to find, as almost all of the spots were taken. You might have to do several loops and waiting for people to leave in order to snag a spot. The ambiance is busy and lively - if it's this busy on a Wednesday, I can only imagine how it will be on Friday or Saturday. There are mostly windows surrounding one side of the restaurant so it feels very open.
One unfortunate thing was that the server forgot half of my order. I ordered Pork Buns and just after getting ready to leave the restaurant, I noticed that there were only the ramen components and no buns. I think it would have been very disappointing getting back home and noticing that they were missing!
I got two items, which I'll review down below:
Pork Buns ($9): Pork buns were decent - soft buns with well flavored and tender pork in the middle. Nice contrast with the pickled onions and you can definitely taste the hoisin sauce which gave the bun a rich flavor. I'm not sure that the pork buns are worth $4.50 each though, as I've tried other pork buns with way more complex and delicious flavors with more pork based on other Japanese restaurants that I have been to.
Tonkotsu Ramen ($18): The pros of this bowl of ramen: absolutely delicious broth - silky smooth in terms of texture, full of rich pork flavor and very pleasant to sip! Noodles had good chew, and the scrumptious broth clung to them nicely. Chashu is good, nice and tender and still had a subtle smokey flavor even when placed in a to-go container. Overall a delicious bowl of ramen. The cons: In my opinion, definitely the price. I think that the both the ramen and the pork buns are steeper than other Japanese ramen restaurants I've been to. At some establishments in areas where the cost of living is comparable, you can get a solid bowl of ramen + a side/appetizer for $17-$20. I think that spending that amount on a single bowl doesn't feel right in my opinion.
To be honest, I think HiroNori lean quite steep in terms of price for quality/quantity. Though my main gripe for HiroNori is price to food ratio, they do serve nice bowls of ramen here, and is a nice atmosphere to take company to chat and enjoy comforting bowls of ramen. (3.5 stars)