Jay S.
Yelp
More like a 3.5 in terms of rating but not quite 4 yet: Normally I am not big on expecting excellence from ramen places but I do think Ippudo handles its ramen broth pretty well. The tonkotsu pork broth was very creamy, rich, and well-seasoned, and the firm noodles offered a very good taste as I ate them together with all the ingredients. The "water" taste was relatively minimal. The pork belly was a bit overcooked and falling apart, by which time I realized there was a bit less meat than I had anticipated but more of the fatty skin part. I just think the broth was a big plus and could make me comfortably say that the ramen I had was great. I know making the tare and the broth takes a long time so while I am not sure Ippudo is exactly following that process, I do see efforts in trying.
Both the chicken kara-age and the takoyaki tasted like what they were supposed to taste like, with the oroshi ponzu sauce providing the chicken with a bit of new flavor on top of the already flavorful chicken. The chicken was juicy, too! Juice was flowing out of the breading as I took a bite. The takoyaki had the standard amount of octopus, which was a tiny bit.
The matcha brownie was not bad, but lacked matcha flavor and was a bit too hard. It took me a bit to cut it open with my fork which I normally wouldn't be expecting from brownies. Based on the fact that it was cold, I thought it might have been frozen previously. It was well-decorated, but the fact that it was frozen most likely affected how hard it was, along with how less tasteful it was. It was still sweet, but like I mentioned previously, lacked matcha flavor.
Another thing I noticed was that the service was slow. It took us a while to get out food. And despite me saying to bring the dessert along with everything else, they still brought out the dessert towards the very end and when we inquired about it, said that they were waiting on us to ask to bring the dessert. Just want to bring it up as a miscommunication instance, but totally not a big deal and it didn't impact my experience negatively at all.