Kopan Ramen 3

 

We're are back to about normal. Typing up about the 626 Night Market was an honor and I am very excited about next year and what that will bring. There is so much I would like to catch everyone up on, so let me start with Kopan Ramen. . . 3.

There are two more Kopan Ramens, this particular location is number 3. With my experience eating ramen, ramen (to me) I break it down into four components: the noodles, the soup, the meat, and the toppings. Since I have tried THE best ramen in NorCal (Ramen Dojo) and SoCal is the epitome of the next food craze, my expectations were set up high.

KP3 is located in a shopping center right across the way from other poppin' food places, lines out the door. As you walk in you're greeted with open-modern space. There wasn't a lot of people and we're seated immediately. Since we arrived around 1pm we were still in the time frame for the lunch special, $12 for a large bowl. The lunch special includes a side, we ordered takoyaki, sesame chicken, and shrimp and vegetable tempura.
The takoyaki was off the chain, cooked perfectly, the sauce was evenly distributed, and it was spongy to the bite. The sesame chicken was a-okay, not much flavor, however the sauce provided added flavor to it, still nothing special. The shrimp and vegetable tempura, one cannot really eff that up, was executed correctly.

The sides were a tease and I was hoping when we got the ramen it exceeded what I was expecting. I first took a sip of the broth, it was this warm-flavorful sensation going into my belly. The noodles threw me off guard. These noodles weren't your typical ramen noodles, these were thinner and it tasted bland. There is a certain taste in ramen noodles, I don't know how to describe it. . . when you've been eating ramen you know this subtle flavoring. The noodles filled me up and unfortunately I ordered another side of noodles thinking I was going to devour the one that came in my bowl.

 As for the meat and toppings, I have to give it to the egg. It was how an egg should be prepared for ramen, soft boiled to perfection!! The garlic was a great addition, the mushrooms were a-okay, and then there is the meat. The meat was fatty and near to flavorless, still better than a couple of other ramen places. This was my second ramen experience in SoCal and with what SoCal offers there has to be a more than decent ramen place, so far it has been decent ramen places.

The meal itself was satisftying. . . for like 15 minutes and I was already thinking of the next place I was going to hit up, in this case it was the 626 Night Market. The service was. . .  for a place which wasn't very busy I felt we were passed up being in the corner and all. They checked up on us after we had to flag someone down and they never refilled our waters after asking them if they could.


Kopan Ramen 3 sums up in itself my rating. Rowland Heights is lucky to have a ramen eatery set-up shop but with other noodle eateries it doesn't stand out of the crowd even though it is does its take on noodles. Of course I'm writing this way after the fact of trying this place and I feel I could have been more lenient on everything but as stated, once you have had the best it can be a challenge to rate the rest. Kopan Ramen 3, hope you can prove that three wrong someday.


Kopan Ramen - 19705 Colima Rd, Rowland Heights, CA
Value: 4/5
Food: 3/5
Service: 2/5
Atmosphere: 4/5Overall: 3/5