Mentatsu ramen house opened recently in Costa Mesa, near the Mitsuwa plaza. It’s a tiny place with a nice atmosphere. Everyone from the chef to the wait staff greet you when you come in. Well then, right on to the food. I ordered fried rice, shoyu ramen, and gyoza. The fried rice was nicely done and the gyoza was good and garlicky. The ramen had decent chewy noodles, but were a bit on the bland side. The soup was quite good, rich in flavor. The fried rice and gyoza get a 7. The ramen gets a 7. I’ll definitely be back to try their other selections.
Ramen House Mentatsu
688 Baker St #7
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-979-2755
I just found a much better written review of Mentatsu at Professor Salt’s blog.
i live across the street from there, and i just had my first visit a few days ago.
I just went to Mentatsu yesterday after reading a positive review online (can’t remember the site), and it turned out to be a really bad experience. I ordered the chashumen, and my husband had the miso ramen. Neither were decent. The soup was very bland. The noodles were too soft. The bean sprouts were definitely not fresh. The so-called chashu seemed like overboiled slices of lean pork. It was so bad that we could not finish our bowls. Moreover, they forgot about our gyoza order, so we didn’t get to try that. Having just gotten back from Japan last week, the experience was very disappointing. If you’re craving ramen in the O.C., I highly recommend Kohryu and Shin-sen-gumi–both are 10x better than Mentatsu (in both food and service).
I agreed. The only thing really stands out was their fried rice. I will even gives them “9” for the fried rice. However, the romen was not so good and rest of Chinese type dishes was not very impressive either. I think that Shin-Sen-Gumi is the best for the lunch time
My first experience at Mentatsu will be my last. I went there the other night with my friend and the lady who worked there would not let us sit at a table but demanded we sit at the bar. I told her my leg was hurting and could not sit at the bar, but she did not care and would not let us sit at the available table (the table was clean, set up and available!). She then told us we would have to wait for another table to open up. I would have understood if there was a waiting list or the table was reserved, but there was no one else behind us and it was not reserved!! We were so upset we left. It made no sense why she would refuse to give us a table that was clearly available but demanded we sit at the bar when I told her I could not. Even the couple that were there who saw the whole incident commented to us that it did not make sense at all. We ended up going to Kohryu and the service and ramen were excellent! I would definitely recommend Kohryu and Shin-sen-gumi over Mentatsu.
Wow, that’s pretty weird. Sorry to hear that. Service aside though, I agree: Kohryu and Shin-sen-gumi both have better ramen than Mentatsu.
Bad experience…service is terrible…sat someone ahead of us…food is so-so…try to avoid this place…
Jimmy: sorry to hear that. It sounds like they really need to improve on their service. How was the ramen though?