Men-Bei Ramen
A mediocre bowl of ramen tucked away in its own location, offering a wide selection of choices.
Men-Bei Ramen
Ratings
Broth
Noodles
Chashu
Egg
Toppings
Overall
Date of Visit: October 2022
What I Ordered: Men-Bei Ramen
Cost: $15.75
Offers Extra Noodles: $3.00
Offers Extra Broth: $3.00
Review
Men-Bei is a local ramen joint that I was recommended to visit. It is located near the Santa Clara Costco, tucked away in a corner of the parking lot.
They offer a large variety of different ramen, including three staple offerings including a shoyu, shio, and miso ramen. In addition to this, they offer a house specialty ramen, Men-Being Ramen, which I will be tasting today. This is described as a garlic flavored soup with pork, egg, noodles, and other toppings. I’m not how much of a tonkotsu broth this restaurant provides. Instead of extra noodles or broth as a side offering, they offer the ability to upgrade any bowl to a large for $3 extra. Also, you can make your bowl of ramen spicy or extra spicy for a big extra, but I am forgoing the spice today.
In addition to the 18 ramen varieties and the 2 broth less varieties, they also offer an assortment of rice dishes and side orders.
Inside the restaurant are about 7 tables for guests and a countertop bar. It is not a particularly large interior but isn’t cramped for space either.
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The broth has a satisfying milky appearance. The rich pork flavor is not as intense as the appearance may prescribe, but the broth does pack a powerful garlic kick. Unfortunately, aside from the garlic and the spices used in the broth, it still feels thin in comparison to a rich and creamy tonkotsu.
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The noodle are a class yellow medium thickness ramen noodle. I could recognize these from appearance alone. Their firmness is medium and they don’t carry much flavor outside of the very strong garlic accent. Or perhaps I should say that the taste of garlic masks any flavor that the noodle may have.
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The texture of the noodles does go well with the broth, but flavor wise it just really isn’t that interesting. I can’t help but keep thinking that the garlic flavor is a bit sharper yet more flat than fresh crushed garlic cloves. Perhaps they use a pre minced garlic or a garlic powder.
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The chashu is rather underwhelming. There are two thin slices included in the bowl, and they have a distinct dry and cardboard-like taste. Very little savory pork flavor out of everything.
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One half egg is included in this bowl. From the appearance alone, I can tell that it is fully marinaded, as the brown coloring permeates all the way through the egg white to the yolk. The hold does have some bright yellow at the edges, suggesting it was over cooked past soft boiled by just a little bit. The flavor of the egg is dominated by the soy marinade, and it has some softness, but still does carry the thicker texture of an egg cooked a bit past soft boiled.
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Some of the toppings are a bit confusing. There are nori, fish cake, lettuce??, green onion, bamboo, and a very overpowering pickled ginger. The picked ginger stands out as a negative because it will completely overpower the flavor of the bowl when it’s included in the bite you’re taking. And the inclusion of lettuce is a head scratcher to me.
Overall: 8/10
Would not recommend. I would not recommend this bowl of ramen since there was not a single component of the bowl that I was impressed with. Perhaps it didn’t fit the style of ramen that I am looking for, but in my opinion, each of the ingredients was mediocre at best.
The broth is dominated by the taste of garlic, but is no where near as complex as a black garlic ramen, and seemingly not even as rich as fresh crushed garlic. The noodles soak up this flavor and offer nothing else to spruce up the dish. The egg and chashu are sub par and the toppings are distracting and don’t add to the experience.
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