Orenchi Commercial Kitchen

If you like fatty ramen tonkatsu broth, this place is for you. Orenchi has always been the OG ramen restaurant that my friends and I went to years ago. My friend and I went on a Saturday night when indoor dining was starting to open. Parking was easy, and the wait was about 15-20 minutes. We ordered the orenchi (tonkatsu) ramen. I added the spicy miso to mine, which is a must if you like spice. My friend got the large which was extra noodles and broth. I felt like the food came out pretty slow, and thankfully, everything was good. The takoyaki were perfectly crisp--I just wish the octopus pieces inside were bigger. Also, the price for these are pretty steep. It was a little over $7 whereas I feel like other places are closer to $5. The ramen is suuuper fatty. The noodles are the thicker ones, and I felt like they were slightly more al dente than I would like. Lastly, the egg was jammy, which I prefer more than the runny type.

I think i forgot to take a pic of the ramen itself, but my girlfriend and I came here since she said this was one of her childhood ramen spots. But in all honesty, this was probably the worst ramen I've had in the Bay Area. The soup was thin and really peppery. The chasiu was pretty subpar compared to the other places, kinda chewy and not melt in your mouth.For my rice bowl, I wouldn't say it was amazing not terrible. Kinda hard to go wrong with chicken egg and rice, but again, the chasiu just brought the whole taste down.

(3.5 stars Orenchi was super popular in 2016. I remember waiting 1.5 hours to get in before! We decided to try it out again for old times' sake and were pleasantly surprised with how much has changed! We came tight at opening at 5:30pm, and there was no wait, thank goodness! I remember the ramen being good, but there are so many ramen places now a days that waiting that long isn't necessary anymore. Interior is updated, they replaced a lot of tables with bar-like?searing. We got the orenchi ramen with the spicy miso on the side, kaarage, takowasa, and some Sapporo beer. Def get the miso paste on the side. If u can't handle too much spice, it hits, lol. Takowasa could use more wasabi. Without the wait, solid ramen, cool interior, I'd give orenchi 3.5 now : It's still good, I just had a newer server, so we had to flag a couple of people down to get pur orders filled.

Orenchi used to be the go-to place for ramen in the Bay Area, with a line that took about 1.5 hours to wait for a seat. Now it's your general run of the mill ramen, a place you'd go to just to eat ramen but nothing to rave to friends about. There's something missing in their bowls, I can't put my finger on it. But I don't crave to finish the ramen here like I would elsewhere, and that's coming from someone who loves ramen.There have been lots of new Ramen restaurants in the Bay Area that are much better options. Orenchi had its run and unless they change it will be hard to recommend this place over another.

I got the Orenchi Ramen and did not look carefully enough at the menu to realize the kakuni pork belly meat would be a huge chunk. The meat was actually pretty tough to eat and the ramen was very very mediocre as well.Was a little disappointed as this place was so highly rated, but maybe it was a bad day or I just chose the wrong item.