いらっしゃいませ!

Welcome to my ramen dream... Currently being interpreted in Ramen Burger Land... Looking for a good slurp? Email me ! - Keizo

Sunday, October 26, 2008

UCC Café Plaza - Walnut, CA

Hing Wa Lee Plaza
1569 S. Fairway Drive
Walnut, CA 91789
(909) 598-3200
www.ucccafeplaza.com

I've been going to this UCC Café Plaza at least once a month now ever since it opened last year. I often go in the morning to enjoy a glass of their signature siphoned coffee and a plate of Japanese-style French Toast, but today would be different. Last month when I was here, I noticed a little sign on the table stating that they now have ramen. So of course, I had to come give it a try. (Don't worry, the Foo-Foo Challenge will still continue tonight!)


Before I say anything further, I would just like to say that the service today was absolutely horrendous! I've never experienced anything like this before at this restaurant and unfortunately it may mean the end of my UCC visits...forever. Yeah, I've waited hours in line for ramen before, but never have I waited 45 minutes after being seated to finally be served an ice coffee. Nor have I seen a waitress get an order wrong and not apologize for it. Coupled with the attitude of slamming our glasses on the table after I had asked just ONE TIME where our iced coffees were, I think I've had enough. By the way, our waters arrived 57 minutes after we sat down. Uuuh...am I missing something?


What is "Japanese Fusion Ramen" anyway? Ramen is essentially Japanese already so does this mean it is fused with itself? (Can you tell I'm still bitter?)


Fried Tonkatsu Ramen: This is not ramen! The noodles are the same noodles that they use for their spaghetti and since my bowl was probably sitting for several minutes in the kitchen (I can't imagine why), the noodles were horribly soggy. The soup was also very disappointing. It tasted like chicken broth mixed with instant ochazuke packets...pathetic! I really hate wasting food, especially ramen, but the lower right picture is as far as I could get. I wasn't about to waste any more room in my stomach when I could fill it with real ramen tonight. The only positive was the tonkatsu, but the damage had already been done.


I'm not one to complain or make a scene or withhold tip for bad service so I still paid and left a tip as I would normally do. I really enjoyed their food minus the ramen, but I could live without it. And I'll stop recommending this place to friends from now on.

16 comments:

  1. Yikes that sounds like a horrible experience Keizo. And after zooming into the photo I can see you weren't kidding about the ochazuke packet!

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  2. Haha, I knew you would understand! All that was missing was an umeboshi.

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  3. Ah, too bad. I've been there twice, mainly for the coffee, and I was excited to hear they were serving ramen. Guess I'll scratch that one off the list.

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  4. Did you try yelling "Sumimasen!" to get some service? Can't get served in Japan without the magic word!

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  5. No, but it probably wouldn't have worked anyway since they weren't Japanese. It's funny (and sad) how bad いらしゃいませ gets butchered on the way in.

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  6. Hi Keizo,

    Ouch! :( You definitely should *not* have left a tip! That's the one way to send them a message. It's a disgrace that in this day-and-age (with restaurants struggling, and hoping to get in customers / business) that you were subjected to that. My condolences. :(

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  7. Thx Exile Kiss. It was definitely saiyaku!

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  8. That's too bad. I was searching for a place close to Chino Hills to have some good Ramen. Pls try some ramen (if you can find a place) in Chino Hills. I don't have a lot of time to drive out to the places you ranked. Thanks!

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  9. Hi Keizo,

    If you can reflect on it, do you think that taking photos around the place is the reason they would be obnoxious towards you?

    I have that similar experience before at banh mi sandwich shop where the ladies was annoyed at me taking photos of their menu board and was a little freaked out when I took a photo of the counter. She gave me my sandwich and toss it in a plastic bag in a mean fashion. My banh mi crawl review will be up soon (too many backlogs at this point), but that place really pissed me off that day.

    Sorry to hear about the service, but then again, their ramen was not worth talking about either. Yikes!

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  10. @zaki: Unfortunately Chino Hills is pretty dry when it comes to ramen. But hey, Chino Hills ain't that far from Foo-Foo Tei! I'd say 20 min max. Thx for visiting!

    @Pepsi: Sorry to hear about the banh mi place. Can't wait to read about your banh mi crawl...sounds fun! I usually try be stealth when taking pics and understand what you mean when people get irritated, but that was not the case here. This place just sucked.

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  11. @Pepsi Monster: I've found that sometimes, the best thing to do is to act like you own the place and that taking pics is the most natural thing in the world. If they ask why you're taking pics, just give 'em your biggest smile and give them a really vague answer like "oh, I just like taking pics." Then again, some people are just *sses and then you just gotta resort to stealth.

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. Hey Edjusted,

    I don't mind doing the photowork out in the open or stealth like a ninja. I think you hit it on the head when you said people are just @sses.

    Most of the time, I actually get great service from people because they probably thought I was a health inspector or worry that the photos of their food is going to be on the web somewhere. The ones that get annoyed are most likely to get angry at that no matter what. I respect it if they ask me to put the camera away.

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  14. sorry, I deleted the first comment because I misspelled some of the words on both of the sentences in the first paragraph. Oye!

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  15. I've actually eaten there quite a few times and have tried numerous items on their menu. I personally love the ramen there and it's become my go-to dish when I get there. Sucks that you had bad service though, it's kinda a hit or miss.

    I must say though that their ramen is not made of the spaghetti noodles you claim they use in the other dishes.

    And, I like to think that I do know my ramen...Daikokuya is on the top of my list :)

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  16. Hi Asnqt913! Thx for visiting. It's nice to hear another perspective and I'm glad you love their ramen.

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