What’s Up Men

Came here around 11:30PM and boy were they rushing us! There was no one waiting in line and they close at 1 so. I don’t understand why they were so rushy.
Ordered the aka ramen and chashu donburi– chashu donburi is really good! Very flavorful and good portion size. However, the aka was very bland and lukewarm. I love Japanese ramen and this just wasn’t hitting the spot.
As I’m writing this, they are cleaning next to me and leaving the dirty washcloth next to me. While I’m eating.
Also they keep trying to take the donburi bowl without asking because they assume we’re done eating it… But there’s still food in there? Literally happened 3 times. Just grabbed the bowl and said «finished?» And we were just awkwardly saying «no still working on it»
I felt so rushed and uncomfortable while eating here, I’d rather go to Kopan Ramen for my Japanese ramen fix.

On vacation and craving some yummy ramen found me here. Being from Hawaii where all kinds of Asians come together, I thought I knew what true ramen was. I thought wrong. What’s Up Men blows any ramen place I ate at in Hawaii away, it makes my favorite ramen spot look like the McDonalds of ramen places. We walked in before the dinner rush at 5:30, wrote my name on the little paper and waited no less then 5 mins to be greeted. We were seated and out drink order was quickly taken. After reviewing the menu I opted for the Miso ramen which was completely and utterly delicious! We also order the Kim Chi fried rice which was just as delicious. As the night went on they got more crowded, it’s a very small spot that seats about 30 – 40 people with about 5 or 6 booths so get there early!
If I’m ever in the area I’m definitely coming back here to get my ramen on.

Perfectly respectable Ramen can now be found on the footsteps of Cal State Fullerton’s campus.
I have been interested in trying What’s Up Men’s style of Ramen for some time now thanks to both word-​of-​mouth from local and intense Unilocal interest. Although the reviews do not seem to point in any clear direction, I think it is safe to say What’s Up Men puts on a credible Ramen experience. You can tell by the service and the cleanliness of the interior that this restaurant is a labor of love, small business effort. All of the employees were genuinely eager to please and offered suggestions at request. My drinks even remained full without having to flag anybody down — try doing that at Santouka!
I decided upon the «Cha Ramen» which is their take in Miso Ramen along with 4 pieces of Gyoza and a Diet Coke which came to roughly $ 13.00. That is about par for the course these days in the OC Ramen scene.
The Gyoza was the first to arrive and it was a complete winner. The dumplings were soft and juicy while having a thin and crispy bottom on each individual Gyoza; served with the bottom side up. The mixture of the filling was heavy on the vegetable side which gave a light and airy mouthfeel that really absorbed their house Gyoza Sauce. This is a good thing because What’s Up Men’s Gyoza Sauce is the most complex and flavorful I have ever had.
A delightful start.
The Miso Ramen was soon to follow and it held it’s own. The broth is a deep and full bodied experience that never crossed over into the «too oily» spectrum. The addition of Black Garlic Oil really put the flavor profile over the top for me, a very close second to Yamadaya in that regard. The Chashu was so soft that it immediately disintegrated once it landed on my tongue; It was a potent package of umami and salt. The actual Ramen Noodles had a firm texture that allowed just enough chewing without tiring my jaw. Furthermore, I they did a great job of allowing the broth to coat their surface. None of the accoutrements failed to deliver and the Cha Ramen was largely a success on all fronts.
The portions were large, borderline huge, and I walked outside into the rain completely full and ready to attack the afternoon. Well, after the food coma that is. What’s Up Men is about as good as Ramen gets in Fullerton.

Truly great and unique (unique for this area). I don’t frequent many noodle places because although many traditional Asian/​Pacific Island noodle recipes take hard work, the resulting flavors tend to be simple.
However, What’s Up Men provides complex dishes with great flavors and textures. I had the Aka, a spicy miso broth noodle with pork, and it was excellent. Also I ordered the Fried Chicken side, which was very crunchy, freshly hot, and accompanied with some good sauces. And the ice tea was some of the best I’ve had.
Also the staff were very friendly and the restaurant had an urban charm. An added plus is that they are open beyond midnight making them a great alternative to late night fast food. I have been converted to this wonderful noodle joint.

Love their Shio Ramen. Surprisingly their Curry rice also pretty darn good.
We keep coming back here for lunch. Problem is the line is getting long which is a good thing for the restaurant but bad for those of us have 1 hour lunch.

Love this place for ramen and fried rice!
The casual, comfort food oriented approach to ramen is both delicious and refreshing

I found the food to be very delicious. The noodles were cooked perfectly and the broth had such flavor! My boy friend and I both had the fried rice side which was DELICIOUS! The restaurant itself was a little on the small side but still didn’t seem too cramped.
The staff was very friendly, my boy friend and I were able to get seats pretty quickly around lunch time, but I know around dinner time there is normally a pretty big wait.
The only thing for me was the music was… strange for such a place. It kinda threw me off. Other than that, the place was very clean, friendly with great food. To me, worth going to eat there! :-)

What’s Up Men
Ordered the AKA Kara spicy miso ramen with the curry rice bowl combo.
The curry bowl was good but the Ramen broth wasn’t spicy rather salty instead. Even though it was salty it still tasted a bit bland overall. I had to drink at least 3 cups of water to get halfway through the broth.
I asked for a side of soft boiled egg which actually came COLD and the yolk was already becoming semi dry. That wasn’t good especially since I had to pay extra for it.
I did try their pork fried rice which was excellent.
Final Thoughts:
This review shouldn’t stop you from coming but to be honest I found this place to be incredibly average. Come see for yourself if you’re out in the area.
That’s what’s up, meng.

I’m not a big ramen person, but I think the ramen here is good! They come in a variety of broths (soy sauce broth, miso, spicy miso, etc). I only tried their spicy miso and the broth is soo flavorful! The ramen noodle itself is ok, I prefer softer noodles, but I think the noodles they use are the authentic ones. Pretty much everything here is authentic and they have a variety of appetizers and side dishes.
The Cha Shu Pork with ramen or rice is popular. I also like their Gyu Don beef rice bowl. The beef is really tender. Their homemade kimchi is sooo good! The seasoning is on-​point! I love to add it as a side to any dish.
I go here often for a quick meal after school since it’s close. When I go by myself, I sit at the bar. The restaurant itself is small and there’s often a wait for a table during lunch or dinner. It’s great that they are open late for those late night cravings! The service is good; the waiters and waitresses are all attentive and nice. They also serve alcohol here (like soju) for those who need a drink with their meal.

El Niño calls for ramen! Second time here. Because of the rain and small waiting area (lack of), customers were asked to wait outside. Some waited in their cars. I was hesitant to, fear of not getting a phone call.
The wait was a little longer than expected. Food was fast and tasty. Got the Aka Ramen. A little short on the meat. Maybe I forgot to ask for an egg? Service was superb. The lunch special was perfect — soup and appetizer.

Slave girl was meeting me for lunch at work and really wanted ramen. I have searched all around and what’s up men surfaced from Unilocal with its great rating in Fullerton.
For a huge plaza, parking was actually challenging during lunch time but not impossible. After you get to the restaurant, they have a wait list outside by the door. You don’t have to talk to anyone, just put down your name and magically you will be called when it’s your turn. The wait wasn’t too bad especially if you have slave girl around to keep you busy. Since it’s a ramen place, most people are in and out anyway.
We ordered soy sauce broth combo with curry rice, spicy miso broth combo with chashu rice, and octopus balls.
COMBO DOES NOT COME WITH EGG AT THIS PLACE and they charge you a dollar for one egg. They do this on purpose and they know it too because our nice server asked us if we wanted to order egg on the side since it doesn’t come with the combo.
The food came to our table within 5 min after we ordered, that’s speedy as hell. Octopus balls was done really well, flavorful and fluffy. Soy sauce broth was a hit for me but I am not a big fan on the spicy miso. Matter of fact, I believe it was the spicy paste on top that I didn’t like because the broth tasted great before the paste was mixed in. The biggest dissatisfied thing was the chashu. It wasn’t processed well and still had that pork stink taste. We tried mine, hers, the one in chashu rice, and they all had that and it wasn’t pleasant.
Service was fantastic at this location. Our tea was refilled all the time without asking. When I asked for extra pickled radish for my curry rice, they brought back a handful with a smile. All and all, a great place to go for comfort food especially they open late.

Love that this spot opens late (about 1am). And is local… Service is always good every time I’m here. They have Unilocal check ins too. Free extra noodles. I also get mine Togo because its delish!
This is a pretty small spot. And it tends to get packed pretty fast. they have many ramen options and also appetizers and rice bowls. I always get the aka ramen which is the spicy miso and it hits the spot. The broth is flavorful and the noodles are cooked to my liking.

Broth isn’t as flavorful as other places I’ve been to. The ramen I chose was the Cha which is miso based. The combo was with gyoza and fried rice. I tried Bry’s Aka ramen which was spicy and better than mine. They have a shin sengumi type of atmosphere with the yelling Japanese phrases.

I have come here many times trying out different things on the menu. I have to say after getting the Chashu Bowl, the Aka, and the cold noodles, the Aka is the one for me. It is not spicy at all and adds a lot of flavor. It was $ 9.25 and it is amazing!
It had the perfect amount of flavor where I don’t really need to add anything to the ramen. I LOVE the egg and have never tasted such a delicious egg ever before in my life. The broth was just right and eating this during the cold is the best.
In conclusion, great service and great food! I recommend the Aka.
If you check in, you also get one free extra noodle.

So I don’t consider myself an Udon expert but I do love my noodle soups. While What’s Up Men is no Santouku Ramen, it definitely hits the spot, particularly on a cold winter night. Plus their service is friendly and they do the traditional greeting when customers enter and exit so it’s exciting.
Broth is good. And servings are pretty large. I don’t usually finish my bowl.

I really don’t see the big deal about this place. But you should definitely CHECK IN TO GET FREE EXTRA NOODLES.
The wait is pretty ridiculous. 45 minutes for 2 people?! At least they had a heater for the cold weather. But not only is the wait long, the space inside is SMALL. (btw, it’s next to Pieology, in a corner area) there’s an «L» bar shape that seats about 8 – 9 people. And there’s 6 tables?
FOOD: I got the Koro Ramen ($ 8.50) and it was basic. Basic taste. I think with the extra noodle, it just overweighed everything else. The noodle is a thicker rounder noodle and was alright. The egg was still cold so you definitely need to drown it and mix your bowl really well. The broth had a bit of garlic but it just didn’t compliment the taste.
Overall, just wasn’t as good as I expected. Fun fact: they play a lot of Reggae music & usher love songs haha. Probably not coming back here — definitely wasn’t worth the wait in the cold.

K. So off top, love that they give extra noodles with check in!!!
This cold weather + ramen definitely hit the spot. I’ve never been to this spot, but it was the closest place to my house that was open late.
Small, but what ramen place isn’t? (Someone should definitely invest in a spacious ramen joint lol.)
OC area gets a pass or no pass, so this place could’ve had a C for all I know, but it looked pretty clean. So I try not to think past that.
Came around 10−11pm on a Tuesday and we got seated right away at the bar.
With the extra noodles, my bowl of Shiro was looking very hefty :-) It was more than enough to get me full. And I’m glad I don’t have to pay extra for the egg since it already comes with it.
Nom nom nom
Service: On point. Always had a full cup of water, which I needed bc I like my ramen super spicy! And some of the workers were singing along to the songs, which I thought was adorably funny considering the genre of music they were playing.
Was going to give 4 stars, but I gave it some thought… They deserve 5 stars for playing baby making music because would you ever expect trey songz or 90’s/80’s slow jams to be playing at a ramen joint?
Thought so.

My cousin took me here when I was in town. She said usually they have a long wait but when we came for dinner, the wait wasn’t too bad. It’s a cuts small place that serves some delicious food.
We ordered some ramen and if you check in you can get 1 free noodle refill to your broth which was great although we were too full to add more. I ordered the takoyaki which was amazing! Great portions and good price. The chicken karaage was also good. They have a bunch of great items on the menu that I wanted to try.
I would definitely come back here when I’m in the area. Server was so friendly and food was satisfying. Great place!

I was in dire need of soup to help me recover from a night of heavy drinking and saw this place was close by so I called in to order for pick up. My order was ready within 15 minutes. I ordered the spicy miso ramen and a california roll. I was a bit hesitant to order ramen to-​go but it wasn’t all that bad
I heated up the broth again once I got home before adding it to my bowl of noodles. The broth was full of flavor but a little too salty and thick for my taste. It was a pretty heavy broth. I usually drink alot of the broth but I just couldn’t with this one. The noodles were thin with just the right amount of firmness. It also comes with bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, scoop of spicy miso paste, slices of chasu, and half of a soft boiled egg. The chasu was tender and thick, and I really enjoyed the soft boiled egg. Not much to say about the California roll but I liked that they put in alot of imitation crab to the roll.
Overall, its a decent bowl of ramen! The establishment itself is very small and located next to a busy Pieology so I can imagine there being a wait during it’s peak hours. Parking is scarce but it’s in a huge complex so you can always park a little further and just walk.

3-​stars at best. Gets crowded quickly. For me, it was not worth the wait. Here are the highlights of my experience.
I ordered the AKA (Spicy Miso) Ramen. Broth was pork flavored with a scoop of spicy chili paste. Nothing fancy. The bowl had one-​piece of pork. Broth tasted okay, but it was a little on the salty side. Was not spicy at all. Disappointed that they don’t ask customers how firm they want their noodles, or whether you wanted extra noodles when you were finished.
Ordered the gyoza at the same time as the ramen, and the gyoza came out super quick. The ramen came out close to 30-​minutes after we finished the gyoza. All the ice had melted in our water cups, which took forever for someone to come by and offer refills.
Parking is not friendly in this plaza. If you’re lucky, you can get right up in the front. Else, you have to share the lot with plenty of other food establishments.
Overall, the food was okay. The wait was terrible. Service can definitely be better. If you’re in the CSUF area, and looking for some decent ramen, check this place out. If you’re looking for Hakata style ramen, you won’t find it here.
Enjoy.