Ramen Yokocho Festival 2013

Why I hated the Ramen Yokocho Festival?
Let me count thee ways
#1 The ridiculously long lines. The main line to get tickets took average over 1.5 hours. The food lines were just as long.
#2. The lack of organization. Each ramen shop had its own line. But in the mad choas, it was very hard to tell which line for which ramen shop.
#3. The tickets are non-​refundable.
#4. Portions are tiny. They used small white Styrofoam bowl. Barely enough for both the soup/​broth and noodles.
#5. They ran out of food. Some shops ran out of food/​ingredients.
#6. Another line to get food. OMG!!!
#7. A line to buy water. Well, by now you are used to standing in a line.
So, you got a ticket. Great. Now what?
Stand in another line. Find out you are in the wrong line. Get in correct line.
Send someone to stand in the water line.
They need more room to eat. They had indoor seating but people were sitting down anywhere and eating. Poor people being famished from waiting.
So what did we do, we did what most sane people did. We left.
There are tons of great ramen places in Torrance/​Gardena.
Well…
seems like a lot of other people had the same idea.
Another review forthcoming of our ramen experience.
If you got here early, you avoided lines and got to try some ramen. Maybe even two.
Overall, if you love lines, paying too much for little food, then this is perfect for you.
Otherwise, I would not recommend this.

I will not even review the various Ra-​menya and their proprietary Ra-​men since there are & will be so many reviews concerning the flavours, service or lack there of, venue, managerial faux pas, etc. I would like to suggest a way to relieve the overcrowding & overselling of tickets when much of the food ran out.
Why not pre-​sell on line with the choice of the two days (Saturday or Sunday) & possibly a 2 hour time slot with the proviso that you can order the number of Ra-​men from the various Ra-​menya as well as pre-​ordering the choice & number of drinks, Japanese Shaved Ice, etc. In this way, the different Ramenya can figure out how much they need to prepare for that day as well as having the sponsors know how much sodas, ice, etc. they need to stock.
With modern day technology, you can scan the ticket with each subcategory corresponding to a specific order by a having a bar code or that square with black & white coding on it. And once the order is completed, the bar code or square can not be used again.
Of course, the number of people should be limited to the number of guests that can be served comfortably by the various Ra-​menya for that time period. If you come too late, then you forfeit the use of the ticket, or if there is a later time with less guests, then the possiblity of being transferred to that time slot.
The trouble with most food festivals is that it is impossible to anticipate the number of customers who will or will not appear. I remember one of first Food Truck Festivals in downtown LA where I waited over 2 hours in line to a Ludobites Fried Chicken Truck and then told that when I got to order, there would be another 45 minute wait to get the fried chicken.
Perhaps the kind of system that I have proposed to control the numbers & to be able to accurately know how much to stock would make it easier on the customers as well as the organizers & chefs. Perhaps, gate crashers can come in at the conclusion of the festival if there is any food left over and take their chances to see what is available.
LALALA, if you are going to sponsor another food festival. You will have to do more homework to ensure that the same mistakes and possible new mistakes because of implementing new policy are kept to a minimum. Ask & investigate other food festivals & their sponsors to see what they have done to mitigate the problems encountered & how it was solved or minimized.

So I had high hopes for this, and was really excited to go, esp bc I really wanted to try a ramen burger.
This event didn’t seem too well-​planned. First, I waited 1.5 hrs in line just to get into to the event. When I got in, it was clear that the space was waaaaaaay too small for the huge amount of people in attendance. It was a maze pretty much. So many intertwined lines for different booths. I honestly don’t think they were expecting such a huge turnout. Some places even ran out of food!
I ended up waiting in line for a ramen burger for Ikemen, and guess how long I waited? THREE HOURS! I honestly cannot even believe I waited that long. I mean, their ramen burgers were delicious, but still. By that time, I was so exhausted, that I didn’t even want to wait in any more lines for anything else to eat.
Some of the people working there also need to learn how to work on their attitude. I waited in a long line for some water. When I get to the front, I ask for a bottle of water, and they said they don’t have anymore. I look down, and I see like 5 cases of waterbottles. I look at the case, look at the guy, look back at the case and say ‘Umm, there is water right there…” He then snaps back at me saying «We don’t have anymore water! That’s for tomorrow!». Umm okay, Mr. Rude. Not cool!
If they have this event again next year, and it’s in the same venue with the same rude workers, and isn’t planned well, you can count me out. I liked the ramen burger I got, but it’s not worth all of that hassle. Hopefully all of the feedback they are receiving helps them plan a better event next year. *fingers crossed*

yeah… NO. I don’t intend to return next year.
Waited an hour to enter the ramen festival and certain ramen stands had an additional 1hr+ wait. Thankfully I came with a large group and we all split up to save time. One friend went immediately to the ramen booth that is from Japan and looking back, it was a 5hr line. We were at the festival for 2.5 hours and my friend was standing there since the beginning and at the end we gave our spot to other friends that came to the festival later and they ended up standing for an additional 2.5 hours. I was able to try some of that ramen and the broth was nice and light and the pork was superb – melted in my mouth. But was it worth 5 hours? No.
Other stands had no wait and it was nice to be able to eat the ramen immediately, however, I don’t think this ramen festival enabled these restaurants to showcase their typically delicious dishes. My absolute favorite ramen place is Orenchi’s from Santa Clara, and they were present at this ramen festival, but I wasn’t impressed. Could be because they’re known for their perfectly cooked soft-​boiled egg which wasn’t served at this event. Regardless, I think you’re better off trying these ramens at the actual restaurant.
Finally, my last gripe with this ramen festival is the price. It was $ 8 per bowl which is standard for what you pay in the restaurants, but these portions were significantly smaller and the quality was worse. I’m grateful for the smaller portions at this event so that I could sample different booths without being immediately full, but $ 8 was a ridiculous price.
They need to re-​think this festival and hopefully all the kinks will be worked out for future events.

Went Saturday. The experience was fun thanks to my line-​mates… but i don’t want to do this ever again
Not worth the money and the wait. Very disorganized and the lines were all tangled up in a tiny plaza.
We got there around 10:30 to get in line, then another line then more lines. My goal was to try different ramens from other locations outside of CA because I’ve tried all but 1 that’s driving distance.
I got to try:
— 3 ramen burgers (otafuku sauce, teriyaki sauce and in-​n-​out style)
— hawaiian ramen was a fail. No broth and wasn’t satisfying
— japan ramen: was delicious but not worth 3 hours of wait: they prepared each ramen for 5 minutes.
— vegas ramen: had it before, sis got some
Hope they get better like the 626 market.

This was their first event but not the first of its kind in SoCal. (See Noodle Bowl Fest that took place in Santa Monica on 2/​10/​13.) I knew so many people were going to be interested in attending. I was aware of what I was getting myself into before arriving although I must admit when I was trying to get to the end of the line to get in, my heart sank a little. The line was so long, I thought I might not get in at all. I was contemplating whether to leave but the line moved forward every so often so I stuck it out.
While in line, they made announcements through a megaphone of when a vendor was sold out. Good timing that some people promoting 10-​calorie sodas were giving out ice cold cans near the front where we were; Canada Dry Ginger Ale and A&W Root Beer helped cool us down. That first line had taken me an hour. I did come prepared with a hat and a buddy in tow. Once inside, I had to stand in another line to purchase tickets. There were separate lines for cash and card transactions.
I did not have any expectations of trying all the different ramens. My plan was to try a couple from out of town so I purchased only two ramen tickets. Once we were in the courtyard, I sent my buddy into one line while I waited in another. Divide and conquer is the strategy at any crowded food festival event.
With a bit of navigating, I found the end of the super long line to Kitakata Ramen Bannai from Japan. Coincidentally, it was the same area as the end of the line to San Jose’s Shalala that my buddy was standing in line for. Since that line and others were shorter, my buddy was able to bring back Shalala’s miso ramen, thumbs up, and also the seafood ramen, thumbs down, while I remained in line. I had sent my buddy to purchase another ramen ticket.
As I was finally approaching the front of the line to the long awaited, I tried to send my buddy for yet another ticket so we can each have a bowl of our own. She came back empty handed since they were no longer selling tickets. After about 2 and half hours (of the line luckily being in shade), we had our bowl of ramen from Japan and it surely did not disappoint although it was on the salty side. I was amazed at how long Kitakata held up while other vendors were sold out and packing it up.
A couple of tabled rooms were opened up to take your food to. This is where we savored our last bowl.
So, I was there for 4 hours and got to try 3 different ramens. When we left, I saw that the people arriving were being turned away. I felt bad for those that traveled out of their way.
Any first-​time event is going to have some hiccups. I felt proud of myself for having the patience to wait so long. Okay, maybe I’m just a sucker. $ 8 for a smallish bowl of ramen… I would hope that a portion of that went to pay for the venue since it was free to get in.

Considering it was its first event, I’m going be a more lenient. After attending quite a few festivals, I naturally expected a large number of people, which means long lines, so you would have develop your own strategy as to how you will navigate and try as much food as possible in the shortest amount of time. NOOBS beware.
We got to the festival 30 minutes before it opened and there was already a long line. As soon as we got to the front, we realized we had to stand in one of the many lines to buy tickets for ramen and drinks. I thought it was a good idea of charging one price for all the ramen, although I thought $ 8 per ramen that 50%-66% its original size at the restaurant was a bit excessive. The bowls contained enough for 3 gulps of soup and 4 slurps of noodles.
Tip: Buy enough tickets in the beginning or else you’ll end up standing in a long line.
The venue was extremely small, which made it almost impossible to navigate from tent to tent to check out the vendors. Yes, everything was closer, but with that many people carrying around ramen, someone is bound to bump into each other and spill hot, boiling, ramen onto each other like what happened to me. You’ll not only get sunburned, but ramen burned as well. They need a much bigger venue that has more open area and already set lines in place.
Overall Tips:
1) Go early
2) Buy enough tickets in the beginning
3) Go with a group of friends so that each person can stand in different lines

We arrived around 10:30am on the first day. I knew from the website this event was going to somewhat chaotic but I think it went a little better than expected. You have to remember this was a first time event for Los Angeles and the website does note they will be letting 1000 people in at a time. With that said we planned accordingly and got there as early as we could.
The first line to buy tickets looked bad but actually went pretty fast. We originally thought he same thing as everyone else driving by, «OMG is THAT is the line to get in???» With 5 food tickets (4 for ramen and 1 for a ramen burger) my fiancé and I did pretty well in the first 20 mins. We had at least 3 bowls (Monta, Iroha and Ikemen) down and I was set to wait in the Jidaiya line for the ramen burger. This line was unfortunately moving way to slow so after 30 minutes we decided to get another ramen instead. The Tsujita (cold ramen) line went fast and so did the Hayatemaru.
–1 star for location. This event definitely needs a larger venue.
+1 star for having end of the line markers
— 1 star for small $ 8 bowls
–1 star for long waits, especially for ramen burger

Came out to Ramen Yokocho Fest because Weekly Lalala asked us to come out to do a video about this event. Thought it was a great idea. I knew it was going to be crowded. Luckily, we had the media passes, so we didn’t have to wait in that line. The line is no joke, but they had to do it for crowd control. We walked around first, scooped out the ticket booths and ramen booths. The ticket booth on the other side had no line. So we didn’t have to wait to buy tickets.
Got 2 tickets, so we tried Orenchi Ramen from San Jose. Their soup was a fatty creamy rich broth. The noodles were thick and chewy. A bit on the salty side, but over all a very tasty ramen. Second place we tried was Iroha. They served a Spicy Mapo Ramen. It’s said to have won 3 championships on the Tokyo Ramen Show. And it’s the work of owner Kurihara and Iron Chef Chen Kenichi. The ramen was a bit bland. The spicy was very overpowering. Tasted very 2 dimension. Just spicy and savory.
Overall, the staff did a pretty decent job keeping this event contained. Hope the crazy turn out would get them a bigger venue as 626 Night Market has done. My other complaint about this even was that the price. $ 8 for a half size ramen is a bit overboard. Definitely not bang for the buck value at this event. On the other hand, the free entry and parking was a plus.
Check out our video coverage
. Hope to see you guys at the next one.

I was so disappointed. We got there at 10:15 AM and the line was already fairly long but moving quickly. Essentially it was about a 20 min wait to get into the venue in the morning.
What we didn’t realize was that there was ANOTHER line to get ramen TICKETS.
That was another 40 mins.
On top of that, I had purchased 2 beer tickets ($ 10) and only after I had paid, the lady told me I can’t use them until after 1 PM. I was SOL since there were NO refunds. I had not planned to stay that long so I was so angry that she didn’t explain beforehand nor have the signs clearly marked.
So tucking the tickets away, we tackled the ramen lines. My bf and another friend went to tackle the JP ramen line, while myself and another friend tackled the ramen burger line.
It all became a clusterf*ck. I moved to a different line since the ramen burger was going to take 2.5 hours.
The JP line was also going at a 2 hour rate.
SERIOUSLY WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS?
By the time I got my Monta ramen, I was so disgruntled that I only ate half. Being in the heat, being in overcrowded situations, and standing in line for that long WAS NOT my idea of a good eating festival time.
This location was SO absurdly small. The LAYOUT of the booths was POORLY set up. And there’s no way in hell that a line to redeem a $ 1 WATER takes half an hour!
EVENT ORGANIZERS — PLEASE take this to a BIGGER VENUE. Read all the horror stories of the very first 626 Night Market in Pasadena and learn from it!
And really, if you’re going to charge $ 8 for a tiny ass bowl when I can get A FULL-​SIZED ONE for roughly the same price at SANTOUKA, then it better be damn good and CONVENIENT to get!

It was A-​OK!
I love noodles… and I love ramen. Obviously this would be an awesome festival for me!
My only complaint about this was how unorganized the lines were! If the lines were done in a more orderly fashion… this festival could have been amazing.
Actually…I guess I do have a second complaint. I think having a set price at the beginning for maybe AYCE would be a much better idea than paying $ 8 per bowl.
Other than that… I thought it was amazing!
Ramens from different cities… and even one from Japan!
Free Parking… free admission!
P. S. an advantage to the unorganized lines is that it itll make your ninja skills more pro!
UNTIL THEN! ^-^

Day 2
I’ve returned again just to try that ramen booth from Japan (Kitakata Ramen Bannai). Yea, I am THAT persistent just for a bowl of ramen.
9:00 AM — Oh wow, people already started waiting?
10:00 AM — Everyone was still waiting, but one of the staff made an announcement that there will be a separate line for those people who still had the food tickets from yesterday and they will be given priority going in first. YES! Since I still had a ticket from yesterday, I was able to get in and skip the ticket buying line. This was the main reason why I decided to give 2-​star instead of 1-​star, at least the organizer tried to do something about the waiting line.
10:25 AM — They finally let people go in. And guess what was the 1^st booth that everyone goes to? Yup, that ramen booth from Japan.
10:30 AM — Now I finally understand why the line for Kitakata is so long. The booth made their ramen one batch at a time. Each batch took about 5 minutes and served about 6 bowls at a time. Not to mention that everyone ordered like 3 ~ 6 bowls in one swoop. Even though I was at the front of the line, I had to wait for another 30 minutes.
Hand Crumpled Curly Noodles with Meltingly Tender Charshu Pork — Oh the 1^st sip of broth and meat … really, people waited for 3~4 hours yesterday just for this? Shoyu broth wasn’t bad, but the taste was one dimensional. Charshu pork wasn’t as tender as I thought. You know what’s sad? I think Orochon ramen’s charshu pork was more tender than this. However, the noodle was al dente and that was the only 5-​star part about the ramen.
11:15 AM — I have my eye on the next target — Gomaichi (from Hawaii). So I bought additional tickets (once you walk into the entrance, you can just buy more tickets later located inside the Art Center — and there won’t be any line at all) and waited for another 30 minutes.
Tan Tan Men from Gomaichi (
) — If you are going to fly all the way from Hawaii to Torrance to showcase your ramen, then bring out your best ramen. Don’t just give us tan tan men without the soup *sad face*. Noodle and seasoning were okay — it wasn’t enough to make me say «this was a special bowl of ramen».
11:45 AM — Bought my 3^rd and last bowl of ramen at Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle booth (cold noodle). Funny, no line at all.
Cold noodle from Tsujita (
) — Tsujita, I hope you are not putting this on your menu because this was one of the saltiest broth I’ve ever had. I know tsukemen’s broth does taste a bit saltier than a normal shoyu broth, but this cold noodle broth was over-​killed.
12:15 PM — Check the booklet — If you collect 6 stamps at the event, then you can get a free insulated tumbler. So I was busy spending my last 30 minutes looking for stamps. In addition, you also get a bag of goodies if you fill out one of their survey at the table inside one of the building.
12:30 PM — Left the event with a tumbler and a bag of free Calpico drinks.
Overall — slightly better than day one and I can tell the organizers did move some of the booths around to avoid crowd congestion, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
Solutions? It’s pretty simple:
— Get a bigger venue.
— Get more ramen restaurants from out of state; if local ramen restaurants still want to participate, then set up more vendor booths for out of state
may sound unfair, but people come to this event to try things that they typically can’t drive/​fly to.
— Sell limited amount of tickets online so that you can get a REAL crowd estimate. People are willing to buy $ 5 entrance fee for a much shorter waiting lines.
626 Night Market was able to learn from their mistakes, so can this event.
P. S. — No Shalala booth on day 2 because they ran out of the soup.

A festival for the ramenaholics and the 1^st in LA! A brilliant idea in theory but the sad story is, the execution was an epic fail from all angles.
1. The #1 mistake was the venue. It’s way too small to accommodate the hundreds of attendees.
2. Long is an understatement for how the lines were. There were so many of them. One to get in which wrapped around the entire building, one to get tickets if you pay cash, one to pay for credit card, and one each for the booths to get ramen, drinks, etc.
3. There was no telling which line was for what or where it all began. Signs and volunteers were much needed to direct the monstrous crowd that there was. There weren’t enough of them!
4. A designated area to eat was located indoors with tables and chairs but were very much lacking to accommodate the people who almost had the chance to enjoy their bowls of ramen.
5. Only one booth for drinks. Imagine the wait!
So here’s what I tried:
IROHA — Los Angeles-​based known for their Black Mapo Ramen. I waited in line for half an hour until I got my bowl. This was one of the shorter lines so I toughed it out. Was it worth the wait? Not really. It isn’t your typical ramen so it totally has a different kind of flavor to it. Not my type.
ORENCHI— From San Jose. Their system was to leave your ticket and they write your name down. They ask you to come back 45 minutes later to pick it up. I thought that was smart. Instead of waiting in line and taking up space, you get to line up at other booths to try something else. It was good but for $ 8, come on, give us more!
GOMAICHI — From Hawaii. They’re known for their Tan Tan Men so I was ecstatic to have some. I did my homework before coming here and made a list of what to try. This was #1 on my list but guess what? The only one item they were offering was their dry noodles. Boo!
IKEMEN — Los Angeles-​based. Line was an hour or so long. Was lucky to have friends there so we all split up and lined up at different places. I had the Otafuku ramen burger. Probably the one thing I enjoyed at this festival. It’s 100% juicy ground beef patty with some greens, fresh shaved bonito, and some special sauce between two noodle buns. Concept is pretty cool and it tasted wonderful. Again, it wasn’t much for $ 8. The guy also forgot about the bonito flakes so he added it on top of my burger which made it messy and hard for me to eat it.
The line for KITAKATA was the most ridiculous! We waited about 2 hours until I finally threw the towel and decided to sell my last ticket and gave my spot to one lucky guy from San Jose. Coming all the way from Japan, it was obviously what everyone wanted to try. However good their ramen was, it wasn’t worth wasting any more of the time I already lost.
If they plan to do this again next year, I really hope they’ve learned their lesson and hire a professional to plan this thing out. Would I come back? Probably not!
Some good came out from this event and that was seeing fellow Unilocalers Cathy S., Ingrid V. and her hubby, as well as Michael C. who let us cut in line many times. It was a pleasure meeting Antho L., Lica N., and Liz O. SYOY!

We just drove by the festival and saw that the line was really really long outside. The line was wrapped around the building! Crazy! –1
Why didn’t they just have it as an outdoor event rather in such a small place? –1
They’d only let 1,000 people in at a time & lots of peeps said it wasn’t worth it because of the long wait & the SMALL bowls of ramen $ 8 that they got after the long wait –1
Chaos! They had sold out the 1^st day at 6PM. –1
We ended up going to a ramen restaurant instead, I am NOT going to wait hours in line in the hot sun for ramen when there’s plenty of good ramen restaurants in the area. =)
They should have been better organized.
Tip: Bring a hat because you’ll be waiting for a long, long time.

One start because of the effort that the volunteers and staff put into organizing this event… if it wasn’t for their hard work I’d give this ZERO stars… well, if Unilocal would let me, haha.
Ramen Yokocho Festival is literally a waste of time… not figuratively, literally! You can go to a good ramen place, pay the same price and get a full bowl w/​o the 4 hour wait!
I doubt I will ever submit myself to this again, but if I did, I’ll be sure to bring cash because the CREDIT CARD line to purchase tickets for the bowl was a good 2 hours!
In the words of Derek Zoolander WHAT IS THIS A CENTER FOR ANTS?! The building has to be at least… three times bigger than this!!!
Maybe they will improve next year, but just like the 626 Night Market I had such a sour experience the first time around that I’m counting myself out.

Friends who got there before I did said the line was a mile long with a wait time of 2 – 3 hours.
Is it worth waiting that long in the hot boiling sun for half the size of normal ramen?
No!
So we went to Mitsuwa instead. Seems like those who didn’t want to wait went there.
My sister had enough patience to get tickets after work, but unfortunately they ran out and they wouldn’t refund her tickets. She didn’t want to bother coming again so she gave them to me. Gonna try again tomorrow with my mom… I’m a bit scared.
Will update!

I spent so much time standing in lines for this event billed as the «Largest Ramen Show in the US» that I’m just going to crank out this review with a simple format:
Pros
* Free Parking and Free Admission
* Set price for Ramen ($ 8)
* Tips not necessary
* Different types of ramen including 2 different vendors selling Ramen Burgers (Ikemen and Jidaiya), spicy chili paste broth ramen noodles (SoCal locals — Iroha and Daikokuya (spicy); Fusion style with straight noodles (Monta of Las Vegas); Sesame-​based ramen broth (Gomaichi of Hawaii); 2 vendors from Northern California (Orenchi and Shalala); Seafood Ramen (Hayatemaru); Tonkotsu Spicy Ramen (Silverlake Ramen); Rice bowls (Hannosuke of West LA) and sushi (Tsujita LA); Tokyo style cold ramen made with sardine broth (Tsujita LA); and 1 vendor from Japan, Kitakata Ramen Bannai (average wait on Saturday was 3 hours).
* Ok to bring in your own water.
* There was a
:Labo skincare line promotion in conjunction with the Ramen Yokocho Festival in the Torrance Cultural Arts Center hall near the restrooms. 9% discount on a just released facial gel with a VERY GENEROUS goodie bag. I’m a big fan of this line, which used to be sold at Marukai and Mitsuwa before switching to website sales only. I enjoyed having an opportunity speaking with a representative before buying product at a discount.
* Decent bathrooms, but paper towels ran out well before 4pm. Only 1 hand dryer in Ladies restroom, but at least it worked.
Cons:
* Officially marked «Event parking» filled up quickly. I arrived there a little before 11am on Saturday, but followed some savvy drivers who knew there were empty slots in the Honda Financial Services section of the Civic Center Complex. Promoter did not provide volunteers to steer traffic in the parking lot. Many visitors ended up parking several blocks away.
* Organizers claimed portions were full-​size when I asked. They most certainly were NOT.
* Sno-​cone machine broke down early afternoon :(
* Ice Cream Booth selling Maeda Green Tea ice cream did not prep their ice cream for sale (too hard to scoop).
* Most vendors did not provide napkins.
* Limited seating and tables — many people sat on the floor to eat or ate while standing in line to buy ramen from another vendor.
* Organizers should have used a service like EventBrite (which is free) in order to properly gauge the number of visitors and plan logistics more efficiently.
* Vendors ran out of product quickly — Gomaichi of Hawaii ran out of key ingredients before 1pm on Saturday so they improvised by selling a soup-​less ramen. According to the organizers, food was completely sold out by 5pm on Saturday (and the event is promoted as 10a — 8p!!!).
* Too much time spent in lines for admission, buying food vouchers and standing in line for ramen.
* Many of the ramen dishes looked nothing like the advertised product.
Some Final Tips:
Official tips from the organizers at:
Parking is free, but crazy. Not enough tables and chairs so bring a portable chair to use in the ticket line & to dine. Ok to bring in your own H2O. You’ll need a hat, too because all of the food booths are located outside.
I could go on, but if you decide to attend, be sure to have a back-​up plan — have a smartphone handy so you can use the Unilocal app to locate one of 18+ ramen-​serving restaurants in the South Bay area.
As you can see, the Cons outweigh the Pros, but I still gave this event 2 stars because I really enjoyed hanging out with Unilocalers, Cathy S. and hubby, Dennis; Ingrid and hubby, Matt; Antho L., Lica N., her brother, his wife and cute daughter, and Marissa S. with her 2 adorable kids.

I debated on whether to give this event 1 or 2 stars and decided to give them 2 for the attempting to put together this festival.
Yes, everyone knows there were long lines and the wait to get in, get tickets and then finally get your food was atrocious. The venue was completely wrong and seemed a bit chaotic as described by most reviewers but they probably didn’t expect such a turn out with the thousands of people trying to get in. But if you take it in stride for what it was and realizing it is the first event, it can only get better, right? I would hope if they continue this next year, they would have learned their lesson.
That being said, I was able to sample three ramen bowls actually from Gomaichi from Honolulu, HI, Orenchi from Santa Clara, CA and Monta from Las Vegas, NV. Our goal was to try ramen from places outside of Los Angeles. We wanted to try the one from Japan but hearing it was a 2 hour wait, we just said forget that!
The bowls from Gomaichi was interesting in that it had no broth. It was a simple bowl of ramen noodles with parmesan cheese lightly sprinkled on top with a few spinach and lettuce leaves on top. It was a tad dry being there was no broth or sauce. I joked that I could easily make this at home and I would actually add a drizzle of olive oil when I do which I guess would turn it into something more Italian but it definitely needs something. Rating: 3 stars
The second bowl from Orenchi was a little more traditional and quite enjoyable actually. The broth had a nice flavor to it and the pork was tender and tasted good mixed together with the sweet bamboo shoots. This was probably my favorite of the three. Rating: 4 stars.
The third bowl from Monta was a little disappointing. It was a nice hearty bowl with tender pork and even a half boiled egg but there was way too little broth and what broth there was tasted a a bit starchy like they didn’t rinse the noodles after boiling the ramen noodles but just used the waste water to create the broth. I don’t know if that was on purpose or due to the craziness of the lines just a way to save time. I actually added a little of my bottled water to give it a little more broth which of course watered down whatever flavor there was. Rating: 2 stars
Hopefully next year, this event will take all the «constructive criticism» and improve on it because it’s a great idea but the execution just didn’t work.
It was fun to have met up with a group of Unilocalers like Cathy S. and her husband Dennis, Lica N. and her brother and his family, Ingrid V. and Matt V., Liz O. and to meet Marissa S. and her two cute daughters.

«The Largest Ramen Show in the U.S.!» –
Taken from their very website, photo courtesy of Kevin B.
WHY IN GOD’S NAME WOULD YOU HOLD THE «LARGEST RAMEN SHOW IN THE US» IN SUCH AN INCREDIBLY SMALL VENUE???
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… what could have gone wrong?
1. Parking FULL before they opened! (We did not get there at opening, but friends who did expressed the same concern).
2. NO staff directing traffic. We found a young lady in a staff shirt who looked like a deer in headlights to ask her, and she just replied «yes, just park on the streets at this point.» We parked three blocks away and we got there at 11:45.
3. Upon arrival, we had to find the end of the entrance line that literally snaked around the building and clear out to Emerald St. because no attendants were guiding where the line should be.
4. The line (should we have stayed in it) was reaching the 2 hour mark. (I asked a guy at the front of the line).
5. The line to purchase tickets… after waiting in the line to enter… was insane.
6. The line to redeem tickets at one vendor alone (We were in line for Monta) took almost an hour.
7. You had to fall in line at THE ONLY DRINK BOOTH after getting your ramen. It took me 15 minutes but others waited close to half an hour.
8. The venue was completely outdoors, and in a cramped space. Ramen vendors were literally next to each other. Lines collided with other lines, and lines spilled into auditorium seating areas.
9. The vendors themselves were visibly uncomfortable as they cooked out in the hot sun with little shade.
10. No signage for restrooms
11. Shave ice machine broke down very early, attendants were only able to replace with a ramune soda. ZERO signage outside or on the tent that it was broken so people ended up waiting for ages only to find out when they got to the window. Keep in mind that the tickets were non-​refundable… for a product that now did not exist.
12. Seating was extremely limited. Their website said to bring chairs but there was no place to even put them! People were sitting on floors, lining the walls of all the open buildings!
The ramen that we finally enjoyed from Monta was good, but not enough to raise this to even a two star rating.
If the festival team is reading this, I have run countless special events in the past. PLEASE!!! Consult an events team in the future, or rely on the experience of someone who has done this before. This event was an utter cluster**ck and many of these mistakes could easily been avoided.
I am assuming that the reason you held it at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center is because you got a fantastic deal on the event that allowed you to keep prices low and not charge parking. TRUST ME, people would have come to this event even if they had to pay $ 5 each for parking and a $ 10 admission fee with advance ticket sales. Those funds could have gone to the rental of a nice, spacious, air-​conditioned venue that EVERYONE would have enjoyed. You could have easily gotten more volunteers for this event by putting the word out to local colleges and universities and offered free event admission and one bowl of ramen for their services.
And OMG need more drink stations! Or have them be able to redeem their ticket for water at the ramen booths. EASY AS PIE to have one or two volunteers with walkie-​talkies communicate to a central distribution person locations that need to be re-​stocked.
On a good note, it was very nice to see Unilocalers Cathy S. and her hubby, Lica N. and her fambam, Liz O., Antho L., And Marissa S. with her totally adorable kids!
Ok… so lessons learned for next year, right?
…‘cept there’s no way in hell I’m going again.
…unless they let ME coordinate it. ;)

The idea was great the execution was an epic fail! Seriously whoever came up with the setup must not have ever done a food festival before because it was a mess. I really was hoping for the event to go well and I know it was their first time but it should not have been this bad.
Ive been to the Ramen Yokocho in Yokohama Japan numerous times when I go home on vacation. I was just there this past June. I totally get how they want to bring the concept here. Ramen has become a very popular foodie thing in recent years so you know there was going to be a huge turnout. Knowing this, and the fact that they were aware of the popularity should have planned better, especially since this was going to be only a 2 day event.
The venue needed to be way bigger than this small cramped civic building court yard. Yes it was done in a courtyard! Cramped with hundreds of people!
First you will be standing in a line for many many hours waiting just to get in. Then you stand in another line waiting to buy your food tickets, and yet again you stand in line to get your ramen. Oh and a similarly long line just to get your drink on because there was only one booth for that! Unfrackingbelievable!!!
There was waaaaay to many people in this place. People were on top of people standing in line. The booths were too close together and the cooks were working their butt off in the hot sun. Crazy!!! Talk about a fire hazard and I think a health code violation.
People were standing in line for over 2 – 3 hrs just to get their hand on a bowl from Kitakata ramen from Japan and the Ramen burger from Ikemen… rindonculous! I came to try the ramen houses from out of state not the ones that I can hit up locally. I really wanted to try Kitakata but I wasnt about to stand in that long ass line. I did get to try Orenchi and Monta.
Orenchi was really good and I truly enjoyed it. Wished I could have had a larger bowl of it. Monta was good but it was very starchy, almost like they didnt rinse the noodles enough before putting them in the broth. I also got to try a sip of by Brothers ramen cant remember from where but it was tasty.
The winner this weekend are those who stayed far away from this event and hit up the local ramen houses because they probably got seated right away, got a full large bowl of ramen, ate it in air conditioned restaurant and got free ice cold water.
Happy that I did get to see some YF like Cathy, Ingrid, Antho, Liz and Marissa.
NOTE TO EVENT ORGANIZER!!!
It was a bold concept and I’m sure you had high expectation but there was way too many bad planning. I hope that if you plan to do this again that you heed these negative reviews and make some drastic changes so that the next time it will be a better experience for the event coordinators, participants, vendors and customers.
1. Bigger venue. Indoors would be ideal but even if its outdoors it needs to be at a location that can easily hold hundreds more people and plenty of seating. There was way too many people sitting up against the floor or eating while standing in line for another ramen booth.
2. Sell advanced ticket for time slotted group. As YF Ingrid mentioned charge for the event. I would have rather paid for a time slot to enter and enjoy my food with less crowd then to go in free and fight the crowd and line.
3. There should be more than one drink booth. More so if your doing it outdoors. Seriously hydration! Were eating ramen which is high in sodium!!!
4. Limit the number of local ramen houses and ask for more out of state ramen house to attend. I personally can go to the local one’s anytime I like. I really came to try the ones from out of town.
5. They need to give more room and equipment for the ramen houses to cook. If I was one of the Ramen houses from out of town I would be pissed for the way this was organized. To travel all this way and to be subjected to such a chaotic scene would have had me boiling! They came to dish out bowls of their yummyness to as much people as they could but they themselves looked dejected as to how crazy that courtyard was.
Dont know if there will be another event but if there is PLEASE PLEASE learn from this one and do better next time.