After reading the reviews of many of my fellow bloggers, I wanted to try out Mentatsu. After my haircut at the Crew Salon in The Lab, I called Tim and we met at Mentatsu located at Baker and Bristols behind the Wahoo’s.

The place had a line outside as all the tables were full. Luckily, it was just Tim and I and we got seated as most of the parties were 4 or more.

They have a selection of ramens, tofu, curries and box meals. I went for the Moyashi Ramen which had bean sprouts, pork, carrots, onions, green onions and ramen noodles in a special broth. Tim ordered the Mabo Tofu-han which is spicy tofu and ground pork served over rice.

The portions here are enormous for the price I have to say. When my ramen came to the table it was full to the brim. I was a bit taken back at first. The broth looked thick and it looked like the bean sprouts have been in the broth for awhile. Whatever little vegetables I could find were buried in the noodles. There was alot of bamboo in my bowl as well. As I put my chopsticks into the bowl I found the noodles thick and the broth thick. It was a bit gelatinous. I suspect that this special broth is the one where the pork bones are in the broth for hours. The gelatin comes thru and the flavor really comes out. While tasty, I couldn’t finish my bowl. One would think that I am an expert chopstick user – I am not. Eating noodles is hard. I was probably also distracted by the cute guys in the place and didn’t want to be slurping my noodles in – although that would have been totally acceptable! :)

Tim offered me some of his tofu and it was sooo good. It was spicy, but not offending. When I come back (perhaps I was in a bad mood) things will be different. I got my soup to go, while making a mess all over the table pouring the soup into the to-go container. 

I’ll give this place a 3 if for the only reason that I enjoyed Tim’s Tofu dish and enjoyed the clientele – otherwise I would have given it a 2.

Mentatsu Ramen House
688 Baker Street, #7
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-979-2755
Open 7 Days a Week