Higuma Ramen & Izakaya

Amazing ambience, finger licking food and our host was amazing. She helped us tailoring our dish and took great care of us.

Be mindful on spice level you pick. You always have an option of lowering your spice level and getting extra spice on the side.

Would definitely recommend this place and looking forward to return.

This place has a great setting with a very nice chill atmosphere. The interior has lots of dark wood & makes for a calming effect (for me at least). On Saturday @ 8pm, there were available tables and it never felt packed or uncomfortable.

We hit the tapas hard. Mini salads, panzu butter scallops, chicken karaage, spicy edamame, cucumber salad, takoyaki, dynamite shrimp, and the kamonegi duck.

I enjoyed the salad, my friend was not a fan of the dressing...I could have used more, and there were a few wilted greens in mine that I removed. Insert sad face here.

The scallops were really tasty, would order those again for sure... nice to see them come out on the shell instead of fully manicured. Good flavor & very tender.

Next, a personal favorite of mine, the Karaage chicken. I get this every time I see it available. Here, the batter was thin & really crisp (on point), and the chicken was so moist. As a dry version with the sauce on the side, near perfection. The dipping sauce was small, but honestly not really even needed in my opinion.

The spicy edamame is a go to as well, and my friend was very excited even though she doesn't really do spicy. She thought it was really good, but it was above her heat level by a few steps & she instantly asked me if they had milk available 😆 🤣 ...I, on the other hand thought it was really good & devoured all of it after my friend called it quits due to the 4 alarm fire in her mouth. Caution if you have a sensitivity to spicy awesomeness.

If you do have an aversion to spicy... or just want something refreshing & light... the cucumber salad is where it's at! This was a great balancer of the spicy & also served as a palate cleanser. It was very good & complimented all the other flavors nicely.

The takoyaki is also something I always get whenever available. I did enjoy them, but I believe the ratio of ingredients could have been better. Each ball was cooked well & had the pillowy softness of the dough when biting into it, but the small bits of octopus were insufficient to balance out the amount of dough. In addition the sauce drizzled over the top was a little excessive on the mayo side & just created more of a slippery mayo taste/ texture which overpowered the flavor of the ball itself. The octopus should be the star, it is the prize inside after all.

Coming back around to spicy again... the dynamite shrimp. This was a table favorite. The flavor, the texture of the semi crisp edges on the shrimp, it was a great suggestion from our very polite & friendly waitress. I would order two of these next time, very tasty. Not nearly as spicy as the edamame, fyi.

We also were suggested the duck by our waitress. When it arrived, we had to retrieve it from the grass lol, as it was almost hidden. I ate some of the grass, not bad... but once I got a taste of the duck, the grass was scraped aside. I thought it was tender, but lacked flavor. I ended up dipping it in another sauce to liven it up. Not bad, but not my cup of tea.
**forgot to take a pic of this dish, but you can see it in the upper left corner of the shrimp dish picture.

For drinks we ordered the house infused pineapple sake. I also ordered a Lychee soda, which I really, really enjoyed (I rarely drink soda), and then opened it and ate the fruit when I was finished. The sake was pretty good, but it kinda got lost in the other flavors & wasn't really memorable. However, I felt great when I left, so it was effective and I would dance with her again.

I will absolutely go back to try other items & indulge in a few of the new favorites again. Overall, very enjoyable experience!

Japanese Noodle shop located in the heart of the Addison dining district. The food here is about average to slightly above average.

We got the fried squid legs (aka calamari) and edamame for our appetizer and both tasted as expected. I got the garlic tonkotsu ramen and it was decent. The basic savory flavor of the soup was there, but it was missing the balance of other subtle flavors that exists in other ramen noodles that I have tasted previously.

I would categorize this restaurant as one where you would go to regularly but with tempered expectations.

Fantastic vegetarian options. Loved the creamy veggie ramen and veggie curry rice. Add bomb spicy paste for extra heat (its very flavorful not just plain hot). The lychee soda was super awesome too! It was made to order with a proper purple gradient and a whole lychee inside for you to eat at the end. It was rather empty when we visited but other than that the ambiance was perfect! 10/10

Great atmosphere and seriously good appetizers! The ramen broth was flavorful and I ended up ordering more noodles just to take in as much of the broth as possible! The pork chasu wasn’t as tender as I would have liked it to be and it was difficult to eat with the rest of the bowl since it was cut so large, but the flavor it added to the bowl was nice. The wait staff was attentive and personable which just made the overall dine-in experience extremely pleasant. I’ll be coming back to try the rice bowls :)

The food isn’t bad. The wait staff was awesome. My rating is mostly on the quality to price ratio. If you consider yourself a foodie you will think this is a mid meal. Especially is you’ve had ramen at higher quality places and paid the same ticket. They have a great happy hour and any bowl will certainly fill you up.

I got kuro kuma black ramen bowl, spice level 3. It was too spicy for me, so I couldn't finish the noodles. The pork was good. My bf got the steak noodle bowl (it was a special). The steak was really tough to eat, and the vegetable they used was really bland. I don't know if it was even seasoned. It just tasted boiled. The noodles were alright.

A good solid bowl of ramen. Broth was good and the spice level was perfect. Toppings were good (wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, jammy egg, chashu). The pork was very tender. With 2 minor changes I would give this a 5 *: it came with thin noodles (thick would have really elevated this) and my to-go order did not cone with a plastic ramen spoon (it just came with a flimsy disposable plastic spoon) which made it very difficult to eat. Overall it was a good choice and I would order again.