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I love ramen. I mean, I really love ramen. So I was eager to finally make it out to Shen Sen Gumi after hearing from so many people how great this place is. It turns out that there are multiple branches. I went to the Shen Sen Gumi Hakata Ramen in Rosemead. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but this was a disappointing dining experience for me.

It all started off so well. The restaurant was pretty busy. We were third on the waiting list on a weeknight after 6pm, which meant we only had to wait about half an hour for a seat at the bar to open up. The service was loud but friendly and fast. The bowl of ramen ($6.95) came with just a few slices of chasu (pork), green onions, and red ginger. I ordered the bamboo shoots ($1) and spinach (75¢) as add-ons. I thought for sure my ramen would be wonderful, especially since the waiter asked how I wanted my noodles cooked (hard, medium, soft), how much oil I wanted in my soup, how salty I wanted my soup to be… In truth, my ramen wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t exceptional. All was cooked as I ordered, but the noodles were too thin and the soup lacked flavor. My friends are fans of the Shen Sen Gumi in Gardena, and they said the Rosemead branch pales in comparison. This didn’t stop them from ordering additional noodles though. They also agreed with me that the soup was very plain. They went on to explain to me that Shen Sen Gumi is supposed to have excellent broth - so good that the recipe is top secret, even to the employees. They told me that the broth is made in concentrate and delivered to each branch. The staff then dilutes it to make enough for a full day’s batch. This left me wondering if perhaps the staff in Rosemead may have watered down the broth a bit too much.

We ordered other items, but sadly, I wasn’t thrilled with those either. First there was the Yaki Ramen ($6) pictured here. Basically, this is some fried soft noodles buried under a whole lot of cabbage and benito flakes. As plain as the bowl of ramen was, the Yaki Ramen was worse. We also ordered some fried chicken, which turned out to be extremely dry. The takana fried rice was bland. The creamy crab croquette was actually okay, but I thought it would be made with real crab as opposed to the imitation kind, which ruined this dish for me.

Although I tried everything we ordered, I really didn’t eat very much at this meal. There was very little that truly appealed to me. This left me with some room for dessert. We decided to try the Green Tea Brulee, one of the new dessert items on the menu. My friends said, “this is exactly how I imagine a green tea brulee to taste like.” The texture is like that of any regular creme brulee, even with the caramelized sugar crisp on top. The closest comparison I can pull to describe the taste of this dish is like a melted green tea ice cream. This was interesting - not good, not bad - just interesting. Sadly, this was probably the most memorable thing I had to eat in the entire meal.

My friends have enjoyed meals at Shen Sen Gumi before, just not at this one in Rosemead. They have promised to take me to the Gardena one so I can understand why there are so many Shen Sen Gumi faithfuls.

Shen Sen Gumi
8450 E. Valley, #103
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 572-8646

Monday - Friday: Lunch 11:30am - 2pm, Dinner 6pm - 11pm
Sat. & Sunday: 11:30am - 11:30pm

By Pauline (see more of her posts).