J San Ramen

J San Ramen was a small chain of Japanese restaurants operating out of Orange County plazas, fairly under the radar, with very reasonable prices and atypically nice plates and bowls given their otherwise conservative decorative and marketing decisions. As of 2024, most of their locations have either closed or become other Japanese restaurants, except for a Fullerton shop we haven’t visited in person.

At the prior Tustin Market Place and Irvine Crossroads locations, we were impressed by their richly flavored spicy miso tonkotsu ramen – one of seven types offered – and could easily have finished the broth and two extra helpings of noodles had we wanted to do so. Many fried appetizers, including good chicken karaage, potato string-wrapped shrimp, oysters, and baby octopus were available as very inexpensive add-ons, and we enjoyed the ones we tried, as well as generously portioned sliced cucumber.

The Fullerton J San retains the same basic menu, and appears to have very similar overall quality to the shuttered locations we’ve visited. We’d consider a visit for the ramen and fried oysters if we were in the area.