Mogu Mogu Mazemen and Ramen

In 2021, Los Angeles-based Mogu Mogu opened a second location in Costa Mesa, offering Orange County residents the opportunity to easily find and enjoy Japanese mazemen – a recently trending ramen variant. A third location opened in Fullerton in mid-2022.

Mazemen is a dry version of ramen, the Japanese noodle dish typically served as a soup with one of roughly a half-dozen classic broths or countless modern versions. Like traditional ramens, Mogu Mogu’s mazemen bowls tend to feature pork as a meat – either whole chashu pieces, minced, or diced with soy or spicy sauce – as well as a poached egg, scallions, garlic, and one or two unique elements: “Deluxe” has seaweed and seaweed flakes, “Tokyo” is spicy, “Kyoto” is non-spicy, “Curry” uses dry curry powder, and “Cheese” adds Monterey Jack cheese. After getting the bowl, you’re instructed to stir the ingredients aggressively for 30 seconds, enabling the soft egg to mix with everything, then add vinegar halfway through, and rice to sop up the remaining flavors.