Ramen & Tsukemen Tao

We’ve visited quite a few ramen and tsukemen restaurants over the years, and though we love many of the styles of Japanese noodles these terms encompass, we rarely get super excited about a given ramen place – Kashiwa Ramen and the now-closed Ramen Shack are two major exceptions. Currently open in Buena Park with a shuttered second location in Orange, Ramen & Tsukemen Tao is another of the rare exceptions.

As the story goes, Tao’s chef trained for 10 years at Tsujita, the L.A./Tokyo chain revered by Jonathan Gold for its “life-changing” tsukemen – dipping noodles served there with concentrated fish and pork bone broth – and tonkotsu ramen. While the latter broth isn’t on Tao’s miso-focused menu, and the former isn’t revelatory here, you can still count on finding some excellent ramen and tsukemen at reasonable prices: Tao won Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition for its affordable, high-quality offerings.

Tao’s Shoyu Ramen, Red Miso Ramen, and White Miso Ramen each arrived at our table with different noodles: the meaty translucent brown soy broth with thin tubular noodles, the light opaque red broth with flat, fettuccine-like noodles, and the solid white-ish miso with kinked, more common medium ramen noodles. Spicy Tsukemen uses the same flat noodles found in the red miso, served here with a slice of lime separated from a dipping bowl of hot, thickened spicy miso broth.