Harumama Noodles + Buns - Little Italy

Love this place! I can never get parking so pick and choose the days you come. There's another one in OB I haven't tried.But the food here is so good. The buns are a little pricey but good with the sauce on the table soy sauce and hot oil.

parking: street parking wait: my friends and I arrived on a Saturday night (7pm), and we didn't have to wait for a table what we ordered: we stopped by to check out their animal buns. two buns are $8. they were all flavorful, but the cow was our favorite! * chicken bun: chicken, mozzarella, caramelized onion * cow bun: ground beef, carrots, shiitake mushroom* pig bun: pulled pork main takeaway: the buns are cute! I appreciate the creativity. it definitely is more on the expensive side for two, small buns, but well worth it for the novelty.

Cute cafe near the Little Italy area of town. Friendly staff and they sell some stickers and pins of the character art here.Food was okay. We got the following:Character buns(cow): 3/5The buns are super cute but the best part about it is the bread. The bread itself tastes good but the inside was disappointing. It tasted a bit gamy.Pork Bao Bao Bun: 4/5Tastes much better than the character bun but also nothing special. This was the best thing I ordered here Beef Teriyaki: 2/5Tastes more like steak with teriyaki sauce on top rather than teriyaki.. If you rate it as steak rather than teriyaki it's good but I mean that's not what I ordered.Drunken Noodles: 1/5It was too spicy that you couldn't taste the rest of the dish. Once we were able to it was kind of raw..Strawberry Lychee Green Tea: 2.5/5I forgot I ordered this until I saw I took a photo of it. It was just okay, nothing special. No strong tea flavor but definitely taste the strawberry and lychee.

I live next door and always come here for the flying pig ramen. I frequently get it to-go but dine in on occasion. Went to dine-in the other day and was super disappointed that they changed the pork to essentially thin deli-meat style. Loved this dish when it was thick chunks of pork belly. It wasn't the same. Service usually isn't great dining in. The staff is friendly but they always seem under staffed/ over whelmed and things don't come out in the right order. We ordered 2 flying pigs and two appetizers and one flying pig ramen came out by itself 10 minutes before the other ramen. Then the appetizers came out later ... not ideal. We ordered the seaweed salad and a crispy tuna rice mozzarella app. the crispy tuna rice had no rice... wouldn't recommend. The ramen here is good though - just wish they didn't change this dish.

I really liked the sushi here! I got the specialty salmon sashimi and the albacore delight roll. The sashimi was amazingggg - very unique flavors and delicious. The albacore delight roll was really good too but minus one star because there wasn't a lot of albacore on top of it. Still tasty though and I want to come back to try the non sushi items.

We visited this restaurant on a Sunday for a lunch with friends. It wasn't very busy, and the service was quick and friendly.We ordered a variety of dishes, but overall, the quality and taste were quite lacking.The chicken karaage was pretty good, and I enjoyed the sauce that came with it. I would rate it 5/5.I also tried the "Me So Hot" ramen. While it wasn't the best ramen I've ever had, it was pretty good with an interesting twist. However, I wished it was spicier, as it had three spice symbols but was hardly spicy. I would give it 4/5.We also ordered the drunken noodles, which were disappointing. They didn't taste like authentic drunken noodles and lacked the smoky flavor. Instead, they tasted more like Pad Thai or just stir-fried noodles. I would rate them 1/5.The buns were cute but had an odd, mushy texture inside. I feel like it would be better if there were more texture for the filling since the buns are already soft.Overall, this place was alright. I'm not sure if I would return.

CUTE BUNS is what gets people into the door. I found that the character buns were the best part of the experience and really enough to make up for how the other foods were a bit on the mediocre side. We got multiple savory and sweet buns and then Ramen. I wasn't in love with my Ramen dishes and I felt like the restaurant truly is investing their time into making cute character buns. So I would suggest coming for the buns and perhaps skipping the other dishes. Staff were nice, nothing bad or great stood out. Parking is hit or miss since you are in Little Italy.

We were in town for a few days due to a convention that my wife was attending and made it a point to come check out Harumama. She had seen prior posts and videos and the cuteness of the buns was too much to ignore. First and foremost, chances are, unless you get really lucky or decide to pay for Valet, you're better off parking at one of the nearby paid lots or the hotel you're probably staying at, and just walking. Sitting right at the corner of Fir and Columbia Streets, it's far enough away from the foot traffic of India Street and Kettner Blvd, so you can enjoy a quiet, romantic evening. The lighting within enhances the experience even further. It was pretty late when we arrived, as the restaurant closes at 9PM, but the employees didn't try to rush us out the door, though they did advise us shortly after ordering that they were finishing up their last call pretty soon. One of the downsides of an establishment that offers such a lovable gimmick is that they run out of some items faster than others. We wanted to try the Ube buns, but alas, they were sold out....both days that we went. We ordered the Bulgogi Fries, and an order of the Chicken, Cow and Koala buns. (no ube, so no Unicorn). Our friends had an order of the Pig and Koala buns, alongside chicken teriyaki and a ribeye steak. The fries and the steak came out on a sizzling hot plate. We believe they forgot about the chicken teriyaki, as we had to remind them towards the end of our meal. The chicken was okay, definitely nothing to write home about. We had expected more of the steak, but I'm not seeing it on the menu and I don't know if it was part of some special only at the restaurant. The Bulgogi fries, as good as it smelled at first....was a little bit lacking. I found it very salty, after being covered by the fries and seared by the hot plate. I believe that the hot plate concentrated all the seasoning used for the meat after the sauce evaporated, making the bulgogi pieces very hard to separate from the plate and overwhelmingly salty. The buns....cute.... at about $9 for two buns (no mixing or matching), the flavor wasn't amazing and didn't stand out. While the Koala was supposed to be strawberry and cream flavored...it felt more like there was just a hint of strawberry. The taste was somewhat offputting. The beef had a slight barbecuey/char siu taste to it, and the pork tasted like the inside of a steam pork bun - not the char siu taste. The chicken felt stringy, but imho had slightly better taste. Our return visit, when we were heading out of town, consisted of a second try at the Beef, an order of the Pork, and we ordered the Bunny. Bunny - definitely nutella. A must go for the cuteness...but don't expect too much from the non-sushi food. We might try the sushi next time we're in town.

After seeing this as a cute kid food idea place on social media I really was looking forward to come here with my family while in san Diego for vacation. Coming in we were seated pretty quickly the host was friendly and gave us menus and once our server came but from the start to finish of our visit very rushed as we were ordering and forgetting things . As for the food the dumplings was what I got my son went with the chicken presentation was adorable but as for flavor waaay to much spices even for our adult palate she didn't come check if everything was ok so we ended up just not saying anything. We also ordered the cucumber salad, edamame, poke protein and a ramen all thoses were delicious fresh and we also added a chicken fried rice. Drinks were good we got some teas and lemonade and a soda good but also never got asked if we needed more or even our waters. The host was near so i ended up asking her for a to go box for our rice and she was supper friendly and asked if we needed anything else. Overall clean place well kept and open good lighting but service definitely made it just an ok experience .

OMG. What an experience! I visited for the first time earlier this month and I'm so glad I did. The ramen was very flavorful, spicy, savory, crispy and filling. I took the rest home and it reheated to perfection. The atmosphere was very inviting, and a lot of their prices are budget friendly. Highlight of the evening was our waiter, Nick, and the unicorn character buns. Nick was very informative, patient, interactive and had a great personality that made our experience a thousand times better.