the specialty at this place is a “creamy” ramen.  i went, had it and was taken aback by the “cream” (literal, to me it feels like) mixed into ramen. 

just wondering how ramen aficionados feel about this joint and their “creamy” specialty.  btw i went to the one in monterey park, they have another shop in rowland heights.

I think Foo Foo Tei is great! I’m a regular at the Hacienda Heights location, but have never been to the other ones. They have the best gyoza by far!! The ramen is top notch too.

i’ve been meaning to do a foo foo tei writeup at some point. got pictures and everything, but mainly from the monterey park location. from what i hear, hacienda heights is much better, and the two branches are at odds with each other for some reason.

apparently on some of the signage, written in chinese, it says “this is the real foo foo tei, don’t go to the other one” or something like that. which… i find… hilarious.

please try the “creamy” stuff and let us know.

does anyone know the full story behind the hacienda heights / monterey park rivalry? i’m curious…

rameniac, I haven’t talked to Murakami-san myself, but I trust Keizo’s blog entry.  I just saw this today, so check this out.

http://www.goramen.com/2008/09/night-at-foo-foo-tei-hacienda-heights.html

thanks kelvlam… yea i was looking forward to what keizo had managed to unearth! seems like it jibes with what a couple of commenters had left on my foo reviews here. what a shame. i’ll never go to the monterey park foo again…

yea it’s a shame foo sho! Apparently the MP “manager” hired his lawyer to draw up the contract which was supposed to show Murakami-san and another dude as partners, but instead it had several flaws and loopholes that the MP manager took advantage of. One day, the MP manager showed up at og foo-foo and asked Murakami-san to explain the ingredients of some of his recipes and Murakami-san, being the trustworthy guy that he is, patiently went over them while the manager took notes. Little did he know that he would get screwed in the end. The MP manager blatantly said fu and said that he is the sole owner of MP foo-foo. And that’s where they are today. They are going through litigation to have the old contract thrown out since it wasn’t really officially agreed upon. Murakami-san is a really nice guy and it’s sad that someone has taken advantage of his kindness. He truly has a passion for ramen. Even though his restaurant is always busy, he doesn’t take home much profit because he takes care of his employees and his customers and he believes in using the best ingredients regardless of cost. Even the lawsuit is not about money, it’s about principles. All he wants is for the MP location to stop using his name and tarnishing what he’s worked so hard to create.

I have never been to the MP location, nor will I ever!