Pipo Ramen & Rice

Solid food, great portion sizes. The food is tasty and feels like a home cooked meal.
The owners make you feel welcome and always make great suggestions if you're confused.

A must is the crispy chicken fried rice! That crisp is so thin, light, and airy. Not at all oily.
I really enjoyed the Thai style papaya salad, however, the Laos one is solid, if you enjoy that flavor profile.
I've had their curry and noodles, which I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Ramen noodles were cooked really well, great texture. The egg was perfectly seasoned and gooey. Not the biggest fan of the broth but still good.

A low key Thai-Japanese fusion spot with nicely executed flavor combos. Dishes I tried:

CHICKEN KARAAGE : nice battering (not overly battery or oily), comes with 2 sauces which are both tasty.

PIPO CURRY RAMEN : a rich broth with balanced notes of coconut and curry. The noodles are perfect texture--not too chewy, starchy, thick, or thin!

PAD SEE-EW : was VERY salty for me. Portion size was also a bit small, though with how salty the dish was, that wasn't the biggest huge issue for me.

Overall, I'd recommend this as a spot to check out if you're curious about a Thai-Japanese fusion concept--I know that's what drew me in the first place. But, I'd definitely look into asking for reduced salt levels if your palette leans on the blander side.

The place has decent amount of seatings and is well lit. The menu is not huge; which is a good sign (personally) for a local restaurant. They mainly focus on Thai/Japanese fusion dishes.

Ordered: Karaage Chicken, Beef Pad See Ew, Pipo Curry Ramen

Karaage chicken is good. The batter is thin and seasoned well. The chicken is not dry and quite flavorful. The homemade dipping sauces are a great addition. The mayo/sriracha (assuming) sauce isn't dense. This light texture sauce is more enjoyable since the chicken is already deep fried. I like the sweet chili sauce because it adds a bit of sweetness to the chicken and balance out the flavor.

Beef Pad See Ew is a bit salty for me, but it could just be only that time. I have to say the noodle and veggies are super flavored from the sauce. If it is less salty, it would be great. The beef is a bit dry, even with the sauce but it's not a dealbreaker. The server is very helpful in recommending spice level. There are 5 levels and I agree that level 2 is a comfortable spot. I'm not good with spice but level 2 isn't too bad.

The Pipo Curry Ramen is delicious. The noodles are cooked perfectly and full of flavor. The egg is seasoned well and slightly runny. The broth is on the light side in comparison to other ramen places, but I think it worked out since the curry flavor is already bold. The chicken is thinly cut, which is different. However, I do wish it is a bit thicker to avoid tasted dry.

I wouldn't mind trying other dishes next time I'm around the area.

Tried to eat here earlier right when they opened. It was 5:10pm when we came in and they open at 4:30pm. There was literally no one here and my boyfriend and I tried to pick our seating by the benches where it's more comfortable and shaded from the hot sun.

The server was ok with us sitting there, but then a woman who I assume is the owner; walks out from behind the counter and basically tells us "where are you sitting? there? no no you have to sit somewhere else. we are expecting a large group." and I'm like okay.... well, there was no reservations posted anywhere claiming the tables???

And then she tries to place us at a table that wasn't clean or wiped down, and was directly in the sun. We decided to choose a "different table", and sat for a moment before we decided to just leave! It wasn't worth us wasting our time eating at a place where they couldn't treat every customer equally.

It doesnt matter how many people are eating when the restaurant was literally empty. If a group were eventually going to come, we would have finished eating and left by that time. How would she know if that large group was ever going to show up? And she chased away the only customers who came in that day? Very disappointing as I wanted to try this place out, but very poor decision making on the owner's part! We ended up eating at The Flame Cafe a few miles away and they were delicious and provided great service! Also they had plenty of BOOTH seating for everyone!

We ordered a few dishes and thought the food was ok.

Crispy pork belly appetizer had a slight taste of old oil, boat noodles beef were a bit tough, we did however enjoy the crispy chicken fried rice.

You guys have no idea how hard it is to write this review thinking about the food I ate and it not being in front of me right now is to grub on. But I'm faithful to you so here I go:

Nice high ceilings so the place feels wider and bigger, I love that! Fast and friendly server that gave us a free Green Thai Tea to wash down the spice level we chose! We were pleasantly surprised at how great of an experience we had here.

FOOD:
Fried rice with crispy chicken 5/5- OMG please don't sleep on this, it's a great portion, the chicken was so good already and came with sauces to make it even better! What!?! Yes! The creamy white sauce is very similar to the sauce that is around honey walnut shrimp. Except you get to submerge your whole chicken in it and you will not regret it!

Boat Noodle 5/5- This dish is a true ride or die here til the very end! Every drop of broth was delicious until the bowl was empty! This has to be one of the best in Sacramento today!

Tom Yum Ramen 5/5- Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, GIRRRRLLLLLL!!! This is the dish that makes it so hard for me to write this review right now at 11 PM at night! I wrote this earlier my ass would've just went out and grabbed some! It's creamy, citrusy, spicy, not too heavy at all. ABUNDANT in portion so it's SHARABLE!

Crispy Pork Belly Appetizer- 3/5 Delicious because I love crispy pork belly, but can be very tough to chew! Because of the heaviness of the protein, they could definitely do away with the sweet sauce glazed around it

One of my new favorite spots!

Ramen comes to mind when the weather is cool and raining! Ever since I heard Pipo Ramen & Rice is on the Top 100 Places to Eat in Sacramento, I have been wanting to try this place. It's located in South Sacramento, off 65th Street, in this quiet plaza with plenty of parking.

We came here for dinner a little before 6:00 pm on weekdays, and we were the only customers. The place is clean, tidy, and spacious with a high ceiling. We sat down and were given the menu and water right away. At first, I thought this was a Japanese/Ramen restaurant because of the name. After looking at the menu, it turns out it's a Thai restaurant. Either way, I enjoy both Japanese and Thai food.

I love duck, so I immediately knew I wanted the Crispy Duck Fried Rice. I was surprised that the duck breast was served on top of the basil fried rice, instead of diced and cooked together with the fried rice. I really like that because I can see what part of the duck I'm eating. It's also delicious! The duck was crispy and savory. The basil and Thai seasoning add unique flavors to the fried rice. Generous portion. I would definitely get this again. 5/5

We also got the Tonkotsu Ramen. It's your typical ramen with the standard toppings and ramen egg (ajituske tamago). The broth is creamy and not too salty. It really is perfect for the rainy weather. 4/5

The service was great. The server was friendly and checked on us a couple of times. We can't wait to come back and taste other dishes.

I've had this place bookmarked for a while but haven't heard anyone talk much about it. But they just landed on the top places to eat in Sacramento for 2023 and have consistently had a high overall rating!

We decided to stop for early dinner and we were the only ones during our entire visit. The lady was so accommodating, brought over high chairs for us, and took our order for our kids first while we looked at the menu for ourselves. When the food for our kids came out, she brought it with extra bowls and scissors to cut the meat. We ordered gyudon for them and she was nice enough to ask if we still wanted green onions and ginger on it. It was so delicious and any meal that our kids will eat with protein in it is a winner in my book!

My husband and I both ordered ramen. This place is Thai focused so we picked the Pipo curry/khao soi ramen and the Pipo tom yum seafood ramen, but they do have more traditional Japanese style like tonkotsu, miso, etc. When it arrived we tried the broths first and both were amazing, I couldn't decide which was better. If you like a creamier style then the khao soi is for you. If you want to control your spice then the tom yum is good because you get to pick level 1-5. The 3 was just perfect for us, enough to notice but not too much that you can't enjoy the meal. The chewiness of the noodles are perfect and there are plenty of noodles and ingredients too. I think the only complaint is that the tom yum doesn't come with an egg also!

The interior is very nicely decorated which is a nice surprise considering the rundown shopping center it's in. It is more secluded away from the busier shopping centers in the intersection so I hope that they will survive. There are plenty of tables plus bar seating. There are a couple tvs but it was just playing the weather channel and there wasn't any music playing until we left.

We were hoping to order drinks with our meal but they were out of both Thai tea and Thai coffee which is what we wanted. Hopefully we can order them next time since we will definitely be back for that ramen!

I went for dinner just to try the Mango Sticky Rice, but ended up having a full meal as well. The food was delicious, and the service was excellent.

It was our first time here and my brother and I arrived around 1:40pm on a Tuesday! It was busier than expected since it was past lunch time and the restaurant was filled but we were seated immediately!

We got the:
- Crispy Pork Belly: this was a bit too crispy for my personal taste but my brother liked it, it would definitely have tasted better with a rice dish but neither of us got one! It's also good to dip it in their crack sauce!
- Pad See Ew: Delicious and flavorful is all I can say! This is such a solid dish and it's hard to mess up on and they made it right!

My brother got the Curry Ramen and it was pretty good! The soup reminded me of one my mom used to make with a bit of a kick!

I would definitely recommend this place! It seems that this place is more of a hidden gem! They had plenty of options and when we finished dining, one of the owners came and talked to us and gave us recommendations to try and she was super sweet so i want to come back and try different menu items!