Update: I want to clarify that the ramen from the "ramen" section of the menu is not instant ramen, but where it says "instant noodle" in the "hot pot" section of the menu, it *is* instant ramen.
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I was really bummed when The Instant in Milpitas closed down, so when I read that Justin L. said this place used instant ramen I got excited. But he's, to put it gently, on crack. ;P These aren't instant, at least not the hard block kind. I dislike "real" ramen and actually prefer the texture of cooked* hard block ramen (not with their flavor packets, but rather dressed up with real soup and ingredients, like bone broth and pork chops), so I can tell. You know how people who hate [fish/mushrooms/etc.] are really good at detecting the tiniest hint of [fish/mushrooms/etc.] in their food? Yeah, I'm not *that* bad but trust me when I say I can taste the difference.
The Malaysian white coffee (1/4 sweetness) was good; I'd never had it before. The sweetened condensed milk is so sweet that even 1/4 sweetness was maybe a tad too sweet for me (ymmv).
They also have a good selection of popping boba that go well with plain and fruit teas, and slushes. I wouldn't pair them with a milk tea or coffee. I also like that you can order just boba by itself without a drink, and they'll even give it to you in a to-go condiment container (so I can take them home and put them in my Sprite).
The matcha milk tea (no added sweetness) with boba, was perfectly sweetened by the boba and imho didn't need more sweetening. I keep forgetting to ask for no ice because ice/slush can make boba get all hard and yucky but so far I haven't had a problem with hard boba here.
The fruit crepes were surprisingly good, though my wife said the dough had a slight "skunky" aftertaste, but she often notices flavors I don't (we think she may be a supertaster - see the Wikipedia article for what we're talking about). They're no Crepe to Go in West LA but this isn't LA.
The ramen was overcooked but edible. My wife didn't like the flavor of the tonkotsu broth itself but still liked the chashu pork. The curry broth is good if you like coconut curry but maybe not what you want if you were expecting a Japanese curry flavor profile. Our complaint was there wasn't more meat in there, but what do you want for 10 bucks? Non-meat add-ons are all a buck each, even though they vary wildly in size and actual value (like $1 for a small piece of nori versus a whole egg?).
This reminds me, all the hot pot and crepe prices have gone up by a dollar each since the menu pics on Yelp were uploaded, plus there is a new hot pot flavor (I would have taken pictures of the new menu but my camera ran out of memory).
We didn't try the hot pots since it looked like the kind where they bring it to you with everything already (over)cooking in it -- we prefer the cook-yourself style of shabu shabu/hot pot.
Update: their newest hot pot, kabocha milk, is delicious. They put the meat raw on top so you can still cook to your desired temp (you only get 2 pieces though). It comes with my beloved instant ramen, which they cook to a perfect, very chewy consistency (but if that's too under for you, you can let it cook in the soup longer). Hooray. But I want instant ramen with ramen broth. They forgot my instant noodle in my hot pot but I just had to ask, they didn't even question it. If I was a dick move kind of person I could have eaten it all and then claimed it was missing (no, that's not meant to be a tip).
An aside, I wanna rip my ears off every time she says kuh-BOTCH-uh. Protip: KAH (as in Wrath of Khaaaaaan!)-bow (as in "and arrow")-cha (as in chacha).
The garlic fries needed more garlic. I prefer the Gilroy garlic fries from the McDonald's on McCarthy in Milpitas -- they really pile on the garlic there. Unfortunately they don't always have them there. I assume it's a seasonal item whose availability is based around the Gilroy garlic festival schedule. But they're garlickier than the garlic fries at CreaTEAve (DIY boba place we love).
The service was great, no complaints. The bathrooms were pretty clean, and the place looked nice (though the velvet chairs were pretty stained - reminds me of the purple velvet couches at Tasty Garden in Monterey Park).
They're open until 11pm, and they're in Tracy and not Fremont or Alhambra or NYC or HK, so I judge them a little less harshly, so think of my rating as a soft 3.5.
*my best friend likes to crush up "raw" instant ramen, pour the packets on (or right into the mouth) and eat it like chips read more