What in the world is going on? Suddenly, within the last month or two, a half dozen or so new ramenyas have opened in Southern California. Have my prayers been answered? Will ramen shops eventually outnumber Starbucks? Unlikely, but I can hope, can’t I?

Over a year ago, I found out about the existence of a ramenya in Anaheim called Lai Lai Ken. Unfortunately, I found out about it after they closed, though there was a sign indicating that a new ramenya would be “coming soon.” “Soon” finally came true! A few weeks ago, Kappa Ramen opened with little fanfare. Apparently, they’re still in a soft opening, with the grand opening set for September. Kappa Ramen is in the back corner of a run-down strip mall, located next to a tattoo parlor and comic book shop. Yes, I said comic book shop: this was one seedy plaza.

Inside, I was greeted by sparse diner-type decor behind a friendly waitress. Kappa Ramen offers several different styles of ramen, from the traditional shoyu, miso, and tonkotsu, to the more adventurous Cajun Chicken Ramen and their signature ramen, described as their “version of the California Roll a la ramen.” I wasn’t feeling adventurous, and settled on a simple bowl of “Kyoto style” tonkotsu, some gyoza, and fried rice.

The tonkotsu ramen comes with your standard red ginger, chashu, a marinated hard-boiled egg half, and green onions. The al-dente noodles were ordinary, though they paired well with the soup. And the soup was surprisingly tasty. The smooth-as-silk tonkotsu broth had depth and character, and was not at all oily. The unpretentious soup was eminently satisfying with no MSG aftertaste. The chashu was, unfortunately, the weak link. It was lean, not particularly flavorful, and we’ll leave it at that.

The gyoza and fried rice were decent. The fried rice had an interestingly egg-y and vegetable oil flavor and the gyoza had a nice crunchy skin.

Many of the recent ramen shop openings all seem to involve young owners/chefs with a ramen dream. Kappa Ramen’s young staff is turning out a solid tonkotsu ramen, and I urge ramen fans to give them a try. (Plus, for a limited time, they’re offering free shaved ice with every bowl of ramen!)

Kappa Ramen
3024 W. Ball Rd, Ste. F
Anaheim, CA 92804
714-828-2210

Tues-Sat: 11:30am-2:30 pm
Tues-Thur: 5:30pm-10 pm
Fri-Sat: 5:30pm-11pm
Sun: 11am-9pm
Closed Mondays

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One fine Saturday morning, as we discussed our plans for the weekend, my wife suddenly declared that “today’s ramen day! You’re going to eat nothing but ramen today!” Wait, what? Did I win the lotto? Am I dreaming? I guess all my recent whining about wanting to try some new ramen shops paid off. Of course, my wife’s support of my ramen habit doesn’t stop her from looking over my shoulder as I write and making fun of me. “Dear Diary,” she narrates, “Today I met some cute ramen shops. They’re so dreamy, but they don’t know I exist. How do I get them to notice me?” (insert screeching sound of needle being pulled off of a record here.)…

Ramen Mottainai, a little ramen shop hidden (there isn’t even a kanban (store sign) yet) in the back corner of a Marukai plaza in Gardena, opened in July, and was immediately descended upon by prominent foodies. Encouraged by all the positive reviews, we bravely left the Orange Curtain and ventured into scary, mysterious L.A. county.

“Mottainai” means “what a waste/shame,” and Ramen Mottainai’s menu has a full story about Mount Mottainai, neighboring Mount Zeitaku (“luxury mountain”), fruits and trash, and…well…frankly, the story gave me the impression that I’d be eating leftovers or something, which is not true at all. But then I should be sticking to ramen reviews, not story critiques. Onwards!

After a short wait outside, we were seated at the bar. Mottainai offers 3 different ramen: Tokyo Props (shoyu), Yokohama Freaker (tonkotsu/shoyu), and Sapporo Lover (miso). While I’ve heard great things about their Sapporo Lover, the Yokohama Freaker also sounded tempting. Which to choose…which to choose? To our delight, Mottainai offers tastings of their ramen broths! Not wanting to take too much advantage of their very busy waitstaff, we asked for tastings of the tonkotsu/shoyu and miso, leaving the shoyu for next time. After deciding that the tonkotsu/shoyu was a bit lacking in depth, we opted for a bowl of Sapporo Lover ramen, and a white “magic bomb.” I really wanted to try either their gyoza or their hanjuku egg, and was shut out of both. “Sold out” (only 20 servings a day?!?) and “for dinner only.” Argh.

What the heck is a “magic bomb”? Mottainai offers 2 “magic bombs,” which are basically small ice cream-shaped scoops of flavoring that you can add to your ramen. There’s the “red bomb,” a spicy chili paste, and the awesome-sounding “white bomb”: “pork back fat with garlic.”

The piping hot miso ramen, which takes a while to prepare (more on this later), comes with basic toppings: menma, moyashi, some small chunks of chashu, minced pork, and lots of green onions. The thickly sliced menma are crunchy and tasty, and the chashu chunks are hit-or-miss. A few chunks were more fatty and flavorful, but most were on the lean side. The chashu was tasty, but not stellar. The noodles were just a tad thicker than your run-of-the-mill generic ramen noodles, and very slippery and chewy. They had a great texture, but had trouble gripping the soup. My wife noted that the noodles reminded her of Chinese “oil noodles.”

The real star of the Sapporo Lover was the soup. Each bowl of miso is individually charred. If you watch the chef, you’ll occasionally see flames leaping from his wok as he prepares this dish. That charred miso gave the soup an incredibly complex depth and flavor. Think charred sauteed onions, the interplay between bitter and caramelized flavors. For someone like me who usually puts miso ramen below shoyu, tonkotsu, and shio, it was a revelation.

When I got the white bomb, I bit off a small chunk before putting it in my soup. It was likely eating a chunk of lard with garlic mixed in. Dissolving a third of the white bomb in the soup (make sure you do it while your soup is still hot) gave it an even richer, porkier flavor, but it distracted from the flavorful miso. Dissolving another third resulted in a still tasty soup, but I preferred the purer miso pre-bombing. Perhaps the red bomb would’ve been more appropriate. Then again, I finished every drop of the soup.

Ramen Mottainai is a welcome addition to the L.A. ramen scene. They’re reportedly in the process of making their own noodles, and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of effect that’ll have on an already good ramen. Mottainai’s Sapporo Lover gets a 7.5 out of 10.

Ramen Mottainai
1630 W. Redondo Beach Blvd., Suite 9
Gardena, CA 90247
310-538-3250

Mon, Wed-Sun: 11am-3pm
Mon, Wed-Sun: 5:30pm-10:30pm
Closed Tuesdays

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There’s nothing quite as exciting as finding out a new ramenya is opening in your city, except for finding out that it’s now open! Woohoo! Shizuma Ramen is located in a typical non-descript strip mall probably best known for a popular pho restaurant a few doors down. There’s seating outside, and the interior has a sparse, modern feel to it.

Shizuma offers ramen, donburi (rice bowls), some combination platters, and a few hand rolls. There was a special “Shizuma ramen” with shoyu broth that wasn’t on their regular menu, but I opted for the tonkotsu version of their pork chashu ramen on the waitress’ recommendation, plus a side order of gyoza. They offer a choice of shoyu, tonkotsu, or miso soup base with all of the ramen. Hmm…not a good sign…

My tonkotsu ramen came out quickly, topped with chashu slices, green onions, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, half a hard-boiled egg, a slice of naruto, and a few pieces of menma. I had a flashback to La-men for some reason. I slurped a big spoonful of the warm-but-not-quite-hot soup and found it very creamy and smooth. The tasty soup was on the light side and not very oily. There was also a slight spike of porky aftertaste, suggesting that the soup could’ve been cooked a bit longer. It was a decent tonkotsu broth, the kind I could slurp regularly without complaint.

The noodles were both good, and disappointing. On one hand, it was toothy and perfectly cooked. On the other hand it was curly and bland, and didn’t really belong with tonkotsu ramen. The egg was marinated, as was the menma. Both were serviceable, as was the thin-sliced chashu, which was just a bit on the lean side.

The gyoza was…well…it had thick skin and lightly-flavored filling. The filling was good, but the texture of the skin was microwave-y.

Shizuma Ramen has only been open for a few weeks, and I plan on being a regular. There’s room for improvement, but the tonkotsu broth is solid and I’m looking forward to trying their shoyu ramen. Shizuma’s tonkotsu chashu ramen gets a 6 out of 10.

Shizuma Ramen
4250 Barranca Parkway, Ste Q
Irvine, CA 92604
949-559-6631

Mon-Thurs: 11am-3pm, 4:30pm-9pm
Fri: 11am-3pm, 4:30pm-10pm
Sat & Sun: 12pm-9pm

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I noticed La-men springing into existence maybe a month or two ago on the way to a friend’s house. At first, my first instinct was to make fun of it. “La-men! Ha! They can’t even spell it right!” But later, when I found out it was actually run by Japanese people, I was intrigued. My friend told me that he heard it was decent, “but do you really want to go there instead of Gomen?” Gomen, my favorite ramenya in the area, called out to me from just a few minutes away. But duty calls!

La-men is located in a tiny strip mall near a 7-11. The menu doesn’t have a lot of items, which I count as a plus. There’re a few types of ramen, some rice bowls, and gyoza (more on the gyoza later). I wanted fried rice, but no such luck. I opted for combo #3 with shoyu ramen.

Here’s the salad. You get your choice of citrus-shoyu dressing or some other dressing. It was lightly flavored and pretty good. blah blah blah…it’s a salad.

When I saw down and looked at the condiments, I regretted not ordering the shio ramen. Not only was there a container of basil flakes, its label encouraged “try me on shio ramen.” Really?! Basil flakes on shio ramen?!

Ok, here’s the problem with the “gyoza.” They were exactly as pictured above and on the menu. When ordering the combo, the lady behind the counter shyly admitted “yeah, they’re not “real” gyoza,” then added “they’re in gravy.” But you know what? They were pretty good. The gravy was light and tasty and went well with the wontons–I mean, gyoza. The gyoza tasted exactly like wontons with gyoza filling…meaty, and garlicky like some other gyoza I’ve had. Even the gyoza skin was doughy like a wonton or Chinese dumpling.

And finally, the shoyu ramen. It looked pretty good. The egg was obviously hard-boiled, but marinated. The pork looked decent. Lots of onions, that’s good. And sesame seeds in a shoyu ramen. Ok, that can work…

…But wait…there seems to be something odd-looking in the soup, next to the egg…

Whoa! Hello, bamboo shoot! That’s something I’ve never seen in a ramen before. A large, marinated bamboo shoot. It was crunchy, but too shoyu-y. If it was marinated less, it would’ve been delicious. Definitely a surprise! So how was the rest of the ramen? The noodles were great! Sure they were mass-produced curly factory noodles, but they were cooked perfectly and had the right amount of chew. And that was the highlight of the ramen. The soup was decent but dull, with just a hint of a slight molasses-like sweetness at the end. The egg was as expected: a good, marinated, hard-boiled egg. The pork showed some promise. While the chashu was lean, it wasn’t tough, and one piece had just enough fat to tease me with an extra burst of flavor.

La-men is one of those little hole-in-the-walls that I’ll likely check out from time to time, just to see if they’ve gotten better. The portions are good (the bowl above is actually a “small”), the cashier is friendly, and you can fill up on free iced tea. The shoyu ramen gets a just-above-average 6.

La-Men
10488 Valley View St Unit 3
Buena Park, CA‎ 90620
(714) 952-1258‎
Mon-Fri: 11am – 9pm
Sun: 12pm – 7:30pm
Closed Saturday

Cash Only!

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Trendy ramen comes of age in L.A. at BREADBAR (apparently, they don’t believe in lower case letters). Bakery and…well, “bread bar” by day, BREADBAR turns into a pop-up ramen yatai (food stand) serving “gourmet street food” by night and features guest chef Kazuo Shimamura from Ironnori Concepts. Their ramen selection ranges from the classics (shio, shoyu, miso, and spicy miso) to the exotic (spicy pork curry, tomato, vietnam ramen, ox tail, and foie gras). At times like this, I wished I had multiple stomachs.

The wife and I had an hour to check out the scene, but unfortunately we weren’t very hungry. As tempting as the foie gras ramen sounded, we decided to split a spicy miso ramen and a side order of pork feet gyoza.

After a short wait, our food was brought out on a wooden plank. I wished the server would’ve left the plank: It really added to the presentation. The food was accompanied by paper cards describing each item. This was a fun idea, but one that slightly backfired, which I’ll get to in a bit.

We tried the gyoza first. It was tasty, mild and had a predominantly pork flavor. The texture was a mixture of minced and coarse. If a Mexican restaurant offered gourmet shredded pork gyozas, this was what they would taste like.

The ramen presentation was gorgeous. We probably spent more time taking pictures and oo-ing and aah-ing the ramen than we did actually eating it. The staff seemed amusing by our antics.

The ramen soup was tasty and spicy, but the miso flavor was on the mild side and a bit overwhelmed by the spiciness. The wife was a bit bothered by its oiliness. I had no issues with it.

The curly yellow noodles were ordinary factory-made noodles, but were cooked perfectly. When paired with the Tokyo negi (onions) and sesame seeds, it became something wonderful. I would’ve been happy with nothing more than a bowl of these noodles with the negi and sesame seeds.

All the other toppings were a mixed bag. On one hand, the kikurage (wood-eared mushrooms) and charred garlic bits added a nice depth to the bowl. On the other hand, and this is were the paper cards failed, the “marinated poached egg” was neither marinated nor poached. I really looking forward to a nice hanjuku egg. What I got was a non-marinated, tantalizingly soft hard-boiled egg. It was as if they left the eggs on the stove, forgot about it for just a minute, then decided to serve it anyway after realizing that they also forgot to marinate it.

And about halfway through the bowl I suddenly looked up and asked my wife, “did we accidentally eat the nori or something?” Yep. They forgot to put a piece of nori in the bowl. Not a big deal, but considering the place was practically empty and that they went the trouble of describing what came with the order…tsk tsk.

I also had high hopes for the kurobuta pork belly chashu. Just writing that makes my mouth water. The chashu slices looked appropriately fatty and thickly sliced, but the preparation was uneven. The chashu was well marinated, and the fatty sections were deliciously tender, but the lean halves of the chashu were overcooked and borderline hard. The taste was spot-on, but the contrasting texture was just too distracting.

Yatai Ramen Twist smacks of trendy, gourmet fare, but the execution falls short. It’s not hard to imagine that Chef Shimamura could make great ramen, if he and his crew paid just a little more time to the food prep than the food presentation. Their spicy miso ramen gets a not-bad-but-not-great 6.5 out of 10.

Yatai @ BREADBAR
8718 W 3rd St.
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(310) 205-0124
Yatai Ramen Twist until July 24
Mon-Sat: 5-10pm

By the way, you can still order bread and pastries during Yatai hours. I recommend their pistachio macaron!

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This is what happens when you wait a full year before reviewing a restaurant…I went to Ramen Setagaya’s University Place location a couple of months after it opened last year, and now, when I’ve finally gotten my act together enough to write the review, I find out it closed about a month ago. Sigh.

I was in New York for only two nights on a business trip, and my first attempt at dining at Ramen Setagaya resulted in a fail. I decided to go to Ippudo instead the second night, and after walking for an hour around Union Square Park to digest, I got ambitious. I headed to Setagaya again, determined to get in a last ramen hurrah before I left.

Located about a 15-minute walk away from Ippudo, Ramen Setagaya @ University Park is worlds apart in terms of both taste and ambiance. Ippudo is dark and trendy. Setagaya is bright and down-to-earth. Ippudo’s ramen is deep and rich. Setagaya specializes in the lighter shio ramen.

I immediately liked Setagaya’s atmosphere, from the irasshaimase! when you enter, to the brick walls and the counter facing the open kitchen. The menu gives you a very different impression. Their menu reads like something you’d find at a Michelin-starred restaurant filled with people in tuxedos sipping martinis shaken, not stirred. Reading about “best ingredients from Japan (90% importing from Japan),” “Vietnam’s Kahn Hoa sea salt” used in the shio ramen, apparently one of the “three best salts in the world,” and the “best premium Japanese soy sauce, Sekigahara Tamari Shoyu, for Imperial Family,” I suddenly felt a bit underdressed. Undeterred, I ordered a simple bowl of shio ramen.

While I waited for my ramen, I looked around and took pictures, snapping a few extra pics of the cook grilling chashu, who was eyeing me suspiciously and/or posing for the camera. The place has the warm look and feel of a friendly little ramenya in Any-machi (town), Japan.

When the ramen arrived, the artistic presentation of the ramen made me smile. I slurped away, savoring the clean and light salty broth and the chewy noodles. To be honest, I lost my notes and I can’t quite remember all the details of the ramen. I do remember thinking “this is what all the food hosts on Japanese TV shows mean when they say things like ‘Heee, I can taste the ocean!’” after sipping the clear soup. I can also say I thoroughly enjoyed the grilled, tasty pork and the hanjuku egg, a personal weakness of mine. The light, refreshing ramen and the friendly atmosphere ended my trip on a perfect note, and I’m sad that this particular location closed down.

I may not remember some of the details of my ramen, but I do remember being as impressed with Ramen Setagaya as I was with Ippudo NY, except for different reasons. Ramen Setagaya’s shio ramen gets a satisfying 7.5.

Ramen Setagaya
90 University Place (Bet. 11th & 12th Street) This location is now closed.
Try their main location at 141 First Ave., New York, NY 10003
Tel: 212-529-2740

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It’s been a while since my last trip to New York. It’s been so long that instead of having to go to Ippudo, New York again, Ippudo came to Costa Mesa. So how did the Costa Mesa experience compare to “the real deal” in the Big Apple?

My first impression of Ippudo’s NY location was that it was really inconspicuous. There’s a small sign with their Japanese name ??? and a much smaller, almost invisible sign in English. The night-club/trendy restaurant-inspired interior is dark and intimate. Large, communal tables take up most of the space, and there’s a line of brightly lit booths along the side, decorated in a present-meets-past way that gives you the feel of being in some modern Egyptian restaurant that just happens to serve ramen. It must be the hiragana-as-hieroglyphs running along the wall.

After a few minutes’ wait, I was seated in the back corner at one of the communal tables. While Ippudo is famous for their Akamaru Shin-aji, “Ramen King” Shigemi Kawahara’s modernized version of hakata ramen, I decided to start with the basics, and try the Shiromaru Hakata Classic, described on the menu as “the original tonkotsu.” A quick chat with the friendly waitress lead me to order a side order of chashu. (There is nothing on the menu to indicate that the side order of chashu is different than the chashu that comes with the ramen.)

I’ve often complained about the lukewarm soup at several local ramen shops, and I was pleasantly surprised by Ippudo’s declaration that their ramen “is served extra hot, so please use caution when indulging in our signature dish.” The ramen comes with a nice assortment of toppings: chashu made from Berkshire pork, kikurage, beni sh?ga, menma, sesame seeds, scallions, and 1/2 of a hard boiled egg. Let me get my biggest gripe out of the way first: really? A hardboiled egg? Seriously. A $13 bowl of ramen comes with a non-marinated, plain hard-boiled egg half?

Boring hard-boiled egg aside, everything else worked well together. The toppings meshed with the noodles and soup. The noodles, made fresh in the basement, were ultra thin, hard, and a bit floury. They paired well with the soup, and the texture was a great contrast to the thick soup. And the soup…the soup! Deliciously rich, the soup was almost gelatin-like and had such a smooth taste. It was, at the same time, full of pork flavors, yet not too “pork-y.”

The chashu deserves its own paragraph. The thin chashu that comes with the ramen is decent. Wait, that’s it? Just “decent”? That deserves a full paragraph? Let me explain. The chashu that comes with the ramen is slightly fatty, well-marinated, and yes, decent. The chashu was flavorful, but somewhat on the dry and hard side. But the real star is the side order of chashu you can order. The side order chashu, by comparison, is fantastic! This chashu has more fat, which combines with the lean meat to create a luscious experience in your mouth. Not only is it fatty, but it’s packed with flavor. It doesn’t so much melt in your mouth as it lingers and dances a seductive dance on your tongue. Anyone who goes to Ippudo must, and I mean must shell out the few extra dollars to order the side chashu.

Ippudo was a real treat, even though I ended paying around $20 total for a bowl of ramen. At Ippudo, it’s not just about the ramen, but about the experience of eating at a legendary ramenya: it’s a pilgrimage any self-respecting ramen fan in New York should make.

Ippudo’s Shiromaru Hakata Classic gets a 7.5 with regular chashu, 8.5 with the side chashu.

(A quick apology here for the photos. Except for a few random areas around the booths and at one table, it is really dark in here. I had to read the menu by candlelight and I could barely see what I was eating.)

Ippudo NY
65 Fourth Avenue
New York, NY 10003-5220
(212) 388-0088
Mon-Thurs: 11am-3:30pm, 5pm-11:30pm
Fri-Sat: 11am-3:30pm, 5pm-12:30am
Sun: 11am-10:30pm

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Those of you who missed out on Ippudo Ramen’s first California appearance…all I can say is, you missed out! The ramen was delicious, and as tasty as the ramen served in their New York location. Since I’m determined to write up the review for their New York location this weekend, I thought it’d be redundant to write a duplicate review. Instead, I offer this slide show with commentary to tide you over. (Those of you reading this on RSS will need to click through to the article to see the slide show captions.)

For those of you who did make it to the food fair, what did you think?

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Maruchan Roast Chicken vs. Sapporo Ichiban Original

We’re down to the championship game. Sapporo Ichiban Original gets the tip off. Sapporo Ichiban Original plays deliberately and slowly. They like to set a slow-paced game with their subtler flavor. As before, their uniqueness lies in their blended taste. If you have to put a label to it, it would be something like miso-shoyu. Maruchan Roast Chicken, on the other hand, picks up the pace every time they have the ball. They are roast chicken without a doubt. But they announce this respectfully, without an “in-your-face” attitude. Some of the other schools try to be showy, and eagerly slam dunk when given half a chance. Maruchan Roast Chicken, though, plays steadily, like the disciplined team that they are.

Beyond the miso-shoyu of Sapporo Ichiban Original (SIO) and the roasted chicken of Maruchan’s namesake team (MRC), both teams bring supporting flavors. SIO has their onion and white pepper supporters, while MRC’s celery/herb flavor cheers loudly, next to a smaller spicy-black pepper cheering section. SIO also has a few scattered onion bits on the bench, but they usually don’t see much action.

By the fourth quarter, SIO’s rowdy MSG fans are starting to get a little out of hand. MRC also has some MSG fans on their side, but they’re more subdued and not as noticeable. By the last few minutes of the game, the two teams are even comparing noodles. Both teams have very similar tasting noodles, that’s to say, on the bland side. Both noodles are also similarly textured, but SIO’s noodles started off just a bit chewier and ended up just a touch softer.

It’s been an incredible run. Both SIO and MRC are strong competitors with very different approaches to the game. SIO’s tactics have been based on having varied flavors combined to become an “Original” flavor. MRC, on the other hand, focuses on being true to their name and presents itself as Roast Chicken…nothing more, nothing less. It’s close! The game ends with the final score:
Sapporo Ichiban Original: 6.0
Maruchan Roast Chicken: 6.5!

And Maruchan Roast Chicken is the champion!!!

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2. instant ramen final four: …err…final four!
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Whew! We’ve come a long way from the original 16. We’re down to the championship match, which will take place tomorrow night. Meanwhile, here’s a bracket view of the results so far. (Click on the bracket for a full-sized version.)

So does anyone have any money riding on this?

9:23pm: oops, I have the wrong ramen showing on the final 4 and championship…
9:29pm: ok fixed!

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