This is a white tonkotsu ramen. Once again, the obligatory mystery meat. The noodles are TOUGH. I actually thought I undercooked it but I followed the instructions exactly. Even after I put it in the microwave for another 30 seconds, it was still pretty tough to chew. Not only that, but the noodles were tasteless. The soup was decent though. Overall it gets a 6 (it lost a point for the noodles).
sorry i don’t have a picture. and actually, the last time i went to ezo was over a year or two ago. this is the ezo noodle cafe in irvine, at the tustin marketplace. so why am i rating it? because it’s the worst ramen i’ve ever had. it’s even worse than most instant ramen i’ve had. the staff is very friendly, but the food is just so bland. admitedly, i’ve never had their signature miso ramen. i’ve only had the chashu ramen twice (twice because i wanted to be sure it was that bad). the soup is bland. the noodles are soggy. it’s just tasteless. i’ve had their fried rice a few times. it’s also bland, but with a *ton* of black pepper, it’s salvageable. the ramen gets a 3…just in case i come across something worse. the fried rice gets a 4.
Ezo Noodle Cafe
13256 Jamboree Rd
Irvine, CA 92602
(714) 544-5075
The “original” Nissin chicken ramen. And it has…holy cow! There’s a chunk of styrof–I mean egg custardy thing in it! How cool is that! The noodles have a slightly burnt taste to it, but decent. Nothing extraordinary. The soup isn’t bad. Overall it’s just decent. But I gotta give an extra point for the egg chunk (and no flavor packets. how interesting). It gets a 7!
Well, it’s not *horrible*…but that’s about the best thing i can say about it. Skinny tasteless noodles. Bland soup. It comes with some seaweed bits and such. I guess it gets a 3.
Mmm…back to the shoyu ramens. This one’s not bad. Slightly wider and chewy noodles. Soup’s decent. There’re bits of onion and maybe 3 whole pieces of shinachiku, and the obligatory mystery meat. Overall it’s pretty decent. It gets a 7.
This is different. Hirauchimen to dashisyoyu…flat-made noodles with pork bone shoyu soup…more or less. (Trivia: the kanji for pork in Japanese is the kanji for dolphin in Chinese!) This was pretty good! It doesn’t taste like a “typical” ramen. The noodles are flat and chewy and the soup is pretty tasty and rich. There’s a lot of goodies including little bits of pork meat (like miniature meat–err–cubes…), some bamboo, and lots and lots of spring onions. I’m not sure I’d rate this as a ramen because it’s a little different than the “typical” japanese ramen but it’s good enough to get an 8.
