the ramen blog & other goodies!

Kohryu Restaurant has gone through not only a change in ownership but a complete remodel since my last review. After their grand re-opening in January, I thought I’d give them another try. We arrived in time for a late lunch, hoping there’d be less people…wait, why are all these people huddled outside (it was really cold that day). We ended up waiting for 45 mins…45 mins!?! (Apparently, my idea of having a nice hot bowl of ramen on a windy cold day wasn’t quite as inspired as I hoped.) My expectations soared as my stomach growled even louder.

When we were finally seated, I was eager to order the special-order paiko ramen. Alas, not only do they not serve paiko ramen any more, but I didn’t even see paiko-don on the menu. Still determined to try something new, I ordered the “new” Koi (”love”) ramen. (Hmm…I dug out an old pre-ownership-change menu from over a year ago and noticed that Koi ramen is still there, under the “new” section.) (more…)

Orange county residents: if you haven’t gone to the Costa Mesa Mitsuwa Ramen Festival yet, you have one more day to go, unless you want to go to Torrance or San Diego. Fellow ramen blogger Keizo has already covered all three locations, but was nice enough to join me today (thanks for the ramen souvenirs!).

First of all, you need to know that Asameshi Maeda Honten has taken over Sanuki Udon’s location during this four day event. There are no English signs, so just look for the line of people in front of the banner shown above. Can’t find the menu? Don’t worry, they serve exactly one item: the ramen. One size only. No side dishes. One authentic specialty. That’s all you need. (more…)

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.

very…ordinary but in a decent way. the meat is the typical poor excuse for a sliver of meat in these instant ramens…but it’s…slightly…spicy? …iiiiiiinteresting…well it’s not great but it’s not bad. it gets a 5.

tonkotsu-shoyu soup…i think the instant noodles that’re tonkotsu based are all pretty flavorful…yeah, i probably should’ve realized it earlier…this one has good soup and good noodles…the meat brings it down though…chewy and veiny…i give it a 7…8 without the meat.