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So a few weeks ago, I went to Tsujita Artisan for dinner. I wanted to come back for lunch to try the tsukemen style ramen, which is what it’s most known for. Across the street nearby is its sister store, Tsujita Annex which serves ramen the entire day. This one for the time being only serves ramen for lunch, and it does have a slightly different menu. For a Sunday morning at 11 AM, there were no lines or wait. It pays to solo dine, sometimes.
Sawtelle is a popular place in west LA that is like Little Tokyo where there are a slew of Japanese dining and goods establishments. For lunch, I went to this random place called Tatsu Ramen. Since I rarely go to Sawtelle, I figured it’d be good to at record what I’ve eaten.
I was out shopping at the market, and across the street I see this ramen place. I thought to give it a try, but then after I saw the menu, I thought to myself, “Hey they have a Torrance location too!” I looked up my blog, and I realized I have been to this establishment in Torrance.
I realized my review for the Torrance location was rather abysmal, but I think this one will be a little bit better. Let’s make this quick.
I only ordered 2 half bowls, so I can try different flavors. The first is the white miso ramen. This consists of noodles, sprouts, green onions, pork, miso, boiled bamboo shoots, dried seaweed, and a lot of garlic. It actually wasn’t bad. It was flavorful, and the noodles are how I like it (thick, but not too thick). The waiter gave me some spice to put into the broth, but I opted to just eat it without the spice. The broth wasn’t that salty, but it was definitely garlicky.
The second bowl I ordered is the spicy miso. This is similar to the white miso except no bamboo shoots and yes red pepper. It actually wasn’t that spicy but this definitely had less garlicky flavors and more kick to the nose since it has more spice.
Comparatively, I think if you prefer flavor in terms of garlic and broth, then the white miso would fit the bill. If however you like more kick, then it’s pretty obvious the spicy miso will suit better. I still think this restaurant is just OK. It’s not my favorite, nor would I make a special trip to come back. I do think this location was slightly less salty than the Torrance location. Also for some reason, this location takes cash only whereas the Torrance one takes credit cards. It’s also located in a strip mall diagonally from Ralphs market on the corner of Barrington and Olympic.
Visit: 11678 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90501
My current choices for LA ramen in no particular order:
– Ramen Yamadaya (Torrance location)
– Robata JINYA (Los Angeles, W 3rd Street)
Other LA ramen places I’ve been to:
– Ajisen Ramen (Century City)
– Asa Ramen (Torrance)
– Daikokuya (Little Tokyo)
– Eboshi Noodle Bar (Lomita/Torrance)
– Happy Cup Ramen Truck (food truck)
– Mama Ramen (Torrance)
– Men Bei (Torrance)
– Orochon Ramen (Little Tokyo) **
– Ramen Hayatemaru (Torrance) (West LA)*
– Ramen Jinya (Mid-Wilshire)
– Ramen Yamadaya (Culver City)
– Santouka (Mitsuwa in West LA, Torrance, Orange County)
– Shinsengumi (Gardena)
* recently reviewed
** recently added
Like Ippudo, this was supposedly another must-try ramen place. I got to this spot right when they opened, and there was a small line. When you go in, they have counter top seating for 1-2 people as well as a some picnic table setups for larger parties.
Momofuku ramen (pork belly, pork shoulder, poached egg). The noodles surprisingly were just how I like them. They are similar to top ramen thickness if not slightly thicker and cooked al dente. The broth was actually pretty salty. I almost feel as if the broth was drenched in soy sauce, and that they didn’t infuse it with the pork. Don’t get me wrong, the broth did have tons of pork meat in there, but it wasn’t as oily or tasty with pork flavors as Ippudo. All I could taste was salt. So that made eating the soy sauce egg even more difficult.
Soy sauce egg (crispy shallot, chive, maldon). I ordered this to eat along with my ramen. I was expecting this to be a decent complement to my ramen, but I was terribly disappointed. Because the ramen was very salty, this was also salty too. They infused the yolk with too much soy sauce, so it ended up tasting like a salty boiled (creamy centered) egg. It was painful to eat and was not enjoyable at all.
The ramen so far that I’ve experienced in New York has fallen below my expectations. Los Angeles has far better ramen establishments unfortunately, so I’m a pretty disappointed. If I had to choose between Momofuku Noodle Bar and Ippudo, I would easily choose Ippudo. Momofuku Noodle Bar lacked flavor in their broth, was too salty, and was also expensive for what you get ($15+ for the ramen, and $3+ for the egg).
On Yelp, this ramen place Ippudo got a crazy number of reviews. Since I’m in New York for a short week, I decided to check this out during lunch to avoid the lines for dinner. I ordered the “Akamaru Modern” ramen which has pork flavored broth, their own miso paste, pork chashu, cabbage, scallions, and garlic oil. I told them to not put sesame kikurage mushrooms because I am not a fan of non-psychadelic mushrooms. In addition, I made this into a set combo for 3 extra dollars, so it came with a small salad and fried chicken on top of cabbage and rice.
The salad had a ponzu type vinaigrette that you typically find in most Japanese places. There’s some citrus and wasabi flavors in it. The rice had some cabbage on top that was doused with some type of mayo mix. On top of that is the fried chicken which is similar to “chicken karage”. The chicken breading was ok. It was breaded very thin, so it definitely lacked the crisp associated with fried chicken.
The ramen noodles are very similar to Shinsengumi in Gardena. If you have read my preferences for ramen, you would know I’m only a fan of thick noodles, so I wasn’t that thrilled with these noodles. Other than that, the broth itself was flavorful, but definitely not as rich as some of the other places in Los Angeles. Like most ramen places, this one has quite a bit of sodium in the broth, but luckily this place was very quick on refilling your cups with water.
All in all, I’m not sure what NYC’s ramen scene is like, but this one is mostly a glorified Shinsengumi to me.
Visit: http://www.ippudony.com
Having lived in Los Angeles the last 5 years including the South Bay/Gardena/Torrance areas, I’ve always sought after my personal BEST ramen place. The best ramen place to me must have a tasty well balanced broth and good tasting thick noodles.
Per recommendations, I checked out Ramen Hayatemaru in Torrance partly because they have half bowl sizes, so you can try more than 1 flavor.