I’ve visited the other two locations for Ikkousha. There is a Torrance and Costa Mesa location. At this third location the ramen and karaage is just as good as the other locations. This location is in the Little Tokyo area of Downtown. This place has never let me down. I’ve been to all their locations. They …
I’m not usually a huge fan of spicy ramen. I used to be. However, as my ramen obsession has grown I’ve moved away from the spicy stuff. I find the spice takes away the flavors in the broth. But, everyonce in a while I get that craving for heat. This is one of those occasions. …
This chicken ramen is delicious. The broth is light and flavorful. They add roasted chicken breast chashu, deep fried onions, cooked bamboo shoots, hard boiled egg, and green onion. This is all served up with hard and thin noodles. My only gripe with Venice Ramen is their egg. I understand soft boiled eggs aren’t for …
I was fortunate enough to visit Ippudo at their new location in Santa Monica during their soft opening week. They were serving their full menu. On the inside it’s a really modern Japanese style with huge windows so tons of light enters the shop. It really makes you feel like you are in Japan and …
Ippudo is bringing the hakata style ramen to San Francisco. I love this style. This style is a creamy and almost frothy rich pork broth paired with thin and hard noodles. I’m anticipating their Santa Monica location opening soon. I already checked it out and I think it should be getting close to opening. Since …
I ordered the 10 piece chashu ramen. You can tweak the tonkotsu broth by requesting it come white, black (adding black galic oil) or spicy (choose from 3 levels of spicy). I went with the white. They provide you with thin straight noodles. Mine came hard, because I requested hard cooked noodles. I’ve had the …
If you are in Costa Mesa and have a craving for some ramen, check out Toraji. It’s inside Tokyo Central market. I found the tonkotsu to be much lighter than Ikkousha. But it was just as satisfying. Noddles are thin and hard, which definitely represents that hakata style. They are cooking their tonkotsu for 14 …
One reason to love a ramen shop is when they give you a piece of paper so that you can customize your ramen order. For example, you can specify how you want your noodles cooked, hard or soft. Broth, light or normal, etc. This is one of the reasons that I love the Hakata Ikkousha …
Fantastic. Just fantastic ramen here. This is one of the few spots in LA that I know do their broth from scratch. That explains so much. If you aren’t starting with a strong broth, it doesn’t matter how good your noodles are or what toppings you add. Broth is the base and it’s gotta be …