Ramen Redemption? I Think Not....

    There's no denying that my favorite ramen joint is Hakata Shinshengumi. They are amazing. I've tried the top 4 ramen places and have still repeatedly gone back to Hakata. In fact, the servers and everyone there already know us. We are hardcore ramen lovers. Well, with any food that doesn't taste horrid my rule is to taste it more than once, twice, or maybe even thrice. So here's my redemption for ramen from Daikokuya, which many people say "have the best ramen in town that even beats out ramen in Japan." Ha, I laugh in those peoples' faces. Ha, Ha, Ha!

Here's the Daikoku Ramen. I'll include a picture of their menu .

It's yummy don't get me wrong. They even include an egg inside and have a Tsukemen option for those hot days like today when its 117 degrees and you don't want your noodles inside burning hot soup. Sorry though, it's not enough close to my beloved Hakata. 

Feel free to go to Daikokuya though because then lines at my favorite place will get shorter! It's located at 327 E 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. If you go to this location, you need to pay for parking cause it's in Downtown plus the lines can go as long as 2 hours! It's usually 30 mins though if you're lucky. Why on Earth would I go here when I could have free parking, better ramen, and a good time? 
Happy Eatings!

The Official Battle of The Ramens (SoCal Edition)

I've been waiting for this day for a long time. My long awaited post. The Ramen Showdown! Down to the Final 2 Contestants! Let's start!

(This is the Santouka at inside the food court of the Mitsuwa Market. Cash Only.)

A is for ... adequate.

Wow... talk about a let down. This place is hailed as the #1 Ramen place in SoCal. I finally made it a point to finally and officially to judge Santouka in my own personal BATTLE OF THE RAMENS and this is what I get! I've been to Daikokuya (really disappointed me by the way & way overrated), Hakata, multiple Asijens(all over SoCal), Ramen Nip (San Fernando Valley), Tajima (San Diego), and have been told by my aunt as well as everyone and their Mother that I need to come to Santouka. Well you know what? I'm disappointed. So let me break it down.

I got the shio (salt) special pork ramen. Their special pork is pork neck. Countless patrons have claimed that their special pork melts in your mouth. Trust me their pork definitely aint special. Here's what real bomb Thai style pork neck should look like. (Click here It's under Meal #3) All that aside though, their salt broth was good. It wasn't too salty for me but the noodles were the same as Top Ramen. If I wanted to eat ramen from a package, I could have gone into my kitchen cabinet and opened up a bag. It would have saved me 40 mins of driving there and $23. The noodles at Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi are much better. The special pork was bland. I'm pretty sure that Thais have the best pork neck.

This is the BF's order of Spicy Miso ramen and the gohan/cha siu (pork) rice. The pork was bland. I love Japanese food, but I after taking my first bite I wanted to run into any Chinese establishment buy some cha siu (BBQ pork) and just stick it on white rice. It would have been way better. Parking was also a pain in the butt. Everything was full but once we got inside there was no line for Santouka because we went during an off hour. Maybe it's an evil ploy to make people believe that there's a bunch of people inside to add to the Santouka hype. (har har, I kid.) I know they really do get super crowded. They have Santoukas in the Mtsuwa Markets in Torrence and Costa Mesa as well if you want to try and see for yourself! I'm really fair when I rate something so I'll always give it another try so I'll report back when I do. And what was the best part of my day?

I got to buy a super cute $7 Japanese toy at Mitsuwa and have some amazing, rich green tea yogurt at the booth directly across from Santouka. I couldn't find their name but you'll see it when you're there. Best green tea yogurt ever!

Oh and by the way, just in case you wanted to know how THE BEST RAMEN in SoCal looks like, it looks something like this!

Here's my old ramen review of the other places if you want to know what you should order or what other ramen joints to completely skip. (click here.) Honestly why would you not want to go here? You get to watch the Master making ramen unlike Santouka. But I would suggest to all those people who love Santouka to give Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi. You will convert and follow me! Try their Hakata Special. Ask them to bring you a jar of extra garlic and skip adding all the extra ingredients. Just get the bare basic with your choice of noodles, get medium broth, & medium oil. By the way, I go to the one at 8450 East Valley Blvd. Rosemead although they have multiple locations like Redondo Beach, etc.

And if you end up being curious and just want to try out Santouka anyways, I would suggest getting the salt ramen with the special pork and skip out on their miso choices. Also FYI their broths are all tonkatsu based, which means they're made with pork bone. So sorry to those that can't eat pork. This place isn't for you. Just want to let you know, before you damn me to hell for making you eat it. Also go during an off time so that there's a higher chance you can find parking because honestly the place is structured to be crowded all the time. I mean they share a place with Mitsuwa and CVS!

Happy Eatings! I give the Ramen King Crown to Hakata Shinsengumi! TEAM HAKATA!

Battle of the Ramen

I searched high and low. I researched online for hours. I got got some friends together and I was ready to document everything for this Battle of the Ramen post. As you can tell, I take my job seriously. Seriously. Let's start with the winner for most amazing ramen. And the first prize goes to Hakata Ramen Shin-Sen-Gumi. They have multiple stores, but I went to the one in Rosemead located 8450 East Valley Blvd. Rosemead, 91770. I swear I've been to this plaza a gazillion times and have never noticed this place until now. Hakata is awesome. Too bad it's only open until 11 PM. We got here the other day around 10 and didn't have to wait. Our waiter was a white guy who spoke perfect Japanese. I loved it cause it was a slap in the face to my super Japanese-looking but can't speak any Japanese at all boyfriend. There's nothing special about their decor so don't come here expecting anything more than an awesome open kitchen and a chair. There's 2 small tables in the back where you can sit on the floor but other than that there's just a few tables and seats at the bar.

And look at their kitchen view! Amazing! This is basically an assembly line of noodles hanging from above. That's how they maximize their efficiency. The waiter asks what kind of noodles you would like: Soft, Medium, Hard. Then you choose how oily you want your soup and how strong you want it. I, being the unhealthy person that I am ordered the Hakata Special with Medium Noodles & very strong soup and oily! Bring it on! Jeff got Spicy Miso soup with soft noodles and medium oily. Our friend Ken got the same thing as Jeff. He wasn't hungry when he sat down or so he said...

Yummy. Here's my order on the left. It was delicious. So delicious I threw down .95 cents for another bowl of noodles but this time I got soft noodles instead. I liked the medium noodles but I REALLY REALLY liked the soft noodles.

This is a picture of what Ken and Jeff ordered: Spicy Miso Ramen. It looks the same as what I got until you add this patch of miso goodness and mix it all inside. Amazing. Don't tell them but I liked the spicy miso more than my regular ramen. Ken said he wasn't hungry. After having one taste of their spicy miso, his stomach was suddenly ready for more. Jeff had 3 whole bowls of ramen. He later felt so full that he tried to make himself yack in the parking lot to no avail. Yes, it was that good!

My only complaint about Hakata aside from there not being one much closer to me is that their additional items were too pricy. For example if you want more pork in your ramen, it made more sense to order another bowl for .95 cents rather than paying the amount for a few more slices of pork. One more complaint was that the waiters and the chef all greet and de-greet all the customers walking in, paying, or leaving. They are always eyeing everyone in the restaurant with the corner of their eyes no matter what they are doing and will occasionally will not forget what you are telling them. No worries though, their ramen makes up for it! Plus, they have really good service. Try finding that in the SGV!

2nd Place Awesome Ramen Award goes to Daikokuya in Little Tokyo, Downtown L.A. located at 327 East 1st Street, Los Angeles 90012. I went here with my besties and absolute favorite people to eat with because Daikokuya is supposedly the "it" place for the best ramen. Okay they need to seriously stop kidding themselves. Their ramen isn't bad. It doesn't compare to Hakata's. Their waits are insane but at least they are open until 1 AM. Their decor is really cute though. They have old Japanese advertisements as decorations. My sister would love them. She likes collecting old Hong Kong advertisements.

Their ramen came with the egg that was perfectly cooked. I like when ramen places make their eggs right where the inside is still squishy and kind of raw. A good thing about Daikokuya is that they allow you to order half portions for their ramen. Whatever... Hakata is so good that I don't need half portions. Take that! Unfortunately, they only had pork as their soup base and didn't have a vegetarian option since my besties can't eat pork. I was really sad that we waited for an hour risking our lives and Weheb's car to find out they couldn't eat the ramen. (No joke the parking lot we parked in said pay and lock up.) We were afraid, very afraid.

So sad as they were, Weheb & Rna had to order something else. Here's their miso & salad that came with their combinations and the right is my Ramune Soda. The salad basically tasted like cold slaw so minus points for that since I don't like cold slaw. Ramune soda is my favorite. I call it Marble Water in Chinese because you have to pop the top of the drink and release the marble to drink it. I use to break these bottles as a kid to collect the marble. Dangerous and dumb yeah I know. I wasn't the brightest kid. I was thinking free marble! Anyways Ramune soda is really good. It even comes in different flavors. This is the original flavor. It tastes like a better version of sprite.

So we were really sad that my besties couldn't have ramen, but they got to have some of Daikokuya's famous teriyaki chicken. Their chicken logo is "Forget about what the Colonel told you, this is chicken Little Tokyo style." And their chicken teriyaki was pretty good. Left is the chicken teri in a rice bowl and right is it in a bento box. The spicy tuna and tempura that came with it in the bento wasn't impressive. The chicken skin was very crispy. It wasn't the same skin they use for Katsu. All in all, although I would go back to Daikokuya for their chicken, I wouldn't go back for their ramen. They definitely need to bring their game up.

Loser Prize: Ajisen Ramen. They are located all over SGV and although they aren't bad but if you are in the area, why not head over to Hakata?

Here's their ramen special. It was "good". I felt like I picked up a really good package of ramen from my cabinet and added some meat from a Chinese restaurant and cooked it myself. Don't expect too great service from here. It really depends on their moods. Menopause, say what?

So basically Hakata is my favorite places hands down. My aunt has informed me though that there is an even better ramen place in Irvine. Apparently Ajisen Ramen is a franchise so every store has a different owner. Apparently the Ajisen in Irvine in the 85C parking lot has better ramen than even Hakata. I will have to do some research to see.

Until then, Happy Eatings!