Kosuke - Ramen in Alhambra

Ramen! Gotta love the stuff on a cold day, heck wifey loves it any type of day!

This little ramen place is situated in what I would call downtown Alhambra. Parking is in back, and is a little tight actually. The movie theater parking might be a better option, but its a little bit of a walk away.

The waitress that served us was nice, and talkative (wife's brother is a regular here), and even my wife says she is naturally cute....

On to the main topic: food!

We both ordered ramen, I ordered the Spicy Ramen with corn, and my wife ordered the miso ramen with corn. At first glance, prices do seem a little on the expensive side, 8 dollar ramen and extra for anything added (extra egg, corn, etc), however...

The spicy ramen was excellent. It actually surprised me and had quite a kick. More importantly it swirled in rich broth unlike Orochan's ramen from a previous review. The pork chasu was aplenty with thick juicy slices. The egg slightly underdone on arrival, but the ramen is hot enough to cook it through the way anyone chooses to eat it. The extra corn ordered, actually was a decent amount. The ramen noodles were cooked perfectly al dente and had a different texture to them, giving more substance.

The miso ramen was also good, an even richer broth with hints of pork and seafood in the taste.

Overall Impression: Yes this place is a little bit expensive, they serve ramen in a slightly smaller bowl than most places, but those places usually fill up the bowl with broth only anyway. This place does your ramen right, especially the actual ramen noodles. I will definitely be back.

4.5/5 stars

Otaya Japanese Restaurant - Rancho Cucamonga

Craving Ramen the other day and the IE is not exactly a wealth of ramen joints. Well this little hole in the wall, is not a ramen joint per se, but they serve ramen, and I'll probably be back!

If a business is successful based on location, I'm not so sure this place would be there. It is in a pretty vacated strip mall, across from a Zendejas Mexican Grill, Chase Bank, and other smaller places. It is across the street from a Lowes Home Improvement center.

Came here for lunch, and the small restaurant probably filled their approximately 30 spots to sit. 12 of those spots were at the sushi bar, but noone was there at the moment.

The disappointment came early, when I was told my first choice Donkatsu Chasu Ramen was not available. I guess their chasu had not come in yet. So I ordered the Spicy Ramen which is made from seasoned ground pork and chicken bits. This ramen had a little bit too much ginger for my wife's taste, but I must commend the spiciness. It is rare that something puts a tear in my eye with the initial spoonful, and this ramen did it.

Wife and I also ordered their BBQ ribs plate, which was also good, well cooked. The meat was soft and tasty.Too bad they left the door open, and the cold air cooled the food too quick.

We happened to order the chicken tempura also, their tempura dipping sauce was excellent and the chicken tender and moist. Excellent once again.

Portions are actually fairly large, the owner and the waitress were awesome.

Overall I would give 4 stars. Give or take 1/2 a star based on lack of availability of chasu! I'll be back!

Yukino Ya Ramen - City of Industry

Ramen time! Ramen is such a strange infatuation. You can buy it in stores for less than a dollar, and yet we still go out and look to restaurants for the perfect ramen.

I am still no expert, but slowly I'm figuring out what I like when it comes to ramen, and what the different subtleties are.

Ramen Yukino Ya is located in a strip mall in City of Industry, CA; in a very busy, Asian infused area of town. this Sunday afternoon, the parking lot was packed beyond capacity, but where were all the people? Granted it was a little warm weather wise for Ramen, but this place was only little over half full, we got an immediate table. Remember, this is a typical ramen place, and its small, seating for about 30 people max, if that. They do have a counter you can sit at also. No communal table here.

The menu here is simple, especially when it comes to ramen. Pick shoyu, shio or miso and then pick one of two different versions, the yukino-Ya version or the regular version. Difference being price (1 dollar) and quality, (black pork belly, nori, organic egg versus regular pork, no nori, regular egg), also the noodle is different, one is wavy and the other is straight.

Today, both wife and I went for the Yukino-ya Shoyu ramen, mine in a combo with pork rice. The ramen broth was rich and tasty, the ramen noodles a perfect al dente, the pork fatty and tasty, melting in your mouth. The organic egg was ok, although I think I would prefer a regular egg. It is cooked "easy" boiled, so still a little wet in the middle.

The pork rice was pretty standard but tasty, garnished with ginger, scallions, and nori pieces,

Overall I would have to say this place matches my top ramen places I have been to, Santouka Ramen in Torrance, and Kintaro Noodle in Vancouver, Canada. The broth falling somewhere in between the two (Santouka on top), and the noodles falling in between the two also (Kintaro Noodle on top).

My wife says she prefers Santouka better, she has not been to Kintaro in Vancouver. So its 2nd best on her list which also includes Ajisen, Daikokuya, and Foo Foo Tei.

Overall 4.5/5 stars. As always a little pricey for ramen, but when you have to boil it 10 hours, I can definitely understand the economics of it.

Orochan - the famous

Well, finally we had time to get to J Town and hit up Orochan, the quasi famous ramen place. Why famous? It was featured in Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel, specifically for its spicy ramen challenge! In fact on their website, its the #5 top episode!

Alas, all the hoopla, but yet we were quite disappointed. So the backstory, if you can finish the spicy ramen special #2 which is 2 levels higher than their original spiciest ramen, within 30 minutes, than your picture goes up on the wall of fame. Being Indonesian, and seeking spicy food, we decided to go there and try this.

Place: This is J Town, so obviously parking, although easy to find, was expensive. The restaurant itself is a small place in a 3 story complex, above another ramen place. Even from the floor below, you could smell the chili powder. It is a relatively small restaurant, with enough seating for 35-40 in tight quarters and decor is modern lines but not materials and simple. It was a full restaurant on this weekday lunch, but we were seated at the last available table almost immediately. Seated beside us, 2 men had just finished the special #2 ramen challenge.One immediately took off for the bathroom, the other turned multiple shades of red then pale in his seat. Both got their pictures and their spots on the wall of fame.

Food: Well, its ramen, but I will show you our table's 3 orders and you can see the difference between the spiciness levels.

This was #5 on the scale up to ten of the original spicy ramens. Look at the lack of jalapenos and miso colored soup broth.

I wimped out, I decided to make sure my food was edible and had the #1, it is the original spiciest of the ramens, but now they have 2 special ramen above this one. Notice, the jalapenos.

Ah, my wife ordered the famed special #2. The contest special. Note the blood red broth and the excessive amount of jalapenos. Oh and don't forget to note the toxic looking bubbles.

Impression: I try not to be biased, but here we go... All 3 ramen were slightly on the bland side, losing the miso flavor of the broth. The noodles were undercooked and stuck together. What made it worse, was that the jalapenos tasted funny .... So anyway, all 3 ramens we ordered a side of corn in them (ala Brittany Murphy's "The Ramen Girl"), the #5 and #1, were finished pretty much, the portions were huge. I will have to say that the #1 was underwhelmingly spicy. It tickled the taste buds although if the powder got stuck in your throat or in your nose, an immediate cough/sneeze attack would ensue. The special #2, tasted like pure chili powder topped off with jalapenos. The miso flavor was totally lost. My wife could not finish it, she did not make the wall of fame. Indonesians are more used to spicy from fresh chili peppers and not the powders.

The afterthought: Something that day was not very fresh, and I could only narrow it down to

jalapenos. The person who had the #5 did not have an problems with keeping her food in.
Warning: may be too descriptive or too much info for some people.
I ate the #1 and ended up with "the runs" later that afternoon, it wasn't even the spicy kind after eating spicy foods. My wife, 5 minutes after leaving the restaurant, threw up her lunch into a nearby planter.

The conclusion: Yes this place is famous, yes this place has a challenge, yes this place is relatively cheap for the large portions you get. On the down side, the ramen is much better at Santouka, and even slightly better at Ajisen Ramen, Aji man in San Gabriel, Gaja kitchen in Harbor City and even at Teri Bamboo in Long Beach. The further down side is something was not fresh and caused sickness in us that day, and wasn't the chili powder of the spicy level. I would not go here again, next time in J town, maybe we should try the curry, or the BBQ, or even the Ramen place downstairs from here. 2 stars out of 5 today, 2.5 starts if the food didn't cause the sickness.