GOMEN Stanton, Ca.

This is a place you will be hearing quite a bit about on this blog. You see this particular Ramen-ya is what you might call,"my local". Two and a half miles from my house. How happy am I? Very.
7174 Katella Ave. Stanton, Ca. 90680 (714) 761-8007
Well my wife and I go Friday night, and right away I sense a different vibe. The place is not packed as usual, but there is a wait to be seated. The same two women who serve are there, and we know what they are capable of, quick and efficient, non stop friendly service. Something else is wrong, and after sitting for a while and looking into the kitchen, as you do, I see that the proprietor is running the kitchen by himself. Now this meant of coarse that food would come from the kitchen a bit slower, but you got to hand it to the guy, he wasn't any slower than a normal restaurant with a full compliment. Every time I go I find new reasons to be excited about this place. Think about the passion this fellow must have about his Ramen, Katsudon is another story, more on that later. Now on to the review.

I had the #2 Tonkotsu Shoyu, "A" combination. The "A" means Ramen + fried rice. I usually get the "B" combo, Ramen + gyoza, but hadn't tried the chahan yet, so I decided to give it a go, and boy am glad I did. You see I'm a pickled ginger fanatic. If I knew that the chahan came with a great big heaping clump of pickled ginger, I would have gotten it much sooner. Now don't get me wrong, I love gyoza, and Gomen gyoza is no slouch, but it's just not my favorite. I like more pork and garlic, this gyoza has too much cabbage for my liking, it might as well be an egg roll in my view.
The tonkotsu was brilliant. Even with no one else in the kitchen this chef manages to deliver perfection in a bowl. I love the aroma of the broth as the bowl is placed on the table. I love the artful composition of the garnish. The chashu fanned out like a winning poker hand when you've been called, hanjuku egg resting on top of the chashu, menma opposite the egg for balance, finished with a couple of sprigs of negi right in the center. As an artist, looking at a bowl of ramen is like looking at a Monet Rembrandt or Vermeer. The chashu was heavenly, as always. This stuff is just so melt in your mouth you can't believe it. The hanjuku egg was a bit hard boiled for my liking, I like it a little runny, but the marinade more than makes up for it. Menma was a good supporting player, as was the negi. The noodles were their usual standard good, not great, but with everything this ramen has going for it, I'll take good noodles over bad happily. My favorite bit was being able to let the pickled ginger mingle with the other ingredients. This stuff takes an otherwise great ramen and send it into the stratosphere. This is ramen on steroids.
The chahan was good. I left some ginger behind in the rice bowl to eat with the rice, I now see why it comes with it.
Jan however had a much different experience. She ordered their #29, Katsudon. We should have known something was up when she ordered it, cause the first thing the waitress did when she said #29 was stopped to excuse herself, and went to the kitchen, presumably to ask it it was still on. When she returned she said it was OK, that there was katsu available. When it arrived I was so into my ramen I hadn't noticed anything was up. At some point Jan offered some of her dish for me to try, as she usually does, and I was stunned. How could a guy that gets ramen so right, get a simple Tonkatso so wrong. This pork was like rubber. Thankfully the rest of the dish was fine, so she decided to not bring it up to the waitress because of the kitchen staff problem, we might still be there waiting for a replacement. Prices here are very good. Nowhere else could you get as full as we did and be out of there for two people for under 20 bucks, tip and all.
So for the stellar ramen, weighed against the less than stellar katsudon, I give this visit to Gomen four chopsticks. Which may sound harsh, but to earn a six everyone at my table must get great food and service. Tonight, on balance, was a near miss.

Chabuya, westside L.A.

Had to work in Beverly Hills today. So I decided to consult the,"Ramen Data Base" otherwise known as GoRamen.com, props to Keizo-san for compiling such a comprehensive list of most Ramen-ya known to mankind. I looked to see which Ramen-ya was the closest to where I was working, and it turned out to be Chabuya, 2002 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, 90025 (310)473-1013

I need to say up front that I did not have time to sit and eat, I took my ramen to go, which may have effected the outcome.

For a base line on the place I chose the first, and most basic ramen, on the menu, The Classic. It looked like a Tonkotsu shoyu, but the broth tasted like a shio. The menma was like rubber, and the negi was as good as absent. The chashu didn't even look like pork, it looked and tasted like roast beef. The noodles weren't half bad, but not good enough to rescue the experience. My God, listen to me, am I becoming a ramen snob? On the bright side, the gyoza were very nice, so nice in fact that I couldn't resist eating them by hand in the truck on the way back to the job. Nice and garlicy, the way I like them.

Anyway, because of the, "to go" status of the visit, coupled with the fact that the only other thing I tried was the gyoza, and that was an out of the park homer, I'll not judge them harshly enough to say that I'll never return. Because the gyoza is such a bargain at $3.75 for six, and because they have much more on the menu to consider, I'd go again when in the area, if only for the gyoza.

My son says I should have a rating system of some kind going forward. So for this first review, I hereby institute the six chopstick system. One being a no return, and six being a V-8 firing on all cylinders. All things considered, Chabuya gets three chopsticks.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Ramen

Welcome to my new blog. I've developed a passion for Ramen lately and felt I needed to break down an old blog and reconfigure it to reflect my changing mood. And to share with all of you my adventures, and hopefully not misadventures, in the wide world of Ramen. I plan on pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone by eating things I might not otherwise in order that I might expand my horizons, and hopefully not my waistline, and grow as a person and a Ramen lover. I owe most of what I know about Ramen to Keizo-san, of Go Ramen fame. He has inspired me to explore more fully the variety and broad range that is Ramen. I will try to post each time I visit a Ramen-ya, and give you an overview of the experience. I'm still learning this technology, so pictures might take a while, but once I master the .jpg upload thing we'll be sailing right along. Wish me luck, this should be interesting. I bid you good slurping.