Ramen Yamadaya Comes Between Santouka & I
My dearest Santouka,
We had a nice run, but I’ve met somebody else.
Love,
This Fat Guy.
After months of construction, and weeks of countdown signs with questionable math, Ramen Yamadaya finally opened their doors on Washington & Sepulveda on Saturday. A Torrance transplant, with the highest endorsement there is in the ramen world, the excitement for Yamadaya has been pretty intense- even though the westside is not the ramen deprived wasteland of, say, the pre-Jinya valley. After all, while some ramen snobs get positively burger’ish about the best bowl noodles in Southern California, most people choose their ramen spots by location. If you’re Downtown, and have a lot of time on your hands, you go to Daikokuya. Mid City? Robata Jinya. The Valley? Ramen Jinya. Westside has always been owned by Santouka. And if you live in Torrence you go to- oh, who am I kidding. If you live in Torrence, you’re not reading what a short fat Jewish guy thinks about pork bone ramen.
In other words, I’m not here to proclaim Yamadaya the greatest bowl of ramen in the entire universe. Better than this. Better than that. (I’ll leave that to the experts.) But, as a resident of Culver City, and a lover of tonkotsu ramen, I can safely say that it was good enough on day 4 to (easily) be in consideration for go-to ramen king of the Westside.
Posted at 11:55 am, September 1st, 2011 under Culver City/Mar Vista, Japanese, Ramen, Ramen Yamadaya.
