Midtown Lunch

When I heard about Tatsu Ramen opening on Sawtelle, three things immediately came to mind:

1. Ordering on iPads is a stupid gimmick…
2. … there’s no way this place is going to be good.
3. What the hell is “naked ramen” and why the hell would I want to eat it?

What I learned after actually eating at Tatsu?

1. Ordering ramen on iPads attached to the wall is kind of fun!
2. This place is no freakin’ joke.
3. And naked ramen is my new favorite bowl of noodles for the summer

Check it out after the jump…

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Thanks to Yamadaya and Jinya and a few others, no neighborhood is safe from the ramen explosion that is currently sweeping through Los Angeles. The Valley, Miracle Mile, Hollywood, Culver City, even Koreatown has a better than average ramen option, saving pork loving noodle fans from the lines at Daikokuya, or the trip west to Santouka. It doesn’t matter where you live or work, a good to great bowl of ramen should be no more than 15 minutes away from anywhere in the city. And now that Tsujita is open, L.A. finally has the kind of place that you only read about on blogs like Rameniac or in magazines like Lucky Peach. The small ramenya dedicated to serving up a single, perfectly crafted bowl of soup- take it or leave it.

When you take a step back and look at the history of ramen in this city, the progression seems pretty clear. Introduction, Explosion, Expansion, Perfection. So, what’s next? It’s got to be innovation. How else would you expect to survive, opening a restaurant specializing in ramen and tsukemen across the street from the best ramen and tsukemen restaurant in the city. Ok, so maybe innovation is a kind word for what Miyata Menji is, the latest ramenya to open in West L.A. (right across the street from Tsujita, in the old Gr/eats space.) Downright wacky is more like it.

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According to the L.A. Times tomorrow is the big day for Miyata Menji, the new ramen/tsukemen spot opening on Sawtelle in the old Gr/eats space.  Being a tsukemen addict (and lover of all things ramen) I’ve been cautiously excited about this opening, but the more and more I read and see the more wacky this place sounds.

From the LAT:

Japanese comedian Tetsuji Miyata brings his Miyata Menji concept to L.A. from Osaka, where noodles dubbed TG2-D and KK100 are served in ramen and tsukemen. On the menu are just two items: tonkotsu ramen with pork broth, teriyaki beef, shallots and fried tomatoes, and tsukemen with steamed noodles, anchovy cabbage, grated cheese (optional), minced pork, vegetable potage, tomato and croutons.

Teriyaki beef!? Tomatoes? Grated cheese and croutons? Well that explains the menu photos I spotted last week…

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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier on Sawtelle, I stumbled upon this last week: Gottsui, the previously dinnertime only Tokyo okonomiyaki chain, is now open for lunch!  But before Japanese egg pancake fanatics get too excited over this new West L.A. lunch option, you should know they’re not serving okonomiyaki.  They’re serving ramen.  (I warned you it was about to get crazy.)  With the lines at Tsujita getting longer and longer by the day, you can see how a place on Sawtelle with no lunch business would be tempted to do lunchtime only ramen.  But with Ramen Jinya opening soon, Gr/eats becoming a tsukemen spot, and no standout lunchtime okonomiyaki to speak of in the area, the decision seems questionable at best.

What could they possibly do to make their ramen stand out on this soon to be ramen packed street?  Bring on the beef!

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When Jinya opened its first outpost in Studio City back in the summer of 2010 it was a bit of a ramen revelation.  Not only was it a great bowl of soup (praised excitedly by both JGold and Rameniac) but it was also in the Valley- a particularly noodle deprived part of the Greater Los Angeles area. To say people were excited would be a bit of an understatement.  Robata Jinya came a few months later to Mid City, and even though the ramen menu was a bit more limited it filled a hole between the ramen hubs of Downtown and West L.A. But the ramen explosion of 2011 seemed to leave Jinya in the dust a bit, as the Yamadayas and Shin Sen Gumis (not to mention the sole branch of Tsujita) relegated Jinya to “good for the hood” status, but nothing to drive out of your way for.

This year Jinya looks to get back into the swing of things, with new branches coming to Sawtelle in West L.A. and the Miracle Mile section of Wilshire Blvd.  The Mid-Wilshire location opened up a few weeks ago, and is serving a quality bowl of ramen.  But it just might be their soup-less ramen dishes that makes the new Jinya a destination lunch spot in L.A.’s quickly overcrowding ramen scene.

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I want to stop eating ramen.  I really do.  But the city won’t let me. First, popular Torrance transplant Yamadaya opened around the corner from my house.  Then Shin Sen Gumi did the same Downtown.  Surely after my Tsukemen round up, I would take a slurp break, but no.  After months of teasing, Tsujita L.A., a Tokyo mini-chain popular for its tonkotsu ramen and citrus spritzed tsukemen, decided to finally start serving lunch last week.  How could I not?

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

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Do you think Los Angeles’ ramen obsession caused an explosion of new noodle shops all over the city. Or did the noodle shop explosion cause us to become ramen obsessed? The old chicken or the egg adage. (I kind of wish I was writing about oyakodon right now!)  I’m not sure I know the answer, but if you eat with the rhythm of the city chances are you’ve been slurping up a ton more ramen these days.  I know I have.  I also blew through the first issue of Lucky Peach, watched seminal Japanese ramen movie Tampopo for the first time, and ate my first bowl of tsukemen. What’s the Japanese term for perfect storm?

Watching the long-out-of-print-and-not-available-on-Netflix Tampopo was long overdue.  And Lucky Peach, a joint venture between McSweeney’s & Momofuku, will restore your faith in the awesomeness of print.  If you haven’t picked up the first issue (which was dedicated entirely to ramen), you really should.  But the final piece of my ramen hurricane might be the one that has the longest lasting impression.  On the surface, tsukemen seems fairly simple.  It’s ramen where the noodles are served separate from the broth, which is turned into a dipping sauce of sorts.  But once you dive in you realize that it is far more complex.

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