What I found is a Mom & Pop style, traditional Japanese ramen restaurant the way you would find in a small town in Japan. There’s nothing fancy or fusion here. Just good ramen for reasonable prices.

If you happen to find parking near this place, and you love ramen, try this place out like I did. I think you’ll like it.

Asahi Ramen
2027 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 479-2231

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The ramen is consistently good and to top it off, it’s open until midnight. Perfect for stopping by after some late night drinking. The only problem with this location is that there do not have a parking lot. During the day or early evening, it can be a real bitch finding street parking there.

Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen – West L.A.
1601 Sawtelle Blvd. #101 Los Angeles, CA 90025
(424) 208-3293
shinsengumigroup.com

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In case you are not aware, basically Kula is like the fast food version of sushi with a revolving strip going around the entire restaurant where the sushi is placed. You simply pickup whatever you want off this conveyor belt contraption.

The good news: So far, all the branches are consistent in quality and of course, all the sushi is $2 per plate.

The bad news: You get what you pay for. However, you get just about as much as you could possibly expect for $2.

Above, the marinated salmon, and below, natto (fermented beans) sushi.

Below: Soy sake marinated tuna.

Don’t come here for the ambiance, interaction with the chef, or large portions. What you get is just like any good fast food chain: It’s cheap, fast and consistent. Does this formula work for sushi. You betcha.

Kula Sushi
2130 Sawtelle Blvd., Unit 111, Los Angeles, CA 90025
310-597-4490
kulausa.com

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However, they do serve yakitori (see picture – $3.80), so I decided to try it on this trip. I also ordered a Hiya yakko (cold tofu – $2.50), Ochazuke (rice in broth – $5.75), and Tsukimi tororo (grind yam with raw egg – $4.50). As you can tell, the prices are reasonable in this part of town and the hot green tea is free.

This place is is very an authentic Japanese Izakaya style restaurant that locals would go to in Japan. Nothing here is spectacular, and some dishes are marginal, but everything is authentic and the place is very casual. They also have branches in Gardena and Puente Hills so I guess there are people that like it.

This is a great place to come with a bunch of friends and get drinks along with some eats.

Furaibo, West LA
2068 Sawtell Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 444-1432
furaibou.com (Japanese website)

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In any case, I was happy with the soba this time around and decided to try something new and ordered their steamed vegetables with ponzu and sesame dipping sauce ($6.75) as shown below. Since I’m trying to lose some weight, this dish is certainly healthy for me but it didn’t fill me up enough. Next time, I’ll have to order more food.

This restaurant will stay on my rotation and I’m going to try the zaru soba again next time to see if the dipping sauce change was in my head or their formula.

Morinoya
11301 W. Olympic Blvd. #210
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 473-396
restaurant-morinoya.com

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This place has a huge “L” shaped bar, even though they don’t serve sushi, along with regular table seating. For my appetizer, I tried their Tako Wasabi. I think I had the same thing elsewhere but my memory is fading and I can’t remember where. I prefer the traditional Tako-su dish and didn’t care for this dish. The picture is a little misleading in that the container is about the size of a large spoon.

When the waiter came over to collect the unused napkins and chopsticks from the empty seats at my table, he took all of them and left me with nothing. When he brought the Tako appetizer, he never checked to see if I needed chopsticks and left. This is a clear indication that the waiter is brand new to serving.

Next, I tried 2 items from the Kushiage menu list: Asparagus and chicken. Kushi-age are skewered items panko covered and deep-fried. In Japanese, kushi means skewer, and age (pronounced ah-ge) means deep-fried.

Generally speaking, I try to stay away from deep-fried food, even tempura, but because I’ve never had it before, I decided to try it. I asked the waiter what part of the chicken they used, he had to ask the kitchen. I guess nobody ever asked before or it was his first day. He was told that it was chicken thigh, which I love.

But I digress.

And sure enough, the chicken was delicious and hot, but I think I like my asparagus sautéed instead. They give you a choice of dipping sauce, so I picked the Worcestershire wasabi sauce. They must use real wasabi because it was really strong. Maybe a little too strong.

As you can see from the picture above, I got the Zaru Tororo Soba ($8) as my main dish. The actual soba was nothing spectacular and in my opinion, was cooked about 30 seconds too long. The dipping sauce was too sweet and it only came with real wasabi, and no grated radishes or green onions as is customary. The tororo (grind yam) was fresh and tasty but the dipping sauce basically ruined the entire dish.

It’s not all bad news. The hot tea was free. But the water used to make the tea tasted stale, like they need to use a filter for their water. But I’m pretty picky so most people probably won’t notice it.

All in all, I was disappointed with my visit because I was looking for some fantastic soba. However, from the looks of this place, I think it’s probably a nice place to come with a bunch of friends to drink and have some eats too.

Sojibo
2006 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 479-1200

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This one will be located in the same building as Curry House and Beard Papa at 2130 Sawtelle Blvd. and will be competing head-to-head against SushiStop right down the street. If this one turns out to be as popular as the one downtown, there will be lines outside.

Apparently, cheap and good is a good combination for any business, even sushi.

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As you can see above, it’s a tiny location right next to a garden supply store. What’s strange is, apparently George doesn’t like people from the Noodle place parking in his micro 3 car lot. So much so that Tsujita has cones with signs reminding people not to park there.

So then, the Annex decides to put chairs in it’s single parking space they have, since apparently there are tons of people waiting to get inside. I guess Tsujita couldn’t make some kind of deal with George to allow their customers to park on his lot.

But I digress.

Let me start by saying that this place is tiny. It has bar seating and one table with 4 seats, and one table with 2 seats. That’s it. Next, let me warn people that they only take cash payments. No credit cards accepted. Lastly, as of this writing, they are sold out of miso flavored soup, and only original flavor is available.

First, the good news.

The original flavored soup is amazing. I assume it’s the same as the soup they use at the regular Tsujita across the street. If so, I’m already in love with it.  The chashu pork and egg are also excellent.

Now the bad news.

The Annex is serving a “new” type of ramen which is apparently very popular in Tokyo. It’s much thicker, about 3/4 the thickness of Udon noodles, and is cooked “al dente” and is very firm. Personally, I love Udon so normally, I would not have any problems with thick noodles. But what they serve cannot be described as ramen noodles at all. It’s just not ramen when they are this thick. It’s Udon. Frankly, I don’t like al dente Udon, and I didn’t like this new thick al dente “ramen” at all.

What a buzz kill. Here I’m thinking that I finally get to eat their famed ramen, and instead end up with some newfangled Udon-ramen that I don’t care for.

This was supposed to be a quickie review, where I say something like “This is the best ramen ever!” and instead it turns into a parking situation review where I have to say, if you like ramen, stay away.

Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle Annex
2050 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025
310-231-0222
tsujita-la.com/annex.html

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But I digress.

This time, I tried their sushi as per my promise from the last review. Instead of getting them à la carte, for this trip, I ordered the nigiri sushi set shown above for $30 (on menu, but $28 charged on tab).

As you can see, you get 8 pieces of what appears to be the chef’s pick of the night. The cooked shrimp was enormous and so was the egg. In fact, the egg was so big, he just put a tiny dab of rice on top.

Also, I can tell that the wasabi was real, and not the fake ones you normally get. I’m not sure if the Ikura (Salmon roe) was overflowing on purpose to display abundance or just a messy mistake. I’m going to go with the former. The reason: The chef not only wears his chef uniform but I could see that he was also wearing a tie under it. Now that’s a serious chef. No goofing around in the kitchen for this guy and no messy mistakes for a guy like that.

To prove how big the shrimp was, they fried up the head and tail and served it as a free appetizer for me. The miso soup was $2 but the hot green tea was free.

Just like last time, I’d have to say that the quality is good but a little over priced, even for LA. I’m still going to try to have their noodle somehow but getting there during the day is going to be a challenge.

Tsujita Artisan Noodle
2057 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 231-7373
tsujita-la.com

Next time: Ramen for lunch

The post Tsujita Artisan Noodle Quick Review – Part 2 appeared first on Cochinoman.

Originally, I was going to try their sushi but the picture of their Sashimi Plate ($25) looked so good in their menu, I decided to try it out. As you can see below, the pieces are thick and I can tell you it’s fresh and tasty.

If you are on a tight budget, this is not the right place for you. I will be back to try their sushi and noddles in the future.

Tsujita Artisan Noodle
2057 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 231-7373
tsujita-la.com

Next time: Sushi review

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