The Ramen Joint (Westchester): A Pictorial Essay

Americas - USA West Los Angeles
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The ramen revolution continues! One of the newest ramen-ya to open in Southern California is located in an area wonderfully convenient for visitors coming in from LAX: Westchester.

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The Ramen Joint is located on a small street one block away from the hustle and bustle of Sepulveda and Manchester Boulevards. Owner Jimin Kim offers a simple yet tasty menu of ramen (both shoyu tonkotsu and shio chicken broths are available!). Though it just opened last week, this small space has already become a local hotspot.

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The sides/appetizers I ordered were delicious: The panko-fried oysters are among the best I’ve had in Southern California. The fried geso (squid legs) are great too, especially with the chimichurri dipping sauce.

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The one disappointment was the chicken bowl, which didn’t have much flavor (chicken was dry and under-marinated or under-seasoned).

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Now, onto the RAMEN!!! I ordered the shoyu tonkotsu. Chef Kim told me that he prefers to make a slightly lighter broth, compared to other ramen-ya’s.

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Broth: B-plus. While there is complexity (did I detect some rice wine in there?), and I “get” the lightness and umami which the chef is aiming for, the broth wasn’t strong enough to carry the day.

Noodles: B. Decent chew, but not much “liveliness” to them.

Chashu: B. Texture-wise, the pork was a bit tough, but had a good flavor to it. While it was fatty, the pork didn’t particularly synergize with the broth.

Ajitama (soft-boiled egg): A Solid A… This was a great egg.

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Add-on’s: A-minus. The buttered corn was particularly excellent. Crispy garlic chips and spinach did add to the nice-ness of the bowl. The only weak link in this department was the menma (bamboo shoot), which I thought was a bit limp and lacking in taste.

Service: With a smile, cheerful, neighborly, and very prompt - Really a bright spot here.

No liquor license (yet?), but frankly, for workday lunch, not many customers were asking for booze. Dinner might be a different story, though.

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All in all, a great addition to the Westchester/LAX area scene. If you have a few-hour layover at LAX and wanted to grab some ramen, logistically this place is VERY do-able.

The Ramen Joint
6220 W. 87th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90045
424.227.9328
www.theramenjoint.com

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Glad to hear you enjoyed your meal. We went to the first few days and found the pork broth musty and greasy without complexity. I seriously wanted to ask for soy sauce and vinegar to add depth and brightness.

The chicken broth however was the best I’ve had. Much better than Jinyas. And as you noted, that Egg. THE EGG was just perfect. Reminded me of Men Oh’s egg. A bit firmer than Tsujita but still luscious.

We also got egg rolls, which were a mix of seafood and pork. I wanted to love them because they use a rice paper wrapper like my favorite ones from Little Saigon But again, badly assembled and prepared.

Although there was a lot of misses, we will be back because we loved the chicken ramen. We also want to try their rice bowls, which sadly were sold out on the night we went.

–Dommy!

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Coinkydink… Tonight I was thinking about how much I love fried rice paper egg rolls with minced pork, glass noodles and shrooms… and how I’ve never actually had them in a restaurant. Too bad Ramen Joint won’t be the place. But, love chicken ramen. So great to know!

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Try them at Yellow Fever in MDR. They are called Ugly Egg Rolls. So tasty!!

—Dommy!

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Yellow Fever keeps popping up on FTC lately… Is that you? I think we’ll just have to make that trek. Thanks!

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Yellow Fever is known for their pork belly (Shanghai bowl). Their Seoul bowl, Tokyo bowl, their ugly egg rolls (oily but hard to stop eating them), their fries with parm cheese/furikake/truffle oil, and their green tea and fruit drinks are worthy.The pickled tomatoes go well with anything there as well.

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Great pictures.

A nice option to have for sure during a long layover or late night on the way home.

The egg looks amazing.

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Oh wow. This sounds really good.

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My family tried The Ramen Joint over the weekend. While it’s nice to have a new option in the neighborhood, we all felt their ramen was just OK. Each of us ordered the chicken shio ramen with an egg added. The egg was perfectly cooked and my favorite part of the bowl. The sliced chicken was also nicely seasoned and tender. The noodles were too thin for my preference and lacked any kind of chew. The broth, while light, didn’t have much depth of flavor. The default toppings of woodear mushroom, spinach, and green onion were fine.

I’m sure we will return, as the service was efficient, our server kind, and the space comfortable (though small). Perhaps I’ll try the pork shoyu ramen next visit or a rice bowl. Not a destination restaurant, but a welcome addition for local diners. I wish the business luck.

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Tried the mazemen here per @liq’s suggestion in my earlier abura soba thread. My prior experiences w/ mazemen were in Tokyo and at Ivan Ramen’s pop-up dinner at POT a couple years ago. I’d rank Ramen Joint’s above Ivan’s (without a doubt).

It’s soup-less ramen topped with spicy ground pork, cucumber, green onion and shredded seaweed. There’s a good amount of warm fat at the bottom of the bowl and it is served with a small pitcher of rice vinegar. You mix it like crazy and dig in. It isn’t as customizeable as abura soba, but it is still damn good. At the end of my meal, the waiter offered me a small bowl of rice to mix up the remaining meat/vinegar etc. It was great.

Sorry for the dark phone photo :slight_smile:

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(edit: Also got the fried squid legs. Better than most preparations I’ve had lately. Warm, seasoned properly and had the right amount of crunch. No photo, sorry.)

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