Where the ramen is on point? 
You got me there.
BYOTV to Iki.
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Nice, been meaning to go there, now I definitely will.
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Hopefully not as long as Klopp is their coaches - every win for him is one victory too much
LOL - I almost flagged that one-line cuz it sounded so spammy.
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I thought that myself, but in July I’ll be seeing them play Bayern in Carson, so not so long. I wouldn’t mind a longer break. Also, I miss Arsene.
Oh shoot I forgot to mention something which makes Iki even more awesomer… Choice of background music at Iki was my jam: Nujabes
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i was at Tsubaki last night and they were also playing Nujabes. i don’t know why i was surprised.
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Same and same! Try and join our pre-gaming likely at a nearby brewery.
I was going for spammy/over-the-top, haha
I was hoping the “some bowls at some shops” would correctly express my jest
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Will definitely keep this in mind!
What are these traveling “shows” like?
I’ve been tempted but never gone to one…
Low key, no stakes, nice to see some of the players, but it’s just an exhibition and it very much feels that way. It’s a pleasant day out as long as it’s not at the Rose Bowl. A few years ago, I saw Arsenal play at Carson and it was worth it just to see Arsene Wenger wave to the fans.
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One of these days, I’ll actually eat at a place before @J_L posts about it, but until then…
We hit up Iki Ramen on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Parking is decent for this part of town, and surprise surprise (for a ramen place), there wasn’t a line out the door! Though judging by the quality of the food, that won’t last long.
We ordered the below:
Kakuni bao
Pretty solid rendition of these popular appetizers
Blue crab roll - I am a sucker for blue crab rolls thanks to having eaten lots of sushi at Nozawa and then Sasabune during my formative sushi eating years, so I always look out for this stuff. For the price ($4.50), I thought this was worth writing about. Frequently, the crab is tasteless, or the rice too hard and dry. This was pretty satisfying, and it led to me ordering the last dish.
My SO ordered the yuzu shio ramen. Fans of light, but flavorful broths will really enjoy this. If I were to order this dish, I would order the version without yuzu, because I thought the acidity outshone the chicken flavor. But most would enjoy this version. In both instances, we ordered with the white noodles (flour and egg). I thought the texture was fine, but the noodles aren’t amazing like they are at, say Kitakata. My SO finished all of the broth, which doesn’t happen often.
I ordered the tori paitan ramen. After slurping the first spoonful, I was really impressed. The soup was nice and silky, and you could taste the dashi, which complemented the rich yet fragrant chicken broth. I haven’t tasted a great bowl of tori paitan like this in the US since Totto Ramen in NYC. But I won’t go as far as to compare this to Kagari in Tokyo just yet 
I wanted egg noodles, but due to a miscommunication, I also got the white noodles. Next time, I’ll try the egg noodles to get a better evaluation.
Lastly, after my positive experience with the roll, I ordered the Kaisen don. For what is effectively chirashi, this was a sloppy, decadent bowl of deliciousness. It’s not trying to impress you with cleaner, pure flavors like the kaisen don bowls at Sushi Tsujita, but it’s fantastic in its own way. My experience with the raw fish dishes here was impressive - I think you get great ingredients given the price point and venue (ramen ya).
I can’t wait to go back and sample through the rest of the menu!
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Perfect, I’ll come see him today.
This is so me! I love noodle dishes and would often order extra noodles back in my glory days… I actually love the yuzu aspect of it. I grew up with Sopa de Lima and love to squeeze lemon or lime in all of my soups…
That being said… I was very excited to see that they had Mazemen on the menu! Soupless Ramen is one of my favorite things! I ordered the Chicken Mazemen on their regular menu (The langostine is in a specials menu)
Love it! Although I very often order Hiyashi Ramen (Summer Ramen). The toppings are never that interesting… I end up paying like almost $20 for the dish at Santouka for the extra pork. But mazemen is all about the toppings and swirl… this one had excellent ones and the egg was PERFECT. Just melted in your mouth.
It looks like their might use different noodles for this version… they did not feel pasta-like at all. Great bite and they slittered up well with each slurp! It really suited the dish which was coated in this sauce of Chicken fat and magic…
This visit we also finally tried their spicy tuna and crispy rice. As someone who has had way too business lunches at Katsu-Ya. I have a real affection for this dish and not only was the crispy rice spot on and actually crispy! The Tuna had more depth than just Kewpie and Sriracha
On their specials menu, they had Waygu Sushi served Tartar style. Rich and fatty. But without that awful tallow flavor… it was like the most tender, rich, delicious meatball you ever ate. They definitely are trying to creat Raku level type dishes…
Finally, they have a good Sake list but I wanted something a bit more on the refreshing side, so I gambled on this sparkling and was very nicely surprised. The flavor was sweet but not artificially so like so many other sparking sakes. It tasted like a peeled grape. It was a great compliment to the Mazemen.
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We live down the street and it depends on when you go. They get BUSY later in the evening. But the good news is that now they use the Yelp App To put your name on the waiting list.
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