Sunday, May 18, 2014

Men Oh Tokushima Ramen: Excellent Chicken Karage, Solid Broth and Chashu but Strain Your Broth

I was heartened to find a solid bowl of ramen at Men Oh Tokushima Ramen in Little Tokyo as my favorite bowl in LA to date, Shinsengumi, seemed to be falling off in terms of broth quality and done-ness of the noodles. You have to go when they open or be prepared to wait as it is a tiny spot with very few tables. The Tokushima Ramen had a strong pork-based (kurobuta pork bone, to be exact) broth with extremely tender chashu slices and the most perfectly soft-boiled egg with a partially oozing yolk. They also gave you thin slices of pork meat alongside the thick-cut chashu but I didn't care much for those thin slices. They were almost a distraction. Tender pieces of chashu suffice for me. My only complaints were that the broth should have been strained for lumps of fat floating, which seemed like a lack of attention to detail, and I wished there were more bamboo shoots and/or bean sprouts. All we got were the chashu, the egg and green onions. I know we don't exactly consume ramen for its high nutritional value and fiber from vegetables but it did left some to be desired.
The chicken karage was excellent -- piping hot and crispy with moist chicken meat inside. We didn't care for the mayo sprinkled with sesame seeds dip all that much but we did squeeze some lemon juice over it. Delicious.
I recently returned and had the spicy tonkotsu ramen and was disappointed. The flavors didn't mesh for me and the toppings did nothing to complement the odd-flavored broth. The chicken karage was solid as ever, though. This is an LA location of a Tokyo-based ramen shop. They have locations in Torrance and SF as well.

3 comments:

  1. I had it today, overall I agree. Thanks for sharing! :)

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