rameniac

陣家 ramen jinya: studio city blockbuster

by rameniac | 14 Jul 2010

Had Ramen Jinya opened a year or two earlier, I might have been one happy slurper. As a former employee of a major Hollywood studio (yes, I was in “the industry”), I spent a good number of lunch hours bemoaning the fact that there was simply no good ramen -actually, no ramen at all, to be had in the Studio City/North Hollywood area. Sure, there were plenty of sushi shops along Ventura Blvd’s “sushi row”, but when it came to noodles, even the nearest pho joint was miles away.

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slurp, actually

by rameniac | 19 Apr 2010

As one of the world’s greatest cities, London, England can boast its fair share of everything, including an assortment of ramen shops located primarily along the chic streets of Soho north of Piccadilly Circus. Joints like Taro and Ten Ten Tei specialize in no-nonsense noodling, while the incongruously named eat TOKYO and Ramen Seto do their best to hide their not-quite-Japanese state of ownership. Perhaps no ramen shop has ever been more obvious about co-opting another’s gimmick as Osatsuma, which has admittedly got the Wagamama sense of modernist decor down to a science. All told, Ryo may serve the most authentically Japanese bowl of shoyu ramen this side of the North Sea; at least in vibe, the modest izakaya is as ex-pat as they come.

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hide-ing out in plain sight

by rameniac | 25 Jun 2010

Word out of Grub Street is that Hide-chan ramen is now in business in New York City. Another new ramen shop in the Big Apple? Nota bene: this one comes with an excellent pedigree, as Hide-chan is opened by one Hide Kawahara, mastermind behind Hakata's most excellent Hide-chan, Daruma and Shodai Daruma ramen joints. Youse lucky New Yorkers don't know how lucky youse are.

big love to hideki k., grub street, and midtown lunch