Friday, May 8, 2009

[Los Angeles] [Japanese] 山頭火 Santouka Ramen

Santouka Ramen
山頭火
3760 S Centinela Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 391-1101
http://www.santouka.co.jp

So we had Japanese food for breakfast/lunch, which somehow made us want to go Japanese all the way for the whole day.  For dinner, we decided to save money and headed over to the food court at Mitsuwa.



Since I already had Santouka a few times, I wanted to try something new.  But after walking around the food court for some time, I still thought Santouka looked most appealing and ended up having Santouka Ramen for dinner.



Set B & Set D ($20.46)

Over $20 for food court food is a bit expensive.  But Santouka Ramen isn't your typical food court type of food.


Set B ($10.98):  Miso Ramen

Salt Ramen was sold out.  Dr. P got Set B (ramen + salmon roe over rice).  He picked miso ramen, and happily finished the entire bowl.


Set B ($10.48):  Salmon Roe over Rice

The Salmon Roe over Rice was delicious.  I love how the salmon roe just burst in your mouth.


Set D ($9.98):  Karamiso (Spicy Miso Ramen)

I picked Set D (ramen + cha-shu pork over rice) with Karamiso (spicy miso ramen).  The soup wasn't really spicy, but it had stronger flavor than the regular miso ramen.  I LOVE their cha-shu pork and the bamboo shoot.


Set D ($9.98):  Cha Gohan (Cha-Shu Pork over Rice)

Cha Gohan (cha-shu pork over rice) was the same cha-shu as the one in the noodle.  The meat was super tender.  I couldn't finish all the food and Dr. P had this for breakfast next day.  I woke up too late and didn't get to have any.  Boohoo...

Komi Tamago (Egg)

Each ramen also came with a Komi Tamago (egg).

I absolutely love Santouka Ramen.  In fact, I'm craving for a bowl RIGHT NOW!



Oh yeah.  Before we went to Santouka, we stopped by at the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA.  My god there were so many people!  Dr. P said he's never seen that many people on campus before.



People signed on this wall aobut "what are you reading?"  Quite a few people wrote "The Bible".  Hmmmm.... interesting.

The Festival of Books was interesting.  But I didn't like the layout of the tents.  They really should group the tents together by categories.  I wanted to find a "cookbook" section, and was pointed to the cooking demonstration stage by the volunteer workers.  But there was no cookbook tents around there.   We walked around the festival for about 2 hours.  Couldn't really find anything.  The map didn't help at all.  There were just too many people, too many tents, too many books, and overwhelming.  Did anyone go to the Festival of Books, too?  What was your experience like?

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6 comments:

  1. aw too bad you couldn't get the shio ramen. it's amazing. good review though! I love the ikura, but Christine is absolutely crazy about them...well maybe not so much now. I think she likes sturgeon caviar :)

    My favorite is also the shio ramen!
    Sturgeon caviar? You really spoil your girlfriend fiancee, Matt! haha

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  2. Santouka is my all-time favorite ramen! Definitely shio for me, with the ikura bowl, too. :P

    Shio ramen is also my #1 choice.
    I like the ikura bowl a lot, but like the cha-shu pork bowl even more.

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  3. Santouka looks great. The salmon roe looks so abundant and delicious! I never knew Japanese people also had cha siu don; it looks great with the green onions sprinkled on top.

    It's so good! Santouka is the only place I've seen it though.

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  4. Hi Eileen, just want to let you know that after reading your reviews on Look You, I told my parents to take my grandma there for Mother's Day, and they enjoyed the dishes very much, I just had the leftover for dinner,, haha, not bad ;) Thanks!

    I'm so glad to hear that your family likes it. ^^

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  5. Funniest thing was that I am never impressed with this particular Santouka Ramen. I would rather go to Daikokuya in Monterey Park for that bowl of hot ramen. The salmon roe rice bowl does looked good though!

    I like Daikokyua, too. Only had it once in Little Tokyo though.
    Gotta go try the MP branch soon.

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  6. I love Santouka's ramen. Whenever I'm craving for ramen, Santouka is my #1 choice!

    Yeah I know a lot of people complained about the way the Book fair organized their tents. The reason is because most bookstore like Borders or Barnes & Nobles sell all types of books. They don't just sell cook books only, they would sell other kinds of books as well. That's why it's very difficult to group similar categories of book vendors together. They do try to make some separations though, like the children books in one area, comic books or mystery books in another area.

    It was a bit hard to find books. And there were so many people in each tent and it was hard to just browse through the books.
    I think it's easier to just go to a book store to find a book than the book festival. But it was still fun walking around outdoor.

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