Daikokuya Original Noodle & Rice Bowl...raumen of the gods

327 E. 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213)626-1680
Mon-Thurs 11AM-Midnight
Fri-Sat 11AM-1AM
Sun Noon-Till the soup is gone
(As a note on their website, if they run out of soup on any night, that's when they close. They do this to give you the best quality soup.)

Once I moved out of the house, I became rather acquainted with any "Cup O' Noodles/Ramen" type of meal I could afford. This is the way of life for many people who need to eat more affordably. You learn how to dress up these meager meals. Most people move on from this stage and dread ever hearing the word ramen. But, some people, especially if their initial introduction to ramen wasn't in styrofoam, go on to enjoy much better and more legitimate ramen. It is with this that you have to understand what a profound love I have for Daikokuya. It may be the best I ever have and for now it is the best I've had here in America (going to Japan in November possibly so we'll see).

How can I talk about soup with such a profound love? If you've ever been here you know how. There's so much detail in their raumen. But before we get to that, please notice the picture up at the top. People come here like it's their job. It's been a favorite spot in Little Tokyo for it's late hours, great food and cheap prices. While it is designed for parties no more than 4, the service makes up for it by being pretty quick. You enter and put your name on a list that sits on a chair as soon as you walk in. There seems to always be people ahead of you but it's never a worry, as I said, thanks to a really fast turnaround.

The shop has a very vintage theme with pictures and items from the 1940's on up. Also, I love the music they typically have playing, which includes some old school swing music typically when I'm there.

Their raumen as I said before is something to behold. Starting with the broth, it's made using pork bones that have been in there for a day (this gives it a slightly thicker consistency then most broths), the egg, which many people talk about, is a hard boiled egg that sits in their own special sauce over night, giving it an ever so different taste... hard to put my finger on it but it's subtle, the noodles are always just firm enough, lots of green onion, and their choice of pork is to die for. It's a fatty black pork that's rich with flavor. I must admit that pork, in general, is my least favorite meat, not that I hate it or anything, but on the meat rankings list it comes after all the other meats. THEIR pork is exceptional by any meat standard. It's so freaking delicious. A big plus is that the bowl of raumen is huge and in and of itself is quite the meal. But you can add on more by making it a combination as seen below:

We added one eel (unagi) bowl that had very hearty pieces of sweet eel.

Another bowl we added was some fresh tuna sashimi. Very fresh and richly colored!

Then also the egg and chicken bowl, which seems like they fried an egg over hard, but while it was cooking on the first side they scattered diced up chicken that had been cooked or marinated in a shoyu based something or other. All of these little bowls were served over yummy Japanese short grain sticky rice.

There is little not to like about this place, unless you're trying to keep it kosher that is(but I'm sure even then you could enjoy a yummy rice bowl). Oh, and before I forget... cheap Japanese beer! $2 for a mug of Kirin and $10 for a pitcher make this a place to go to anytime with some friends. Parking is all on the street and usually you never have to go too far to find a spot. The late hours make this an awesome treat when you don't mind a little waiting around. If you can't wait and are in the area for some "down home" Japanese nonetheless, try Suehiro's a couple of doors down. All in all, you should give this place a try no matter how much you said you'd never do another "Top Ramen"... this place will make you rethink your whole soup experience.

Free Drink Refills: Yup
Entree Price Range: Raumen bowl $7.50 and combinations are between $10.50 and $13

Asakuma Rice...a serendipitous evening

848 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310)652-7780
Sun-Thur 11:30AM-10PM
Fri-Sat 11:30AM-11PM

Don't you just love when serendipity happens? When I was little I was told a story in second grade about serendipity. A child had lost a toy and went looking all over their home for it. In the process of the search he found much more than he was looking for and though he found the toy in the end, he realized that all the things he found in the process were just as fun if not more fun than his lost toy. I went in search of Vito's Pizza and found Asakuma Rice (their website is down at the moment so here's the menu to help as well) a couple of doors right next door. When I got to the parking lot something inside changed my appetite from pizza to Japanese so it was decided by destiny.

Rice (the chain of Chinese food restaurants) used to be in this exact spot now held by Asakuma Rice. From what I'm aware of, it's associated with Rice, but Rice is Chinese and Asakuma Rice is more of a mix of Japanese and Chinese cuisine. Knowing that I try to stay away from chains, this is an okay exception due to the fact that I think this is the only Asakuma Rice, though it may be associated with Rice. The inside even seems more Japanese than it's Chinese counterpart (though you can't see it, to the right of the picture is also their sushi bar).

Celeste and I popped down and were greeted by one of the happiest, friendliest waiters I've ever had the pleasure of having been waited on. Imagine if the town of Stepford branched out from just wives and started making wait staff as well... that's what you'd get. We started out with their steamed won tons (we ordered for them to be spicy and the sauce they blended was a perfect mixture for us). Great texture and very full flavored won tons. The bed of spinach it rested on was complimetary to each won ton bite and perfect for soaking up the sauce. I'd totally order these again.

Being that this was Asakuma and not just plain Rice, I ordered one of the Asakuma specials. I got the Marinated Black Cod with Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura which came with rice and Sunomono. Let me start with the sunomono which was crisp and extremely fresh tasting. Not too extreme on the vinegar base. I'd also like to add that I never had sunomo with noodles in it. Usually it's just the cucumber mostly. The noodles were a nice touch and quite unexpected. It was a good way to round out such a simple side.

The tempura was great. Just on the edge of doughy but not reaching it. I liked how they gave me plenty of it as well. Some places only give like three or four pieces sometimes, so this too was a pleasant surprise.

And the Black Cod, just a lovely piece of fish. It was so incredibly tender, but not "fall apart" tender. It was firm how a good piece of fish should be. The slightly orange flavored sauce was amazing. Please don't discount it cause I called it orange sauce because it was actually so much more than that. It was just a divine main course crowned by this piece of cod.

Celeste had the Kung Pao Shrimp and chose brown rice to accompany it(which was moist, not dry and in need of sauce). The shrimp were cooked just right, they were firm but tender(there are few things worse than dry, chewy, overcooked shrimp). The vegetables were very good as well, but what made this dish snap were the peanuts. I don't know whether they were or not, but they tasted and looked like those big toasty Virginia Peanuts, and oh the difference it made. Such a simple way of making a traditional dish stand out from the competition!(and we know, cause it's one of her favorites)

We finished off with Mochi, mainly because it was noted on the menu that they get theirs from some special vendor in Hawaii. Now I wouldn't say they were any better or worse than other mochi we've had, but the texture was a bit different, which was a nice change of pace. What made this dessert worth a recommendation though was the fresh fruit and fried wonton strips with caramel sauce. Yum!

Going back to serendipity. I am never all that surprised anymore when I find a place worthy of being written about. In LA you rarely have to go too far to find someplace worth eating at. Sometimes I like to think that Los Angeles Magazine looks at my page when I find that recent issues have places I've recently covered in the last month or two in it and they've labeled them as new listings on their restaurant roster. Makes me feel like I'm helping out in a weird way. If I am "helping out" feel free to give me a mention. I'd love the nod from you guys.

Free Drink Refills: Yes
Entree Price Range:$7 to $12

Hurry Curry of Tokyo

2131 Sawtelle Blvd.
West Los Angeles
California 90025
(310)473-1640
Sun-Thur 11:30AM-10PM
Fri-Sat 11:30AM-11PM

I hope your weekends were long and filled with good eats. Hurry Curry, though it has a second location (in Pasadena), is barely a chain and so I'm including it. The food is consistently good and I have always had service with a smile.

When I first moved into LA with my good friend Takeshi Nishimoto, we lived together and when Celeste (my future wife) didn't come over to cook we would attempt our own weird creations. I'm more of a book cook and Takeshi was more of a "I'll eat anything" kind of guy. But one of my fondest memories of him was when he would cook curry. He wouldn't take a day to make curry...he would take a week! Now let me explain this...it was completely from scratch and he cooked it like 8 to 10 hours a day for a week (being a musician made this possible). By the end of the week he had meat that was so tender that it would virtually liquify as it touched your tongue. The onions had vanished from all the simmering and the carrots practically dissolved on your tongue. It was curry with such detail that for me judging other curries has always been a difficult thing.

At Hurry Curry you get the convenient curry though still very tasty . Located in the "mini Japanese strip" of Sawtelle between Olympic and Santa Monica. It's a small cafe in a strip mall with other Japanese shops and eateries. We started off with some pan fried gyoza that have gotten better since I first started going there a while back. Not too bready and not too greasy which can often be the problem when you get them fried:

Next up of course were a couple of curries. I got the Tokyo Curry and Celeste got the chicken curry.


The chicken curry had super moist tender chunks of chicken with their very homestyle oriented curry sauce. The Tokyo Curry is slightly different in that instead of having a slightly spicy tinge to it is has a sweeter edge to it. Not like candy sweet but more like veggie sweet. A very hearty curry in that each bite is accompanied with vegetables or meat all on a bed of fluffy rice with a hard boiled egg. Quite the worthy plate of food for the hungry stomach in an undecisive pinch.

I won't expound tons on here except that they also have cutlet plates as well where you have pieces of meat on a bed of rice and then the curry sauce on top. It's all great stuff to have as a substitute for eating burgers and fries somewhere that might kill you.

Free Drink Refills: Yup
Entree Price Range:$8 to $9.50 (not too shabby for a satisfying plate of food)

Suehiro Cafe

337 E. 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 626-9132
Sun-Thurs 11AM-1AM
Fri-Sat 11AM-3AM

When I first moved to LA from Pasadena and I lived in K-town with a good friend of mine by the name of Takeshi Nishimoto, a brilliant guitarist who taught me how to just love making music in the moment. We had many a night making music in our place and then grabbing food afterwards. As any of you know there aren't many places that are open super late (at least that have good food) in LA. I was fortunate that he knew of one such place in Downtown LA (on the edge of Little Tokyo) called Suehiro Cafe.

When I had no job and watched TV a good portion of the day as a kid, I would see this show that I still don't know the name of, but it was on KCET and it was like a diner version of Cheers except really cheesey and seemed as if the stars were all extras prior to doing this show. Somehow Suehiro's reminds me of that place. I would call it a family Japanese diner. There are 2 waitresses that are there that have been there since I started going there in 2000. One's a grandma type and the other is a sweet bubbly 20 something who is the picture of Japanese sweetness... just constantly adorably cute. Me and my wife come here and forget about what the rest of the world is like. It just has that effect on us. We've been blessed to find a place like that in LA.

The food is Japanese standard faire with an emphasis on noodle bowls and combination meals. The noodle bowls are yummy with very well balanced portions. I usually get the combination plate which has chicken teriyaki and tuna sashimi and comes with sliced pickle cucumber, potato salad(the odd man out but very tasty) and shredded cabbage salad which has a dressing that I wish I knew what it was cause it's so good and Celeste always has a hard time getting me to eat vegetables at home. I will also mention that it comes with a scoop of ice cream and I always get the pineapple cause it's so perfect for after the meal with whatever I've gotten. The tuna has always been very fresh and nice colored when I've gone here, and rest of the food is just good and consistent. This night we also got a Chicken Katsu Curry over rice which was huge (leftovers were great as well), Spam Onigiri and their Shumai which we almost always get. It was a blessed evening and I must admit that it's nights like last night that make me so happy I live in LA, where I can get good food and a great atmosphere.






One last little bit of advice is that the area is street parking only. Seeing as it it Little Tokyo area you shouldn't have to worry too much about scoring a parking spot and remember the LA insider advice that after 6pm loading zones are legal to park in(I promise you you won't get ticketed) and there are a fair amount of loading zones in that neck of the woods. I won't call this a date spot but it's a date spot that reminds me and Celeste of when we were just dating and life was like a sitcom with extras serving me food.

Free Drink Refills: Yes
Entree Price Range: Noodle Bowls are $6.50 average, Over Rice plates are $7 average and the big combo dinners are about $12 to $14 average.