Original nikutama ramen and gyoza from Ramen Ochi, Century City, CA
Original nikutama ramen and gyoza from Ramen Ochi, Century City, CA
by thedireststraits2
1 Comment
thedireststraits2
Ramen Ochi is a new place that opened up on the first floor of the Westfield Mall in Century City. I was intrigued because I don’t think many places here use beef bones in their ramen stock, or offer a raw egg, or use thin slices of pork belly versus the thicker cuts of chashu.
The soup has a really unique taste compared to other places that primarily focus on tonkotsu stock. It is a bit on the heavier side, so be prepared. The noodles themselves had a nice bite to them, and the cuts of pork belly reminded me of the thin garlic pork slices you could get at a place like Sutadonya in Torrance.
They do serve a tsukemen, and interestingly also serve a “tamago kake men”, which is their variation of a dish called tamago kake gohan (raw egg over rice). It sounds like a soupless version for people looking for a much lighter meal. Not sure when they’re planning to make these items available, but the menu has coming soon stickers slapped onto the kajiro ramen and mazesoba options, which seem like Ramen Ochi’s take on jiro ramen. I think that makes Ochi the fourth place I know of that sells jiro and is still open, the other three being Ramen Akimoto in Yorba Linda, Umenoya in Torrance, and Tsujita Annex in Sawtelle.
I also tried the gyoza. From what I gathered from Ramen Ochi’s website (which seems to have temporarily gone down), I think there are two other locations related to Ochi in Japan, and one of them primarily sells gyoza, and that recipe’s being used here. I’m not much of a gyoza person, but I found Ramen Ochi’s gyoza to be delicious. There’s a yuzu paste that, in small dabs, really helps add to the gyoza’s taste. Service was nice and the location looks quite premium too, though it is a bit out of the way.
I think Ramen Ochi definitely offers something unique from the other ramen places in LA. I’m not sure how it will fare against Ramen Nagi, which is a short walk away but also has a pretty long line out the door during peak hours–I left Westfield shortly after noon and there were still a lot of people waiting to get a seat at Nagi. If you’re in the area and the line at Nagi is too long, maybe that’s a cue to give Ochi a shot.
1 Comment
Ramen Ochi is a new place that opened up on the first floor of the Westfield Mall in Century City. I was intrigued because I don’t think many places here use beef bones in their ramen stock, or offer a raw egg, or use thin slices of pork belly versus the thicker cuts of chashu.
The soup has a really unique taste compared to other places that primarily focus on tonkotsu stock. It is a bit on the heavier side, so be prepared. The noodles themselves had a nice bite to them, and the cuts of pork belly reminded me of the thin garlic pork slices you could get at a place like Sutadonya in Torrance.
They do serve a tsukemen, and interestingly also serve a “tamago kake men”, which is their variation of a dish called tamago kake gohan (raw egg over rice). It sounds like a soupless version for people looking for a much lighter meal. Not sure when they’re planning to make these items available, but the menu has coming soon stickers slapped onto the kajiro ramen and mazesoba options, which seem like Ramen Ochi’s take on jiro ramen. I think that makes Ochi the fourth place I know of that sells jiro and is still open, the other three being Ramen Akimoto in Yorba Linda, Umenoya in Torrance, and Tsujita Annex in Sawtelle.
I also tried the gyoza. From what I gathered from Ramen Ochi’s website (which seems to have temporarily gone down), I think there are two other locations related to Ochi in Japan, and one of them primarily sells gyoza, and that recipe’s being used here. I’m not much of a gyoza person, but I found Ramen Ochi’s gyoza to be delicious. There’s a yuzu paste that, in small dabs, really helps add to the gyoza’s taste. Service was nice and the location looks quite premium too, though it is a bit out of the way.
I think Ramen Ochi definitely offers something unique from the other ramen places in LA. I’m not sure how it will fare against Ramen Nagi, which is a short walk away but also has a pretty long line out the door during peak hours–I left Westfield shortly after noon and there were still a lot of people waiting to get a seat at Nagi. If you’re in the area and the line at Nagi is too long, maybe that’s a cue to give Ochi a shot.