Tsujita Ramen: Not Worth the Wait

I finally tried Tsujita Ramen on Sawtelle and I must say I was disappointed. Maybe I'm just not a tsukemen kind of person. Or maybe I didn't eat it the right way. I've had my noodles separately from the broth before but I couldn't get into it here. 

For one thing, the broth was like ramen broth concentrated to the nth degree, as in super thick and far too salty. I'm all for hearty, strong broths but this was too much. I should have taken them up on their offer to pour free boiled water into the "sauce," as they called it.

Second, it was a royal pain having to take the super slippery noodles that were on the thick side from one bowl and dip them into the broth before eating. The broth wasn't hot enough to warm up the noodles, so you had to leave them in there for a while and even then, they were merely lukewarm to room temperature. Not a good ramen temperature. In typical Japanese restaurant fashion, the menu describes how the noodles should be consumed -- dip the noodles, squeee the lime, etc. 

I got the one with extra charsiu (slices of roasted pork) and soft-boiled egg. The charsiu was tender and soft from the seemingly long cooking process I assumed the pork bellies went through. Not all slices were excellent but good enough.

I really liked the soft-boiled egg, which was a bit on the oozy side and indeed, soft. Probably my favorite part of the entire meal. And it helped to temper the sodium overload although it was slightly seasoned.

I wasn't a fan of the thicker, slippery noodles that weren't as chewy as I usually like them.

We also had the salmon sashimi bowl, which was also a pain to eat. Topped with wasabi, we weren't sure how to go about spreading it without generating tears from the spice. The flavor of the salmon wasn't great.

All in all, not worth the wait, in my opinion. I'd like to try the tonkotsu ramen but for now, I'm sticking to my perennial faves, Shinsengumi and Santouka.