The Noodle Soup Series: Daikokuya's Daikoku Ramen

Below, my big bowl of Daikoku Ramen before I dig into it. I ordered my ramen with extra pork (they use only kurobuta pork.) Notice the egg at twelve o'clock: it's a harb-boiled egg that has been soaked overnight in a secret sauce. Yumzola!

Since I don't yet live in New York City and thus I am far away from the greatest ramen place on earth, Momofuku Noodle Bar, I have to settle and get my ramen groove-on at Daikokuya and Hakata Ramen (not too bad for settling!). Some days I like Daikokuya better and other days my fave is Hakata Ramen (to be reviewed here at a later date.) Daikokuya is pretty minimalist when it comes to their ramen: you can get extra noodles, extra pork, and/or order it Kotteri style which means "richer broth" but many feel that it's more like "fattier broth." But in this case the minimalist approach works just fine for me since this is a damn good bowl of noodles! (I fail to understand why people even go to Orochon - blech! - when Daikokuya is half a block away? Who cares if there is a wait when the food is a million times better.)

Below, my bowl of ramen at the half-way point:

Below, Monsieur de... ordered his ramen with extra noodles. I tried doing this once and the nice waitress recommended that I order the LARGE ramen. Uh, ok.

Below, the Daikokuya salad. This is the only sweet dressing that I like. At Daikokuya's sister restaurant, Ebisu (located in the old Mandarin Deli space on Second St.), the salad is made with gourmet baby lettuce instead of shredded cabbage. Oh, by the way, Ebisu has killer shishito.

Daikokuya
327 E. First Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
www.daikoku-ten.com