亜沙 asa: two in the morning glorious
If ramen shops were people, Asa would be that ridiculously fetching exchange student on a one-week homestay at your parents’ house and sleeping in your old bedroom - so new to the States and so authentically Japanese that even the air around her smells different, like that whiff you get when you first unpack your luggage after an extended trip abroad, and now the scent’s all over your R2-D2 pillowcase and comforter set. And so you’ll never wash it again.
Unless you happen to be standing right in front of Asa, incongruously romanized as “Cafe Arthur” on their business cards (?!), between 6pm and 2 in the morning, you’d likewise swear the place was but a tantalizing pipe dream. A month into its existence, there is still no permanent signage, just a set of double doors and a hand-painted wooden panel that comes down every night at closing time. By day, the restaurant is a blank facade with a boarded up door, just like a shuttered yatai.
Yes, Asa is it, that mythical sliver of a restaurant with the ultra-thin hosomen noodles and an unerring attention to detail, from the decor on down to the cubes of seabura pork lard in the entirely acceptable kotteri shoyu tonkotsu soup. Chef and part-owner Muneyoshi Kubo comes from a “ramen household”; his parents run a chukamen noodle joint in Kyoto and his grandfather makes udon by hand. Newly sprung from the remnants of the former Bistro Laramie and sharing space with a Japanese-style snack bar, Asa’s distinctive ramen and gorgeous contempo-rustic touches evoke modern Japan better than anything this side of actually being there.
Already, a bowl of Asa’s kotteri shoyu ramen rates among the best in town. Though it lacks the institutionalized perfection of a Santouka shio ramen, Chef Kubo’s shoyu-tonkotsu creation already stands head and shoulders above nearly everything else in the local game, with a soup that is richer and headier in flavor than say, Chabuya’s overhyped brew. Only old hat ramen chefs can muster that elusive, lived-in subtlety of flavor, but Kubo-san (rest assured, I’ll learn his first name next time) is well on his way, even if he’s not quite there yet. After all, the place has only been open a month.
A bowl of ramen is the sum of its parts, however, and it is in the noodles that Asa already shines. One of the few shops brave enough to source their noodles domestically (from a specialist noodle maker in the Bay Area), Asa refutes the notion that proper ramen can only be made with kansui. A thin, unrisen strand in the northern Kyushu tradition, Asa’s ramen noodles have a supreme texture unlike anything else around, at once firm and willowy and reminiscent of Hakata’s Ichiran noodles set on medium thickness or Jangara ramen on a blessed, divine day.
The toppings are similarly excellent. As at Jangara, topping junkies will be thrilled to learn that a bowl of Asa ramen is heavily customizable. Strips of chashu alternate ribbons of tender fat and strident muscle. Hewn from a prime cut of belly or likewise premium pork part, you get two freebies. Additional toppings come at a premium, but you get what you pay for when there’s spicy mentaiko cod roe in the Kyushu tradition, browned garlic (heady, strong stuff), and perhaps the most deeply marinated shoyu egg I’ve ever encountered. Alas, the egg defaults to a hard-boiled state, but it’s a forgivable offence; request yours hanjuku or “half-boiled” and Kubo-san will gladly whip one up for you.
Need I say more? Go early and get drunk at the adjacent snack bar (their hostesses apparently double as Asa’s waitresses, something I don’t mind in the least). If you have any money left over, you know where to nurse that hangover.
| asa specializes in a kotteri shoyu-tonkotsu soup loaded with bits of seabura pork lard. it's not quite perfectly subtle yet, but as it stands is very full-flavored (fine, some might say salty!) and already among the best in town. chabuya is thoroughly trumped. | 7 |
| simultaneously firm and willow, thin and forthright. asa's noodles are a true domestic wonder, crafted in the best traditions of northern kyushu. | 9 |
| excellent chashu that is alternately banded with fat and muscle, not buta kakuni melt-in-your-mouth luscious but really, that's a different sort of beast. lovingly marinated browned garlic and darkly rich eggs are full of flavor. pile on all the toppings you want, i haven't tried the mentaiko or the hanjuku half-boiled egg yet, but those could bump them up a notch. | 7.5 |
| asa's "other" specialty is an osaka-style takoyaki octopus ball side dish that evokes memories of the doutombori, with a crisp skin on the outside and softly sublime within. who needs gyoza when you've got these to burn your tongue with? | 7.5 |
| the space is a tiny, but kubo-san has decked it out impeccably with a gorgeous slat wood ceiling and trimmings in the rustic-meets-contemporary mode so currently in vogue in japan. i have never felt more like i was in japan, without actually being there. | 8 |
| asa is a blinding, brilliant blast of hope for los angeles ramen slurpers everywhere. apparently they do have a sign, but haven't found the time to mount it yet. i hope it stays that way, as this may well be southern california's greatest hidden ramen gem. | 8 |
18202 S Western Ave (310)769-1010 6pm - 2am (closed sundays) | 23.5 |
Half of its restaurant is cafe / snack bar, another half is ramen, this is definitely an interesting restaurant. The ramen side is small, and it can be fulled easily. I went there once it opened at 6pm on a weeknight, and it’s almost packed within 20 mins, I guess more people are finding out about this ramen place.
I’ll be asking you around Xmas time how much improvement there’s been here. It’s definitely on my to-do list.
Across from Gardena Ramen, eh? The competition, while not direct competition per se, might be good. Might force Gardena to step it up a notch (liked the shoyu broth and noodles but nothing else).
Thanks for the heads up, but here’s to a quick death for the thread about it on Chowhound! I don’t want it to be like SSG when it opens on Saturdays.