こう楽 koraku: midnight missing (little tokyo)
by rameniac | 21 Feb 2007
Stumble into a ramen shop after a hard night of alcoholism and it’s easy to see why Chinese noodles make for excellent Japanese hangover fare: Doc Brown’s shot of tabasco sauce if Japan were the old west, a deli sandwich at Canter’s after a night of debauchery on the Sunset Strip. Open until three a.m., Kouraku (Koraku) may be Southern California’s original late night noodle joint, but the vibe is very reminiscent of an old-school Los Angeles eatery right down to the lonely vinyl booths and the moody low-watt lighting.
Situated in Little Tokyo just two blocks from Skid Row (no, that panhandler doesn’t really need to catch a bus to Gardena, so don’t give him any change), Kouraku has been around as long as I can remember. And for a lot longer than that I’m sure, it has been serving a menu of completely mediocre assari-kei ramen, fried rice, gyoza, and assorted Chinese and Japanese whatnot. Sweet and sour meatballs, anyone?
Kouraku was always one of those ramen shops that I’d intended to keep on the back burner. I knew I would get to reviewing it eventually, but there had never been a pressing need to revisit the place until an oddly masochistic midnight craving snuck up on me last weekend. It’s a comfort, then, to know that it’s all still there - the fantastically bland shoyu soup, the stale, dry chashu and the musty shinachiku. There must be an embargo on tamago in Little Tokyo - both Kouraku and Mr. Ramen serve a stingy quarter of a hard boiled egg. Perhaps Daikokuya has a monopoly on the market.
Surprisingly, the curly yellow noodles were soft, fluffy and quite inoffensive - the lone saving grace in an otherwise barren bowl of shoyu. Tonkotsu ramen is listed on the wall, by the way. I dare you to try it.
Kouraku’s gyoza have papery skins and pasty fillings. The definition of insubstantial, they are everything gyoza should not be. Their niku dango (the aforementioned Chinese sweet and sour meatballs) are passable, grilled up with a sweet shoyu marinade. But the serving is large, almost an entree unto itself, more suited to rice instead of ramen.
The march of progress has not been kind to Kouraku. Better ramen can be had just a block away. Daikokuya is the current king of Little Tokyo in popularity if not in taste. Orochon Ramen boasts all the fireworks, with a spiciness gimmick and a particularly modern shio soup. But with few options for old-school assari-kei shoyu, especially at two in the morning, Kouraku will doubtless limp on as it always has, so long as there are bars in the area for visiting Japanese salarymen to stumble in and out of.
| bland shoyu broth in the tradition of mr. ramen or ramen nippon. i really don't know what they put in there. probably nothing. that's the problem. i like to overdose on white pepper and pretend it actually tastes like something. | 2.5 |
| surprisingly fluffy with a high curl to length ratio. not altogether bad. | 5 |
| chashu is fairly dry, shinachiku is woody and striated, and the green onions are... normal. it's hard to mess up green onions. | 3 |
| papery-skinned gyoza with pasty innards. forgettable, but what else are you gonna eat at two a.m.? chinese meatballs are ok but they almost don't qualify as a side, not for ramen anyway. | 2 |
| if you like that old school, no frills delicatessen vibe, with skid row derelicts panhandling and sticking paper clips into your parking meter, then the place gets a 10. | 2.5 |
| they open late. be thankful. | 1 |
314 E. 2nd St.
11:00am - 3:00am (Mon-Sat)
cash only | 10.5 |
I am so glad you reviewed this shop. Like you, I have walked past this place for years but for some reason have never tried it. Now I know I haven’t been missing out. The funny thing is I now want to try it for myself, knowing it will probably disappoint. Call me a masochist I guess