うめむら umemura: original palate material
by rameniac | 27 Jun 2008
Keizo, you’re either going to love (or hate) me for this one. Well, maybe. Goramen’s favorite Southern California noodler is actually a pretty decent little restaurant, but in my eyes, Umemura has seen far better days. I’ll be honest here. Circa 199x, I, too, was in love with the place. Many an undergraduate memory was created at the now defunct Sawtelle branch of this modest little greasy spoon (and by greasy, yes, I do mean the walls), including an unforgettable sinus attack from pepper overload and a very serviceable bowl of yakiniku shoyu ramen.
At the time, the best ramen shop in L.A. had something of a mini-franchise to call its own. With branches in Little Tokyo and Gardena as well as on Sawtelle, Umemura seemed poised to take over the local ramen landscape. Fifteen years on, the Gardena outpost, housed in a converted Taco Bell, is the sole survivor of a cuisine ahead of its time, a faded emblem to bowls gone by.
It has been years since I’ve stepped into an Umemura. Since then, I’ve lived in southern Japan and discovered a whole new world of ramen - of bold, rich, flavors and regional distinctions - growing a whole new lexicon in the process: tonkotsu, Nagahama. Kumamoto. It was the spellbinding discovery of ramen on this unfamiliar next level that truly prompted me to start an entire website devoted to the topic, but along the way, I forgot what had sparked the curiosity in the first place: a typical college student’s ungodly diet of Tung-I, Shin Ramyun, and Top Ramen, Juzo Itami’s Tampopo (ground zero for nearly everyone reading this page), and Umemura on Sawtelle.
Before I ever learned the term umami, before I even knew what I was talking about, much less had the vocabulary to express it, Umemura’s yakiniku shoyu ramen had it, that combination of sweet-savory nuance embodied in a “proper” bowl of ramen soup. Little did I realize that that probably had more to do with the incongruous yakiniku grilled pork oozing its fat into the broth than the actual shoyu soup itself, but, who cares? It was damn good stuff, and the only bowl of noodles that could do it for me back in those days.
So when I returned to the sole surviving branch of Umemura one recent evening, I predictably ordered the same thing. A blast from the past, I figured. And somehow, I confirmed what I’d known all along. The yakiniku shoyu ramen is a good bowl of noodles, but not nearly as spectacular as when my world was so much smaller. The marinated grilled pork was tasty, grade B meat, a gourmet treat for a starving college student. The shoyu soup was flavorful, if only a notch above the offerings at the other run of the mill, old-school Los Angeles assari-kei, the ones that simply refuse to either close or evolve. If anything, the entree is a testament to the potency of grilled lard, and the ability of oil to make anything taste richer, sweeter, better. Maybe it’s cheating. But then again, that’s what makes the finest nagahama-hakata-kumamoto-you-name-it bowl of ramen shine.
| a slightly-above-average shoyu soup, made better by the fat dripping off the grilled pork, if yakiniku ramen is your speed. really, that's the only thing i ever get at umemura. | 5.5 |
| generic yellow noodles competently prepared, with a bit of a curl. better than the anemic stuff you find at most assari-kei, but nothing to write home (or write) about really. | 5 |
| back in the day, the yakiniku grilled pork was prime feasting for this starving college student. grilled in a tasty korean barbecue-style marinade, it's a cut above the meat you find at yoshinoya, and a bit thicker. | 6 |
| think i'll go back for the gyoza. my friend's kanitama ramen, with a mammoth omlette over the noodles, nearly qualifies as a side dish, just by looking at it. | NA |
| a converted taco bell with just about as much atmosphere. the brick hacienda-style archways are truly surreal. maybe if there were a few more customers there, i would have felt a bit warmer and fuzzier. | 0.5 |
| umemura was my original favorite ramen shop, and i have many great memories of the place. is it extraordinary? not really. but there's a certain fondness there, kind of like revisiting the house you grew up in. only, you can't do it too often. | 5 |
1724 W. Redondo Beach Blvd.
CASH ONLY | 16.5 |
I ain’t mad at cha. I realize it’s not what it once was but it’s nostalgic feel always brings me back. I think they even changed chefs recently, which always sucks. Anyway, I really miss Kotan. That was a ramenya created when the co-founders of Umemura got in a fight. But the owner has since past away and Kotan is now just a socal ramen legend.