アサヒ asahi ramen: a blue period piece
In the era before boba, before Giant Robot conquered the Asian pop-culture universe and before the arrival of Chabuya, Sawtelle’s “Little Osaka” was a sleepy bedroom community with a few Japanese businesses, home to West L.A.‘s small but tight-knit Nikkei population. Asahi Ramen, which by now has got to be one of Sawtelle’s oldest ramen shops, was the go-to joint for some quality noodling, always packed and always reliable if you were cool with the powder blue bowls, which remind me of toilets.
Management has apparently changed, but they’ve kept that fine tableware and I’ve kind of gotten over it. Still, I hardly ever eat there, not with so many newfangled options nearby. Ramen in Los Angeles isn’t what it used to be; the days of the unpretentious assari-kei are quickly fading, replaced by noodle shops featuring specialized soups and regional styles. It’s a good thing, a sign that ramen is growing in popularity. But it doesn’t bode well for the old guard.
A recent outing to Asahi Ramen was like a blast to the mid-nineties, when a restaurant could get away with serving bland soup, dry chashu, and pre-packaged noodles straight from JFC. Down the street and around the corner, Ramenya survives on much the same formula, albeit they do it a little better.
Every now and then, a bowl of shoyu ramen at Asahi can make for a satisfying lunch, but only if you’re not in a discriminating mood, sort of like when you’re jonesing for a hamburger - any old hamburger - simply because you haven’t had one in a while. The soup is a fairly straightforward shoyu liquid suffused with a slight sweetness and the aroma of shinachiku bamboo shoots. It’s not as flat as say, Ramen Nippon‘s shoyu soup, but nor is it particularly inspiring or creative, and the murkiness is a fair indicator of shoddy preparation. Perhaps they cook it with the wrong strength of heat. Topping-wise, the plain egg comes well done. One can tell that they probably boil an entire batch at a time and leave it sitting in the refrigerator all day, a big pet peeve of mine. The chashu is dry and tough, and bears an eerie resemblance to the pre-packaged stuff sold at any of the numerous Japanese supermarkets in the area.
The hiyashi chuka fares better. They use the same stock noodles, but the cold broth is light and subtly sweet, better than I’ve had at many other ramen shops. That said, it’s a summertime favorite that’s pretty difficult to mess up; unless the chef has a physical inability to julienne ham and cucumbers, you won’t ever go too far off course.
Factor in some fairly standard gyoza (reminiscent of some frozen Chinese brands - notice a theme here?) and a pleasing little starter of pickled cucumbers, and you’ve got yourself a decent, if unremarkable meal that would hardly be worth driving much of a distance for. But maybe modest ambitions are enough; the local Japanese American community and the stray Sawtelle hipster will keep Asahi Ramen afloat, even as the ever-changing noodle scene continues to pass it by.
| a fairly straightforward shoyu soup that makes a run at sweetness, suffused with the aroma of bamboo shoots. it's murky though, which reflects on poor preparation. eh, then again, we're not in yokohama now, are we? | 4.5 |
| you down with JFC? yeah? well so is every other boring assari-kei ramen shop in town. them noodle importers must be laughing all the way to bank since everyone carries the same generic brand of crap. | 3.5 |
| dry, stiff chashu, pre-boiled non-marinated eggs, and a healthy sprinkling of ugh. i could make this stuff at home. nah, i wouldn't bother. | 3 |
| everything about asahi ramen screams mediocre or pre-packaged. the gyoza are no exception. in fact, i'm fondling a bag of them right now, one that i picked up at the chinese supermarket. they make good ice packs on such a hot day. | 3 |
| i remember how i used to get tripped out by the blue ramen bowls, which remind me of porcelain of a different nature. now, they're just a cute throwback to a bygone era in slurping, much like this whole, unadorned restaurant. guys, don't take your hipster girlfriends here, because they'll want you to buy them ugly dolls at giant robot next door. | 1 |
| asahi ramen is a fixture on sawtelle; it's a neighborhood ramen shop that's been around a long time, which is worth something i suppose. but beyond that... there's not much here for anyone who lives more than a few blocks away. | 1.5 |
2027 Sawtelle Boulevard CASH ONLY | 11 |
I used to love Asahi Ramen back in the 90’s. Back then, the choices were limited and being able to get a decent bowl, any bowl, back then was treat. I also used to live right down the street from Asahi, so I went there a LOT. Anyway, now a days I hardly go there. I agree that there ramen is somewhat bland, lacking in depth. Occasionally, I go there for nostalgia and it’s a decent lunch, but not spectacular.
One thing of note is their pickled cucumbers. They used to be GREAT, but in the last couple of years they have sucked. They used to have this spicy kick to them, but now you are lucky if they have 3 tiny pepper flakes on them. Also, they used to be marinated/pickled for several days, so they had this complex flavor of spicy, salty, a little sweet with a touch of sesame. Now they look they were made that morning and taste like it too.
I think Ramen-ya is FAR better.