新撰組 hakata shin-sen-gumi: roar of the waitstaff, smell of the lard
Several years ago, upon returning to Los Angeles after having lived in Japan, I set out to find something, anything, approximating the tonkotsu ramen of northern Kyushu. After all, noodles are to Fukuoka what the taco is to Los Angeles - an ostensibly immigrant food form taken to new heights of ubiquity (and deliciousness) by legions of dudes with trucks or, in Fukuoka, yatai food carts.
Slurping down a bowl of true Hakata ramen is an exercise in intense indulgence. With thin, leaden, noodles and an impenetrable tonkotsu soup of sweet pork funk, it is a primal experience best had at a yatai alongside several strangers turned your new best friends. One can smell the presence of Hakata ramen from a block a way; the acrid scent of pork bones is simultaneously tantalizing and gag-inducing, and there’s nothing else in the world quite like it.
And so one day, while picking the brain of an apprentice sushi chef at Noma in Santa Monica, I was directed to “the only” Hakata-style ramen shop in Los Angeles, Hakata Shin-Sen-Gumi in Gardena. In those early days, Hakata SSG was as good as it got, a reasonably adequate if watery facsimile of pure pork bone soup and thin, straight noodles closer in form to al dente angel hair pasta than to the far more common squiggly yellow ramen noodle. With toppings like pickled takana greens and tableside red ginger (yes, the Beef Bowl stuff), I could at least pretend to be back in Kyushu from time to time, if I kept my eyes closed and my ears focused on the exaggerated “Irasshaimase!” of an overly enthusiastic waitstaff. (In case you were wondering, ramen shops don’t typically greet patrons like that in Japan. Well, perhaps some do, but it’s like Spinal Tap turning their amps up to 11 - more parody than anything else).
Despite the outsized yelling (which, I’ll bet, has scared more than a few potential patrons away), Hakata Shin-Sen-Gumi is fairly noob compliant. The menu is straightforward, with but one type of ramen, and customizable everything, provided you know what you want. You can tweak your soup’s richness by modifying the amount of soup base and oil; as for your noodles, you can request them firm and thin, or overboiled by traditional Fukuoka standards. Drink your soup sparingly, for even noodle refills are available. Ordering kaedama, or extra noodles, is a much-loved Hakata past time, and the tradition is alive and well at Shin-Sen-Gumi. As with decibel-blasting waiters, the restaurant itself some how fosters excess: a recent champion at their annual “extra noodle” contest wolfed down a gut-busting 12 refills of the stringy stuff.
A slew of toppings are at one’s disposal: for my money, that usually means adding takana and most satisfyingly, spicy cod roe. A Fukuoka delicacy, a dollop of mentaiko packs a salted, caviar-like punch; it can be eaten straight up or mixed thoroughly into the soup. And although I can’t quite take credit for it, I’d like to think that Hakata SSG made crushed garlic paste available (a la Ippudo) after I once drew a diagram of the “perfect bowl” on the back of an order sheet, complete with labeled ninniku. You have to ask for the stuff, but at least they keep a few jars behind the counter.
Is Hakata SSG as good as Ippudo, Ichiran, or any number of Fukuoka’s signature food carts? Of course not, not even close. The soup is thin, the pork flavor far less saturated. Custom-cranking the soup base and oil more or less simply turns up the salinity. For a brief period in time, Daikokuya and SSG were the only credible tonkotsu games in town, but the opening of Santouka changed everything and upped the ante for all involved. Still, Shin-Sen-Gumi remains the one shop in town that specializes in an authentically Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen, and one can’t reasonably compare it to its closest cousins, a few thousand miles away.
| creamy, porky, and good but not at all great, hakata ssg's pure pork bone soup is reminiscent of every mind-blowing bowl of tonkotsu ramen i've ever had in northern kyushu, only, it just makes me wish i was there for real. | 6 |
| thin, straight noodles are the hallmark of the hakata style. shin-sen-gumi is wise to use proprietary noodles to authentically replicate this aspect of life among the yatai. | 7 |
| the chashu is soft and sparing, in authentic hakata fashion, it is not the main feature of the style. but decent pickled mustard greens and spicy cod roe put their toppings in a range of credibility few other shops in town even attempt. | 6 |
| hakata ssg features tasty, hobbit-sized gyoza; but you get two rows of them instead of one. their takana fried rice is excellent, and a variety of sides and specials keep their score in this section respectable. | 7.5 |
| bring earplugs! other than that, they re-create the festive atmosphere of a hakata street stall quite admirably. points for trying. | 7 |
| the best hakata-style tonkotsu ramen in town. quality and service may vary among branches, depending on which chefs have been shifted around. | 6.5 |
8450 E Valley Blvd. Ste 103 (626) 572-8646 | 19 |
The ramen at Hakata is good, but I still prefer G.R.
any differences between their various locations?