My brother and I had dinner on Wednesday night with J&S at Breadbar for Chef Noriyuki Sugie's
Ramen Bull pop-up. I hadn't been back to this Breadbar since two visits to the original Ludobites pop-ups almost 3 years ago. I had heard of Chef Noriyuki Sugie since my NYC days, where he was the chef de cuisine of the beautiful Asiate at the Mandarin Oriental in the Time Warner Building. Since leaving Asiate, he's been focused on starting his own ventures under the name "IRONNORI." The menu at Ramen Bull is very simple starring 5 different ramens.
We ordered some shishito peppers and eggplant to start, both of which were very tasty:
I ordered the beef tongue ramen with a side of spicy sauce and the rest of our table had the oxtail ramen and the spicy ramen. The broth was my favorite part, very very rich and flavorful. There was some sort of foam on the top and a perfectly cooked soft boiled egg. I pretty much finished the entire thing. The broth is on the thick side, with depth similar to tonkatsu style, but doesn't feel as oily as Santouka's ramen. The texture of the noodles was very good, although I still find Ippudo's noodles to be the best. The beef tongue was very tender and good, although I'm not sure that it really added anything to the ramen; it probably would have been better enjoyed as a separate dish. I really liked the spicy sauce; the heat was subtle with a lot of layers of flavors, I believe there was some dried fish in addition to the chilis. Everyone else also really liked their oxtail and spicy ramen.
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| Beef tongue ramen ($14) |
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| Oxtail Ramen ($16) |
It was hard to come up with a drink that would pair well with the ramen, and we ended up bringig our own sake ($10 corkage) and S. had a refreshing fizzy hibiscus drink. They also sent us home with a bag of Breadbar cookie cakes which we finished that night. Ramen Bull will be running through September.
Ramen Bull at Breadbar
8718 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA
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