Restaurant - Santouka Ramen

Santouka Ramen
3760 S Centinela Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90066
(310) 391-1101
Genre: Japanese

I've heard a lot about this place, since it's a real Japanese ramen chain that made it to the states (and is a chain over here as well; there are at least three locations in the Southern California area).

If you're the kind of person who won't order ramen at a ramen place, then they have rice dishes for you, but seriously, the only place where you wouldn't want to order a restaurant's "specialty menu" is Curry House.

Zoom up and joy the view.
I guess if you've never had the chance to enjoy the frozen ramen you can buy at Japanese supermarkets, Santouka Ramen sounds like quite an interesting proposal. It sure beats the crap out of Top Ramen or whatever the heck most people think of when they hear the word "ramen," but their $6.95 ramen could easily be made for 1/3 of the price, sans the fatty piece of char-siu pork. And really, it only takes 5 or 6 minutes to prepare.

The soy sauce ramen.
Service-wise, you get what you expect out of a food court eatery. They call your number, and then you go get your food. Unless you stare down at the food you're eating, you're gonna be locked in a staring contest with someone else in the same situation you are.

So just stare down and enjoy your noodles. Because you won't be coming back again for a while, unless you want to slurp down enough sodium for 3 days and enough oil to last you the entire winter.

As a final note, "Santouka" literally means "mountain head fire." No, I have no idea why anyone would want to name his or her restaurant like that. They even make you go through the trouble of reading the restaurant name backwards. And it doesn't sound cool at all, even if we're surrounded by other mediocre-sounding ramen shop names like Orochon.