It was Sunday at 1:45pm and my friends and I had our monthly get-together. The line was out the door with a 20 minute wait for a party of 3. What madness was this??? For ramen on a Sunday afternoon? I wanted to introduce my roommate to ramen – and not of the prepackaged cup variety that many of us were familiar with in college – but the real, rich broth and hearty noodles with meat that melts in your mouth. Kukai is all of those things, plus the par boiled egg, with its runny yolk that completes the meal.
garlic tonkatsu ramen – it’s rich without being oily, punctuated by crunchy bamboo shoots and crisp bean sprouts; the noodles are al dente and firm to the chew – very different from what you may expect from packaged ramen; the kicker is the par boiled egg
It’s on the Eastside, which recently became a haven for a few ramen restaurants: Santoku and Jinya. I haven’t been to Santoku yet, but in comparing to Jinya, I would say that these noodles are definitely firmer, but the broth not nearly as seasoned as the Jinya Black. The Jinya Black has the distinction of the becoming a jello like-consistency after placing it in the refrigerator due to the amount of protein in it. It also has more garlic, but I like the tonkatsu in the Kukai ramen better. It had more flavor and was sliced paper thin. The bowl of noodles is filling for $11, this was the most expensive ramen on the menu. My friends both ordered the salt flavored chicken ramen for a lighter flavor. You can also order the tonkatsu ramen with normal broth instead of the rich broth if you’re not really a broth drinker, in which case, you’re ordering the wrong kind of noodles. 🙂
SUMMARY
Overall: happily ever after
Highlights: tonkatsu ramen
Footnotes: it is extremely busy and they do not take reservations, but service is quick and efficient. You can add extra noodles to your broth for $2 more if you’re still feeling hungry or want to have an even distribution of noodles to broth.
