Very traditional and authentic ramen in every sense. My boyfriend who has lived in Japan (and ate here with me) and many of my JET program buddies thought so too from my IG story that I posted.
None of that extra bells and whistles stuff, they stick to what they know and are good at. Minimal menu, much like restaurants over in Japan.
We came right when they opened and there were still a couple spots left in the parking lot. This used to be the Seto Japanese restaurant/fish and chips spot and still has the old signage for it. Once you get closer to the door, you can see it says Garlic High.
There's a waitlist for you to physically sign in on if you don't make it into the first group of immediately seated parties. There's a couple tables and some counter seating, but it can get packed pretty quickly (like our visit there on a Friday afternoon).
Ordering happens through a QR code and you send the order to the kitchen.
We got the:
1) Signature Ramen:
-This is their Jiro style ramen. Super rich and comes with a hearty, pork based broth. Noodles are thick and have a nice chew to them and it also comes with a ginormous amount of bean sprouts, cabbage, pork belly, garlic and umami fat.
-Boyfriend barely finished this and we had to take some of the leftovers to go.
2) Mazesoba:
-This is their brothless ramen.
-This is also Jiro style and also has thick, deliciously chewy noodles, along with a ginormous amount of bean sprouts, a rich savory sauce, cabbage, pork belly, garlic, fried onions, egg yolk, and umami fat.
-I've had mazesoba before and this is the richest, thickest, most filling one that I've ever had. I usually get to the point where I can mix in the vinegar and mix in rice at other mazesoba places, but this one was just so heavy and filling (in a good way) that I never made it to that point. We packed some vinegar to go to add some taste when we had the leftovers though.
-Great mix of tastes and textures even without that extra step. I got some quail eggs with this and they give you 5. I love quail eggs so this was a nice addition.
Both of us got the garlic max which was this HUGE dollop of garlic on top of our ramen and it was super garlicky. Boyfriend said it was too much for him, but if you're a real garlic lover, it's a must.
VERY BAD, but I despise bean sprouts unless they stop tasting like bean sprouts (looking at the sesame beansprout banchan). When I say a ginormous amount of bean sprouts, I'm talking like a mountain, like whoever was preparing this has massive hands and just used both of them to scoop in bean sprouts. I usually can scoop out the beansprouts and give it to a fellow beansprout enjoyer (my bf in this case), but it took me at least 10 minutes to do this, giving you an idea of how it was. This didn't ruin the taste or experience for me, since I'd just have given it to someone else anyways but this is one of the features of their ramen that makes it super authentically Japanese.
Some free toppings that you can get here are fish powder, Kewpie mayo, and chives kimchi (deliciously adds a bit of a sour kick if you need to refresh your tastes buds). Unfortunately, they were out of death sauce when we were there.
Aside from the 2 things that we ordered, the only other "entree style" dish they have is their chashu bowl. Again, simple so they can focus on what they're good at.
Worth a try and definitely more unique than many other ramen places out there. read more