Orochon Ramen

Orochon Ramen
123 Onizuka St # 303
Los Angeles
213-617-1766

On January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger, exploded 73 seconds into flight. The Challenger crew was the most diverse crew in history. The crew included an African-American; Ronald McNair, two women; Christa McAuliffe, who was also the first civilian in space, and Judith Resnik who Jewish, and an Asian-American; Ellison Onizuka. Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, and Gregory Jarvis were the other members of the Challenger crew. Little Toyko in Los Angeles has honored, Ellison Onizuka with a memorial plaque and a replica of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

President Reagan, who would made one of his best speeches ever that night, called for an investigation, that was headed by the Roger's Commission. The commission was greatly helped by the testimony of Roger Boisjoly, an engineer at Morton Thiokol. Morton Thiokol produced the "o rings" that failed, which lead to the Challenger explosion. Mr. Boisjoly is a hero and Chapman University in Orange, CA, has all his memoirs, that should be on display soon. Why is Mr. Boisjoly a hero, for having the guts to be a whistle blower. He saw something was wrong, said something was wrong, but his bosses, who wanted to keep the NASA money line, coming, did not listen to Mr. Boisjoly.

So why the history lesson about the Space Shuttle Challenger? Orochon Ramen, is located in the building just to the west of the Ellison Onizuka Memorial. Orochon Ramen is well known for it's spicy ramen challenge. Many TV shows have featured this challenge. I wasn't going anywhere near the challenge. But I wanted to try their ramen.



$6.95 soy sauce ramen. At first, I was impressed with the size of the bowl but when I got my ramen, I noticed very quickly the ramen was only filled half way. Not good. I tasted the broth first, and at first, I thought it was a bit salty, but after eating the ramen, I felt it was seasoned just right. The ramen was cook perfectly but there wasn't that much ramen. There were large mushrooms, green onions, and some pieces of thinly cut pork.

Service, at the table was pretty good. But the way they handled seating, was pretty bad. I asked for a table for 12 people. I arrived about 30 minutes before my party was suppose to arrive. A half hour later, 3/4 of my party had arrived. I told them, how about seating us right now, since we have 8 people and the other four were running just a bit late. They seated the eight of us, but did not leave room for the other four people, even though they said they would and there was plenty of room. Luckily the table next to us, which had three people gave up one of their tables for our group.

The address listed is a bit confusing. The actual street is 2nd St., but that portion of 2nd St. is named in honor of Ellison Onizuka. The official street address is Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka St. Orochon Ramen is located in the Weller Court, 3rd floor, at the corner of 2nd St. and San Pedro.

I would not go back to Orochon Ramen. I didn't think the ramen was anything great and I wasn't happy with the small portion.

Sushi Gen

Sushi Gen
422 E 2nd St
Los Angeles
213-617-0552

I have heard so many good things about Sushi Gen, I had high expectations. Sadly they were not met. What I found was a very expensive and not very good sushi restaurant.



Shrimp tempura, $6. Not good at all. The outside tempura batter was slightly crispy but the inside was mushy and just a messy. It's like the fryer was set too high and inside of making decreasing the tempurature, they just put out a crappy dish.





I went to Sushi Gen with a friend. Their suhi menu doesn't include prices.

My friend ordered the eel, spicy tuna roll, and salmon and fatty tuna.

I got the yellowtail, tuna, and crab. For those seven items, the bill was about $46, roughly $7 per sushi order. I didn't try any of her sushi.

But the yellowtail wasn't fresh, mushy and just not good.

The tuna was better but not that much better.

The only good sushi was the crab, I believe a king crab, with lots of wasibi and a nice texture.

Service was a bit lacking. We had to call for water, our server never bothered to come around that often.

The host told me the wait would be 20-30 minutes, when in reality it was about 45 minutes. I realize the host can't force people out of their table but come on.

Again Sushi Gen didn't live up to the hype. It is a small place but is living on it's reputation, not the current (lack of) quality of the food.

Wurstküche

Wurstküche
800 E 3rd St
Los Angeles
213-687-4444

I wanted to celebrate the birthday of the hottie that I went to Beachwood BBQ with, so we decided on Wurstküche, a German sausage house.

Wurstküche is just east of Little Tokyo and Sushi Go 55. Housed in an old brick building, you enter Wurstküche and order your food. You take your drinks then walk down a long hall way to the common dining hall and they will bring you your food. There are wood tables and benches. Nothing fancy, though the people are of the pretentious asshole Westside types.

I ordered two sausages. The sausages are grilled and condiments like mustard etc are on the tables. You get two toppings free, sauerkraut, sweet or hot peppers and carmelized onions. I only got the sauerkraut and it was warm, not good, and not that tangy. I will pass on the sauerkraut next time. All sausages come on a fresh baked roll, which was firm and stood up to all the toppings.

Bratwurst, $5.75, made with pork, coriander and nutmeg, with sauerkraut. The bratwurst was Ok, I've had better. This didn't have much flavor and nothing really stood out.

Louisiana hot link, $6.50. beef and pork, onions and hot spices. I asked for the hot link with sauerkraut and hot peppers on the side. I really did like this hot link. It starts off mild but then the spicy flavors hit you and it was wonderful. The link had a nice snap and made of good quality items.

Large Beligian fries with white truffle oil glaze, $5.50 + $1.50 for the truffle oil. These fries were great. Crispy on the outside and soft and hot on the inside. The fries are made from fresh potatoes and stored in the frig overnight, then fried for three minutes, taken out and then fried again to order. You gotta try these fries. They give you two dipping sauces and we got the bbq sauce, which was ok and the tzatziki, a Greek yogurt sauce which was great. This had the consistency of sour cream but wasn't sour but had a nice mild flavor.

Service is a bit slow and just off. The hottie and I ordered two beers and instead of pouring two glasses, she started pouring the beer into a huge mug, she must have throught we ordered a double. The beer was ok but warm as hell, they need to chill those damn kegs.

I was impressed with sausages at Wurstküche and though they are a bit pricey, they do use good quality meats. Compared to Jeff's Gourmet Sausage, Jeff's is better, they use better meats and are much cheaper but Wurstküche is the solid second choice for sausage in LA.

Sushi Go 55

Sushi Go 55
333 S. Alameda Street Suite 317
Los Angeles
213-687-0777

I have never been to a sushi restaurant in Little Tokyo, so when I had the chance to go to Sushi Go 55, I jumped on it. Sushi Go 55 is owned by the Morishita family who also owns the highly rated Izakaya Haru Ulala and this family has been in the restaurant business for over 60 years.

I got the Nigiri Take Dinner, $12.95. This included eight pieces of nigiri sushi, three pieces of tuna rolls and 3 pieces of cucumber roll.

The eight pieces of sushi included:

Salmon: A very fresh tasting sushi. No fish smell at all. Nice flavor and good sized piece of fish.

Tuna: A bit mushy and not that fresh. I have had better tuna.

Halibut: Nice and fresh and tasty.

Shrimp: Not fresh, a bit chewy and had a smell to it.

Albacore: Very fresh, nice flavor and texture.

Yellowtail: Maybe one of the better yellowtails I have had. fresh, nice texture and flavor.

Octopus: This one was new for me. The octopus was very chewy and rubbery. Almost like a very tough calamari. I wouldn't order octopus again.

Egg Omelette: Again the first time I ever had this. Interesting, a cold egg omelette on top of sushi rice. I don't like eggs cold, so I wasn't impressed. The omelette was overcooked.

The tuna roll was nice and fresh. Better than the tuna sushi. The cucumber roll was fresh, crunchy and tasty. Though both rolls were a bit small, they were the right size for the amount of sushi.

I got the spider roll, $11.50. Nice soft shell crab with imitation crab. This was pretty good. The soft shell crab was a bit small but had a nice crunch and flavor.

Shrimp tempura roll, $5.50. A good sized hand roll, with a big piece of shrimp tempura and imitation crab. The shrimp was nice and flavor, much better than the shrimp sushi, everything was fresh and tasty.

Service was good, the servers were nice friendly people, though at times a bit slow on refilling drinks.

I would go back to Sushi Go 55 but I didn't realize that Honda Ya was next door. I went to the Honda Ya in Tustin and loved it. If I go back to this shopping center, I'm going to Honda Ya.

Daikokuya

Daikokuya
327 E 1st St
Los Angeles
213-626-1680

Daikokuya is a ramen place but I'm not a big fan of Ramen, notice there aren't many reviews of ramen place on The New Diner. But after some drinks at The Edison, one of the best bars in downtown LA, I went to Daikokuya in Little Tokyo. Daikokuya is the first restaurant in Little Tokyo that I have been to in over 25 years. Litle Tokyo has and is undergoing a huge transformation. Many shops are either closing or being taken over by Korean companies and/or Korean owners.

I looked at the menu and was thinking of ordering the ramen, but the tempura bowl looked so good, I couldn't pass it up. The tempura bowl, $8.25 has three pieces of shrimp and four pieces of veggies, green beans, sweet potato, and onions served with rice, salad and miso soup. I don't touch miso soup, it is too salty and has a weird texture for me. But the salad was great. Also a cole slaw with finely chopped cabbage and a tangy, almost thousand island dressing. Very fresh and tasty.

The tempura wasn't want I expect tempura to be. The tempura was soggy!!! Tempura should be crunchy!!!!! All the tempura pieces were so soggy!!! I think the tempura was topped with some kind of sweet seasame sauce because I got that flavor on the rice and the tempura. I did like the rice, which was sushi rice, if I'm not mistaken.

Service was good but they again asked "Do you need change?" I hate that. It is very rude. Just say I'll be back with your change. Don't ask if I need change. It is your job to get me change.

I wouldn't go back to Daikokuya again and not because of they asked, "If I need change?" I know it was a ramen place but their tempura bowl was bad and even though the portion is big and the price is good, the food just isn't that good. Tempura should be crunchy!!