Hello everyone! It’s Joan!
We meant to write the blog as soon as we finished our ramen run this past Wednesday, but blogspot was undergoing maintenance! So we apologize for the wait!
After a few weeks following our epic adventure in Hawaii, we finally got over our trip (well, not really) and decided to go on our next ramen run. We had ramen at a place called Shogun Restaurant in La Verne, about 20 minutes away from home. Not bad! I found out about this place when I saw my cousin post a picture of her ramen on facebook. I actually went here for ramen not too long ago and thought it was pretty good. But I wanted to write the blog when Tanya was with me. And of course, consistency is a really important quality we look for, so I didn’t mind coming here again.
First of all, Shogun is not a ramen house. It’s actually a teppan, fine dining and sushi restaurant. But on Wednesday and Thursdays, they serve ramen. When we got there, we were immediately seated at the sushi side of the restaurant. The place was huge since they serve everything, and the place was pretty busy for a Wednesday night but still had plenty of tables left. Everyone that worked there was Japanese, so I felt confident in the authenticity and quality of everything else they serve. There was a really cool sushi bar in the middle of the room with a sushi train! It was very difficult to look in that direction because of all the yummy treats and sushi that passed by.
Everything that passed by made me drool a bit…
Shogun only had one type of ramen, which was the Chashu Ramen. Tanya ordered it just as it was, and I ordered it with extra chashu for an extra dollar. Some people have been asking me what the heck we’re talking about when it comes to the kind of ramen we order. Just in case you were wondering, chashu is simmered pork slices served as a ramen topping. The broth was tonkotsu, which is made from pork bone. Yum.
Chashu Ramen
I really enjoyed the ramen here actually. The broth had more flavor than salt. It also included toasted garlic bits which gave it a nice touch. The garlic was not overpowering in the broth, but it was enough to give us bad breath for the rest of the evening. The slices of pork were very tasty and not entirely fatty. The noodles had just the right amount of firmness so it took a while for it to get soggy. (I hate soggy noodles!) It also had a small amount of bean sprouts, green onions, sesame seeds, (which I also love to have), a nice amount of oil, and the best part was, it didn’t have bamboo! Yay!
Overall, I thought the ramen was very good, with just the right amount of everything. Almost the perfect bowl. I only say “almost,” because I still can’t say this is the best ramen I’ve ever had. If anything, I could use a little more pork flavor in the broth. But for the location and the quality, this place is worth going to. The other thing that I like about this place is that they only serve it on Wednesdays and Thursdays. To me, this meant that they probably take the time and focus on making a good quality bowl of ramen for those days. The problem I’ve had with other Japanese restaurants that serve everything plus ramen, is that because they serve everything everyday, their focus is not really on the ramen. I’ve had ramen at other places like this before, like Kabuki for example, and it tasted like it was just pulled out of the fridge and reheated. Yuck.
Hey! Tanya here. I have to say I was impressed with the ramen from a sushi house. The broth was yummy. It was full of flavor that didn’t linger on the taste buds. Let me explain why I like that. If the flavor travels down to your stomach after every bite then you can enjoy the next bite as much as you did the first. Sometimes when the flavor lingers on the taste buds then it desensitizes them and only the beginning is the best experience. When you can enjoy each bite of noodles, sip of broth and nommy piece of pork it just makes the entire meal enjoyable. The noodles had a great texture(I ❤ noodles) and the pork was actually really fatty but I didn’t mind because it was so good! Plus the fat didn’t coat my mouth with a nasty film >.<
Its a bittersweet feeling about Shogun only having one type of ramen and only for two nights. But Joan and I agreed that if they served it everyday then the quality wouldn’t be as awesome. I loved how they had roasted garlic in the broth. The place was nice, neat art work on the wall(see behind Joan in above picture). Too bad I didn’t take a picture of it, hehe. The place had multiple areas to sit in. I would even like to enjoy the sushi experience sometime. The place has a cool sushi restaurant environment and serves good quality ramen Wednesday and Thursday nights. Back to Joan.
Aww how cute… we almost match!
You’re probably wondering why we called this blog, “warrior night.” Well, because of our cheesiness, we realized that a “shogun” is a Japanese military ruler, (yeah I know, it’s not actually a warrior but I’m sure they were at some point) and after our ramen run, we saw the movie, Thor. So we had delicious ramen at Shogun, and then we had a delcious… I mean a warrior movie, Thor. Yum. If you’re into the Iron Man movies, or any action/superhero movies in general, or enjoy watching a sexy, charming warrior in action, we recommend you watch this movie. And make sure you stick around after the credits for a surprise ending! Okay, that wasn’t a surprise anymore.
Thanks for reading!
– Joan and Tanya
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