Longest Wait For a Quick Meal |

Hey folks,

I just got home from hanging out in Santa Monica with my cousin Michelle and my brother Mark. It was Mark’s birthday yesterday and Michelle wanted to take us out! We went to the new Tsujita Annex in West LA on Sawtelle Blvd. (aka Little Osaka), which was just across the street from the Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle. In case you didn’t know, Tsujita LA only serves ramen during lunch, and the new Tsujita Annex serves ramen all day and night! So I was quite thrilled to try the new place out.

We arrived at Tsujita Annex around 7:30 and there were 21 people waiting ahead of us! We almost considered leaving and going to Kotoya instead… but decided that we should try a new place tonight. The nice thing was, they took our orders while we were waiting outside.

Am I missing something or did they mispell “ramen” with “raman” 3 times?

After an hour and a half, (the longest wait I’ve done for ramen) we were finally seated and our bowls of ramen arrived within 3 minutes! We all ordered the Ramen with soft boiled egg and their homemade Matcha tea.

Ramen with Soft Boiled Egg… times 3!

Thick noodles in a sea of fatty broth!

Gooey soft boiled egg

The ramen was indeed delicious. The broth was so rich in flavor. But it was also very fatty, which is something I don’t personally prefer. It was very similar to the kotteri style broth from Daikokuya. But still, very good for what it was. The noodles, although very thick, were very chewy and they really helped balance out the rich broth flavor. The chashu was tender and had a good flavor, but I can’t say it’s my favorite place for chashu. The egg was awesome though, perfectly cooked and nicely seasoned. They also sprinkle pepper on top, which was something I wasn’t used to. Nice touch however.

Michelle enjoyed her ramen but felt it was overwhelmingly porky for her preference. She too, felt it was too heavy and thought the smell of pork was too strong. Mark thought the flavor was good overall but it was way too fatty for his taste as well. He says that it did not sit well in his stomach afterwards. It felt like eating really greasy fast food and then feeling sick from it. But he loved the matcha tea. I think we all did!

To be honest, none of us could finish our ramen and we were all starving when we arrived. I think my favorite part were the noodles because I devoured those right away. But it was just too heavy of a meal! If you like fatty ramen broth, this place is for you. But of all the ramen places I’ve tried in Little Osaka so far, I think I would want to go to Tsujita Annex first.

However, none of us enjoyed the atmosphere. The service was quick, but we didn’t like how pushy everyone was to get us out the door. The first thing the server asked was if we were ready for our check, and we said no. Then he asked if he can clear our table several times but Mark and I were still working on our ramen. Yes, I understand there was a long line outside, but still, it was very uncomfortable. They also played some pretty intense traditional Japanese music and I couldn’t help but think some ninjas were going to pop out of the kitchen door at any moment. We must have been in the restaurant for only 20-25 minutes.

Their homemade Matcha tea