My first meal in Los Angeles was a hurried one at Orochon Ramen in Little Tokyo. Ramen. What an amazing staple. It’s all the necessary food groups in one huge bottomless bowl: noodles, vegetables, meat, oil, soy.
Orochon is a tiny place (about 20 seats inside and 15 seats outside) that gets busy by 7:00. We arrived at 6:30, right before the rush, and got a table outside before the line started.
You pick between three broths: miso, soy sauce, and salt, and then pick your spicy level (#1 is “Extreme” and #7 is Non-Spicy). I ordered a #4 with soy sauce, corn, and negi. But this is what I got:
It was a #3 and it had corn, pork, negi, green pepper, bamboo, and seaweed. Fine, we were in a hurry. I wanted to finish the whole darn thing because it was so lip-slurping good, but the spice level was at least one, if not two, notches too high. And my spicy level tolerance is pretty high to begin with.
Matt got a #4 miso broth with pork, negi, and garlic. His hunger was a bit stronger than the spiciness so he was able to finish more of his ramen.
I felt like I was in Tokyo. I really wish I could go back and try all of the different flavor and spicy combinations here because they were so tasty and authentic. But I would not eat inside because it reminds me a little bit too much of ramen shops in Tokyo.
City Search has details and a menu.
