| rev:text
| - 05/04/14 DINNER
So I write my first Yelp in quite a long time, mostly due to time constraints. (Sheesh, should I even bother, my LAST Yelp review generated my first-ever hate mail, via Yelp's "compliment" app! NICE!)
I'm not gonna get into it deeply (actually, knowing me, I probably will!), but we REALLY liked this place a lot. It's the first of this Japanese chain's restaurants in the entire United States. Having dined there, we feel privileged.
And dining here was a last-minute decision. We were on our way elsewhere for a dear friend's Cinco de Mayo bar extravaganza, but unfortunately their parking lot was completely full from the very beginning, and with absolutely NO street parking for miles, we gave up on that. (Sorry, C! Love you, man!)
It's not fair to review the standard ramen itself here, as we didn't have typical ramen, but we want to return and try that, to compare it to the other ramen places we've tried in Vegas. (HINT: My absolute FAVE ramen place remains Ramen Sora, particularly the miso ramen, but we haven't been there in quite a while.)
First off, you can order an Asahi draft for under $4, or you can order the same beer with edamame thrown in for the same price! We opted for that little extra. The edamame were OK, nothing special, no garlic or coarse salt. But for free, who can complain! As all 3 of us wanted a beer, we got lots of edamame.
Next up, if you check-in via Yelp you can get purchase an appetizer for half off. As we had a party of 3 (but only 2 smartphones), we opted for the karaage and the gyoza.
The karaage (Japanese boneless fried chicken) are the reason this place didn't get 5 stars from me: very disappointing. It's like they threw purchased frozen nuggets in a fryer. Not the worst thing in the world, but greasy, not crispy, never again.
BUT THOSE GYOZA! WOW! We could've ordered tons of those! Wonderful!
Lastly, my spouse and I ordered the same entree, the carbonara ramen. I guess this is the signature dish of the chain. It's literally a lightly japanese take on carbonara pasta in Italy. This rocked. Not a heavy cream sauce, as most american restaurants mistakenly do, but a light broth (using the same broth in the ramens) with cream added. The waitress asked if I wanted thick or thin noodles, I opted to have her choose, she chose thick, and they were great with this. Now, this dish is NOT loaded up with pork belly slices, like other ramens I've had in the past, but instead contains some chopped up pork belly and fat, which was similar to the pancetta you'd get if ordered in Italy. At $10.95, this was a great deal and, like I said, was terrific. Best carbonara I've had ANYWHERE in quite a long time. (Oh, how I long for the day of the visiting barely-english-speaking Claudio and his home made pasta & carbonara, made at my apt in Sherman Oaks, CA!)
The check was cheap, under $20 pp including tax and tip. Needless to say, we'll be back.
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