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| - Came here basically on a whim. It's not up to Las Vegas ramen standards but seems like maybe one of the better joints in the Phoenix metro. I may return sometime and give them another try. But my first impression is that this is Americanized ramen and doesn't match any authentic ramen style that I am aware of. But I could be wrong. Not to come across as a racist jerk, but I did notice that there was nothing but very young white employees in the kitchen and as servers, and there are no Japanese entry/exit greetings. Since I'm not a Phoenix resident, maybe this is not unusual here.
I got the spicy miso ramen with added karaage. 100% not spicy, not even 'white people spicy'. Broth is a little weirdly sweet, as others have mentioned, which may just be because of what tasted like sweet pickled bamboo shoots (so weird). There was also sushi-style red ginger in wide slices. Normally miso is put into the house pork, chicken, or combo broth, but it honestly tasted like the miso was just mixed into water. This made the broth oddly too thick and too thin on flavor at the same time. The broth was not at all hot enough. I did see that you could select "extra rich" broth but I wasn't really sure what that meant (are they watering the broth down if you don't get this?? make extra fatty? be more clear) and for my first visit, decided to try the broth as-is. I prefer a little more fatty and meaty broth.
The fresh noodles tasted good, but they both looked and tasted exactly like fresh spaghetti noodles, they didn't seem alkaline, springy/bouncy at all. Karaage was okay. I personally did like the slightly blackened BBQ-style charsiu but I could see why others might prefer the traditional style. The egg is pretty good, semi-soft. The prices are totally fair and the service was pretty good. I feel like this place could be vastly more improved with a better and more authentic broth recipe. The potential is there.
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