

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Ebisu Ramen - Fountain Valley, CA

18942-A Brookhurst St.
Fountain Valley, CA 92708

"World's Best Noodle House" - website.

Hmm...they must be in their own world. Although quite tasty and worth the price, "world's best" is a stretch. Located around the way from Ebisu Market, this restaurant and shopping center holds a place in my childhood. So much so that I can still visualize the history of events related to their evolution as far back to Takeda-san's (owner) market truck. I won't go into it here but you can ask me to elaborate in the comments if you like.

I tend not to mention prices but this was too good a deal not to. The lunch special I ordered came with shoyu-ramen, chahan, 2 pieces of gyoza, a salad, and a drink all for under $10! Go hungry and you'll leave satisfied.

Shoyu-ramen: After getting over how the taste kept invoking past memories, the shoyu-ramen tasted average and not very impressive. The noodles actually ruined it for me. Perhaps it was because I was the first person in there, but parts of my noodles were stuck together and clumpy. The texture was fine but we all know that ramen needs to be continuously stirred when cooking! The soup base was the best part of it. No overly aggressive flavors tugging at your taste buds. Just a nice balance of crisp subtlety. The toppings were nothing fancy but complemented the ramen very well.

Chahan & Gyoza: This chahan was delicious and reminded me of home. It wasn't greasy or mushy and had plenty of flavor. And dipping it into the ramen soup made it 100x better! It was almost better than...okay I won't go there. The gyoza was also delicious but not in the top 10. You can't go wrong with this combination! (p.s. I couldn't finish all my chahan. Perhaps a little less chahan with one more gyoza would have been better.)


  1. Tell us about Takeda-san's truck!

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  3. Before Takeda-san bought Ebisu market, he used to drive around a big truck that was like a market on wheels. It basically had everything that a Japanese family would need from fish to ajinomoto. It was way ahead of its time but I guess driving around from house to house all day would have taken its toll. My fondest memory was running in the truck to buy the big bottles of Calpis and joking with my brothers that it was cow pis...we were young. I like to think that we had something to do with them changing the name to Calpico in the U.S. but I doubt it.

  4. It seems like we have similar tastes in ramen. Gotta love that!

    I've been eating at Ebisu for over 15 years! I remember when the restaurant was literally half the size. It's too bad the quality's really inconsistent these days. I tend to go there more for the tentoji combo (ten-don & soba. yum!) than the ramen these days...sigh...

    (And thanks for the links!)