the ramen tour, stop #2: asa ramen.

a little over a week after our first stop at gardena ramen, the second stop on our tour brought c and i to asa ramen, which is, literally, across the street from gardena ramen. if you're familiar with sanuki no sato, then you can definitely find asa ramen. it's a tiny shop with only about 4 tables and 8 counter seats. on the menu, asa ramen lists two different kinds of broth for their ramen - kotteri (rich and fatty) shoyu, and assari (light and less fatty) shoyu. we placed our order for ramen - c got the assari shoyu and i got the kotteri shoyu, as well as an order of gyoza and an order of the original takoyaki (a doughy ball with a piece of octopus in the middle, usually covered with sauce, aonori sweaweed flakes, and shaved bonito) to share. after which, we noticed the "specials" board that advertised a shio (salt broth) ramen. perhaps on the next visit.





the noodles at asa are rather thin - and i'm sure if you let the noodles sit too long in the soup, it would be a soggy, mushy, mess. of course, c and i didn't let that happen as we quickly enjoyed our noodles. if you really like the fatty soup for your ramen, i highly recommend the kotteri, but if the fat isn't your thing the assari is just as good. the gyoza here was good, but not as good as the gyoza at gardena ramen. they were probably about the same in size, but the flavor of them didn't blow me away. the takoyaki hardly reminded me of the ones i ate as a kid, but still enjoyable. i think it's because as a kid, i loved them smothered in sauce and seaweed and here they held back on the sauce. they serve it with a dollop of mayonnaise on the side.



i'm not sure how long asa ramen has been here - but i've heard about them for over a year now. in the beginning it sounded like all they had was ramen and takoyaki - but they now had several izakaya style items on their menu, such as chicken karaage, and also about 4 or 5 different variations of their takoyaki. i think asa ramen is definitely a place i would go back to, for the noodles. and let's not forget that they are open until about 1a - with last call around 12 midnight.

asa ramen * 18202 s. western ave. * gardena, ca 90248