Mitsuwa Market Pl 21515 Western Ave Torrance,CA90501 Ironically, came here after the Ramen Yokocho festival in Torrance because we couldn't fill our bellies with over priced $8 mini sized ramens at the festival. But that event totally incepted(as in inception) us with the idea of wanting to eat more ramen. Been meaning to come back to Santouka, and I remembered there was on nearby in Torrance. So that's how we ended up here.
Giving Santouka 5 stars for their Spicy miso ramen. I've had a spicy miso ramen at other places, and thus far, none were anywhere close to the magnitude of Santouka's. The spiciness does not over power the umami-ness of the delightful broth. Good balance, good sides in the bowl like chashu and other goodies. Best spicy miso ramen period.
Had their natto bowl on the side. Not a lot of people like natto because it's fermented. But I enjoy it very much. It's not really seasoned. So maybe a little salt or soy sauce could kick it up a notch? The fermented taste is very subtle, so don't add to much seasoning if you enjoy the aroma of natto.
My combo was about $12-13. It's not bad at all as far as value. We were the only ones that had the idea from Ramen yokocho fest. We saw some others that also came here after the event.
Invited to Ramen Yokocho Fest by Weekly Lalala to do a video about this event. Thought it was a great idea. I knew it was going to be crowded. Luckily, we had the press passes, so we didn't have to wait too long in line. The line to get in is no joke, but they had to do it for crowd control. We walked around first, scooped out the ticket booths and ramen booths. The ticket booth on the other side had no line. So we didn't have to wait to buy tickets(food and drink vouchers).
Got 2 tickets($8), so we tried Orenchi Ramen from San Jose. Their soup was a fatty creamy rich broth. The noodles were thick and chewy. A bit on the salty side, but over all a very tasty ramen. Second place we tried was Iroha. They served a Spicy Mapo Ramen. It's said to have won 3 championships on the Tokyo Ramen Show. And it's the work of owner Kurihara and Iron Chef Chen Kenichi. The ramen wasn't as good as we thought. The spicy was very overpowering. Tasted very 2 dimension. Just spicy and savory.
Overall, the staff did a pretty decent job keeping this event contained. Hope the crazy turn out would get them a bigger venue as 626 Night Market has done. My other complaint about this even was that the price. $8 for a half/mini bowl size ramen is a bit overboard. Definitely not bang for the buck value at this event. On the other hand, the free entry and parking was a plus. Thank you for checking out our video and hope to see you at the next one.
