I've been reading about this place forever and every attempt to eat here has driven me elsewhere or to Mr. Ramen, home for waiting-in-long-line quitters. This time I had Him by my side and He wouldn't let me quit. So, we shivered in the autumn wind, huddling close to the glow behind Daikokuya's famous yellow awning with hopes of eating a warm bowl of ramen.
Standing outside we, well I, had the chance to thoroughly read the menu and decide on our orders. We were getting the ramen, gyoza for me, fried rice and sausages for him. The gyoza made me curious - they were rectangle and not the cresent shape I grew up with. Must. Have. Them.
Instead of gyoza a plate of green onions came out with a garnish of gyoza. There was so much green onion, I brushed them aside to save them for my ramen. I thought the gyoza and sauce was pretty weak. I'm used to more ginger in the dumpling filling and the ponzu sauce wasn't as citrusy. They were fried nicely though, so not a total fail.
The sausages (really hot dogs) were very tasty with the mustard on the side. Not cut into octo-dogs, but that's okay. I've never had Japanese fried rice. It just tasted like fried rice. I prefer my mom's version (I guess it's Vietnamese fried rice?) since it has Chinese sausage in it.
From where we were seated we got a great view into the tiny gally kitchen. It was cool to watch the cooks dance around each other in a flurry,hustling to get our order out. I noticed one guy at the wok and I knew he was making the fried rice order. Another guy was stirring a large stock pot with the ramen soup base in it. He was obviously preparing our Daikoku ramen.
Finally our ramen arrived. I turned mine into negi (green onion) ramen by adding all that green onion from the gyoza to the soup. Maybe I'm just so used to Santouka's strong soup, but I found Daikoku's soup rather lite in flavor. But it might also be because Daikoku's ramen is soy sauce and pork flavored. At Santouka you can pick from salt, soy, or miso flavors. I really loved that Daikoku's ramen includes an egg. It was soft boiled, so the yolk was slightly runny inside. Perfect.
I finally did it! I've eaten at Daikokuya. Would I go back now? Sure, but probably not for the ramen. I'd like to try their donburi, rice bowls.
Read and post comments |
Send to a friend
]]>