Ramen Run to the South Bay

Last Saturday, the Noodles Partner and I went down to the South Bay for ramen. We were also joined by a friend. Although many were interested in this crawl, few could actually “stomach” the idea of more than one bowl of ramen. Good thing the Noodles Partner and I have been training with our many, many mini-crawls and runs.

We hit up Shisen Ramen first and ordered the crab omelette to start. I had heard how good this was and it definitely was something I would love to eat over rice…or ramen! By itself, it was a little weird. How was I sop up the gravy which I knew was little more than soy sauce and corn starch. But still!

The gyoza looked pretty good and they were okay but I’ve come to terms now I just like Chinese pan fried dumplings more. Usually, they’re stuffed with more meat. Japanese gyoza seems to be a bit of a tease- all wrapper, no filler or worse, the filler is mostly veggie.

Our friend ordered the coconut ramen which looked very Thai to me. He discovered the meat way down in the bottom of the bowl after he was mostly done with the noodles.

The Noodles Partner ordered the Shisen ramen combo which included the above gyoza and her choice of rice. She opted for fried rice. I liked her bowl of noodles. It was a good standard bowl. I would have liked thicker ramen noodles but in comparison to my noodles, hers won the showdown.

While I enjoyed all the veggies in my bowl, I was turned off by how incredibly oily the broth was. And it wasn’t a good salty broth. Just oil. The little ice cream soup of ground pork was kind of funny though. And there were bits of seafood in this bowl. I would like to try the black garlic ramen or any of the other bowls on their list next time.

Shisen Ramen

1730 Sepulveda Blvd, #6
Torrance, CA 90501
(310) 534-1698

Next up, Mama Ramen!

Even though we came in for noodles, Mama had a lunch special that included “sides.” The Noodles Partner packed up her soboro don to go.

The Noodles Partner’s shoyu ramen was pretty bad. It was basically a bowl of watered down soy sauce. We belatedly realized she could have gotten miso for the same deal of ramen and a side.

My nira ramen was pretty good. I liked the leeks quite a bit. But the only thing that would have made it more perfect was if the pork was fatty or there were more pieces. I surprisingly liked the egg and I generally don’t like eggs.

I wanted to love this place but in the end, I realized I didn’t love either. I had high hopes for the ramen in South Bay. Maybe the hopes were too high.

The good news is there are more ramen and noodle shops to try!

Mama Ramen

24631 Crenshaw Blvd, Ste K
Torrance, CA 90505

(310) 517-9099