Yatai Ramen at Breadbar

Breadbar is making quite the name for themselves as the destination of pop-up eateries. For the most part, I’ve had some good food but particularly atrocious service at the Breadbar in Century City. However, I am fond of the one on West 3rd as it was the location I first had Ludobites. You can hardly forget your first love.

When I heard they were doing a ramen pop-up, the first person I thought of was my Noodles Partner. We have conquered many a noodle shop and were ready for this challenge. Along for the ramen twist ride were four others. You would think we’d order 6 different bowls of ramen as they offered 9 bowls but alas, most of us wanted to try the foie gras and oxtail. We ended up ordering the spicy miso, spicy pork curry, foie gras, oxtail and the Vietnam-style one.

We also ordered all the appetizers, doubling up on the pork feet gyoza.  I would skip the cold tofu next time. It wasn’t silky like some cold tofu appetizers I’ve had in the past. I thought the soy dipping sauce was almost too salty and preferred to eat the gyoza plain. While the experience was novel (pork feet), I would also skip these in favor of ordering Breadbar’s desserts to take to-go.

Both the foie gras and oxtail ramens were very rich. Although I preferred the foie gras over the oxtail, I only had a taste of both. I imagine both would be overwhelmingly rich if I had the entire bowl. Then again, I’m willing to find out if I can make it before the pop-up closes next week.

The Vietnam Ramen is a pho-style broth with raw beef tenderloin. It’s accompanied by the usual bean sprouts and herbs. I consider pho one of my comfort foods though I don’t usually go for filet mignon pho (I like the combination phos more) but I did think Yatai could have went with the filet instead of tenderloin. The broth was fine, not as flavorful as the others.

One of my favorites of the night was the spicy pork curry. If you like a lot of meat, get this one. And the curry was a light, delicate curry. It wasn’t like just dropping a cube of curry into boiling water (which um, I may have done before myself).

I ordered the spicy miso ramen which came with a nice piece of kurobuta pork belly and a fantastic marinated poached egg. For someone who doesn’t much like chicken eggs, I could get into this one. And I enjoyed the bamboo shoots in this ramen. I was the only one who ordered a classic ramen. I would go for the shoyu next time but probably would return for the “twist” ones.

Overall, we had a great time and wish this little pop-up set up a permanent shop somewhere.

*Japanese beer provided by GastroNomNom.com

Yatai Ramen Twist at Breadbar

8718 West 3rd Street

Los Angeles, CA 90048

310 205 0124