#daikokuya

[honeyrolls]

Strawberry Desserts

[cecyvelasco-blog1]

[colorlesstune]

Refuel.

[shokudou-boogie]

I went down to LA to see my favorite band, Asian Kung-Fu Generation. This was a good opportunity for me to check out some local eats here.

My friend suggested that we should check out Daikokuya, a ramen and donburi shop located in Little Tokyo; a district located in downtown Los Angeles. She was told about it by her friends and was really eager to check it out. I’m super unfamiliar with the downtown part of LA, so I thought it would be an awesome idea to go.

When we got there, we realized how insanely popular the restaurant is. At first we thought we had to get into a line to just sign in, but we just had to sign in and wait for our number to be called. It took a while for us to get seated, but we both knew we were in for something special.

The restaurant is pretty small, and had some small booths, but as you can see, everyone ate at the counter. It’s not really a place where you go to kick it for hours with friends. You order, you eat, and then you leave.

One thing I did notice though was how BIG these bowls were. However, I had a cocky state of mind thinking I would be eating a lot. Well hoo boy, did I think wrong.

Review’s at the jump, check it out!

What I ordered: I ordered the Daikoku Ramen bowl and small katsudon bowl combo. The ramen had a tonkotsu soup base, and had egg noodles, kurobuta chashu, egg, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

The katsudon was just your standard katsudon, marinated in soy and cooked again with an egg and onions.

My friend ordered the same ramen as I did, but she also ordered their gyoza.

What was good: Okay, I know I usually say that I’m sick of tonkotsu ramen, but this ramen was different. It wasn’t incredibly strong like most tonkotsu ramen I’ve had here in Seattle, but it was still pretty hearty. I also loved how you can taste literally everything in the bowl. The flavors came out in all of the toppings, especially the bamboo shoots, and the NOODLES!!

Let me talk to you about those noodles, hoo boy. They had that BITE and TEXTURE that I really like in noodles. I was so tempted to see if I could get extra noodles, but I was getting SO FULL eating this ramen. It was just so hearty and delicious, but I didn’t feel sluggish after eating it. It was just a really good bowl of ramen!

The gyoza too was also amazing! It was more like folded over, instead of being pinched into a dumpling shape, so it was very different than usual. However, the flavor was phenomenal. You could taste everything that was put into the filling. You could taste the meat, the vegetables.. everything! Especially the ginger! It wasn’t a strong presence, but it wasn’t weak like most and it gave the gyoza this brightness to the gyoza, so it didn’t feel like I was eating a total grease bomb.

What was bad: I really think I should use the term ‘bad’ a little lightly, or replace it with, “what was meh” but I thought that the katsudon was okay. It wasn’t really anything special and it tasted like any other katsudon. I appreciated it, but it didn’t really leave any lasting impressions on me.

Overall...

Holy cow this place. I think it might make Seattle ramen kind of bland for me. This was just the perfect bowl and although it was a struggle to finish all this food, it was a beautiful struggle. It was like watching someone shooting from half court to win the basketball game.

Daikokuya, I will miss you so much, and when I return to LA for whatever reason, you bet that you’ll be taking my money and appetite.

The Daikokuya I went to is located in Little Tokyo. Here’s the address:

Daikokuya Little Tokyo 327 E 1st St. Los Angeles, CA 90012

[stevegifford]

2/23/17

[ileftmyheartintokyo]

Shinjuku by B Lucava

[just-selfish]

Waiting for our ramen.

[travel-journal-from-shirokane]

Daikokuya, Restaurant(Tokyo, Japan) 大黒家★★

I ate tempura rice bowl at Daikokuya (^o^)

I had been in line for about an hour to eat it(^o^)

This tempura had moist taste, and black sweet soy-sauce flavor was excellent（fantastic taste which we can feel the history）(^o^)

大黒家で天丼を食べて来ました(^o^)

1時間くらい並んだかな(^o^)

しっとり系の天麩羅で黒い甘辛いタレがいい感じです（歴史を感じるいい味わい）(^o^)

↓Shrimp tempura rice bowl

↓海老天丼

↓tempura rice bowl（shrimp, fish called Kisu, Kakiage）

↓天丼（えび、きす、かき揚げ）

↓Menu（メニュー）

↓Entrance（店の前）

創業明治二十年。浅草名物、天丼の店、大黒家天麩羅のホームページです。創業以来、変わらず守ってきた甘辛く濃厚な独特のタレが自慢です。