I missed last year pop up event and my laziness almost made me miss this year too, but I made it to Ironori’s Ramen bull pop up at Breadbar twice during the last two week of its 4 months run. People gets really geeky and obsessive with ramen and I’m not one of them, but I do appreciate a really good bowl of ramen. The ramen serves in this pop up is beef-broth based instead of the usual pork, and it contains meat like oxtails, beef tongue and short ribs.
The first time I went I was surprised at the lack of people. I know it’s been out for months but look at the ridiculous queue at Daikokuya. The 2nd time was the last day, and it was very crowded (lots of really loud big groups) and they sold out all the ramen an hour before the closing time. The ramens weren’t cheap, they cost $12-16 a bowl.
Besides ramen there’re a few appetizers and drinks on the menu. Homemade Hibiscus tea and minty lemonade.
Grill shishitos.
Miso eggplant.
Slice Beef tongue: very thin, melt-in-your-mouth tender and buttery.
Oxtail Ramen and Short rib Ramen. The broth and ingredients are the same except for the meat. The broth had lots of depth and was very rich, it would go well with some beer or even wine (which I brought for the 2nd time). The meat was tender and flavorful, noodle was springy, I love the perfectly soft-yolk soy sauce egg. Though I wasn’t sure of the “foam”, I don’t think they add too much to it.
I think the ramen worths the $12-16 price for a limited pop up event, though my friend thought it would be too high for a regular restaurant. However, a lot of generic restaurants charge that price for bland, cheap ingredient food (ex: pasta, sandwiches) and somehow that’s seen as ok. If the chef do decide to open a ramen place in LA and keep the high quality of ingredients and cooking, I would not mind to pay a little extra for something specials.
For news for upcoming event: www.ironnori.com
