Setagaya Ramen - Booooooo..

Why no picture for ramen story? Cuz it doesn't even deserve one. Setagaya almost completely disappointed me, hurt my Japanese food-patriotic loyalty.

A long line is a good sign. But if 90% of the people in the line are not Japanese, then it's a not-that-good sign, especially if you are looking for authenticity. Call me racist. Fine. After such a huge expectation and hunger for good, Japanese ramen, we had to try. After 20 minutes wait, we got our seats. Ready to order right away, of course. 95 degree out tonight. First comes a bottle of beer. "We don't have a license yet." What? "Can we bring in our own beer then?" "No. Sorry." What the F!~ I clearly saw BEER on the menu outside. It wasn't covered with a piece of paper or crossed-out like on the menu inside. Right there, an faithful business. Bad feeling.

We gobbled up a cup of water. The salted egg and menma could have been far better with beer but let's compromise. Now the main dish. We all had Shio Cha-shu men (salt flavored soup with slices of pork). Setagaya is known for its salt-flavored bloth. Noodle is way too hard. My friend picked up 10 noodles stuck together as a chunk. It could be for foreign customers who take forever till the noodles melts down to finish a bowl of ramen. To Japanese customer like myself, this was a ridiculous hospitality.

This wrongly cooked noodle totally lower the score. Soup is intricate and complex. If you don't like some scalloppy, fishy flavor, you'd better stick to Menkui-tei. Wait. Everyone should stick to Menkui-tei anyways. But I give them credit for the orinal flavor of their soup.

All I wonder is how the authentic Setagaya in Japan serve its signature dish. I gotta ask my family in Tokyo to go and try this place. At least in NY, they don't get any high score from Japanese. Obviously, there was a few Japanese tonight.