Tsujita
Sawtelle is a street in LA full of Asian influenced restaurants. It is packed on weekend nights. Best time to get in anywhere is for lunch.
We went over there on Saturday night and did what everyone else does….stand in line. We decided we would go to Tsujita. Once your name is called you place your order. Your name is called again at one point and you go inside to sit. About one minute after being seated your meal comes out. It is pretty clever. The wait is outside. They run a pretty tight ship.
The thing to do here is the Tsukemen. The dipping noodle. A bowl of cold noodles and extra meat if you order it to be dipped into your bowl of spicy ramen.
Spicy is different to everyone. The dish comes with a big helping of the onikasu (the red spice) and you can add extra. If you want you can ask for the dish with no spice and add your own. The guy out front told us that it wasn’t that spicy and part of the dish. He usually adds two more spoonfuls. After eating our dish as is I realized that guy has a serious tolerance for spice. It comes spicy enough for me.
Fun experience. The handmade noodles are pretty damn good. Totally worth the wait.
Comments (Archived):
Staring shortly I’ll be in LA every other week for a few days for a bit.So looking forward to it.
You and Fred should try to come down here to the OC while you’re on the West coast. Little Saigon has the most authentic Vietnamese food you’ll see outside of, well, Saigon. Pho is to die for.-B
a request. i would like to see a photo of the frontage of each of the places you eat at.
ok.
thanks. every bowl of nice food looks sort of similar after a while. i need ‘fingerprint’.
There was a restaurant in LA that is now closed. It was called Alma. It is now located in The Standard Hotel at 8300 W.Sunset, LA. I have never been to Alma but heard that the chef Ari Taymor is very good.