Ramen Yamadaya

• Cuisine(s): Japanese, Ramen
  Price: $$
  Payment Types: MasterCard, Visa
• Serving: Dinner, Lunch
  Alcohol: None
  Reservations: Not Accepted
• Parking: Street

Description

Yamadaya, a new ramen shop not far from Tito's Tacos in Culver City, takes porkiness to a new extreme, a tongue-coating, brain-penetrating pig plasma that comes at you as if shot from an umami gun set to stun. You don't just eat Yamadaya ramen, you wear it like a straitjacket. You're not going anywhere until you're done. The room is long and bare; the noodle-sotted customers have the distinct, hollow-eyed look of screenwriters and grad students. One sees the occasional order of the kare-age fried chicken, which is OK in a bento-box kind of way, but that's taking the coward's way out. The one permissible variation is tsukemen, thick chewy noodles served by themselves, with a superfunky dipping sauce - basically the tonkotsu broth boiled down to a fish-laced syrup - on the side.