I should write more about their pork belly and park shoulder ramen than I did. I enjoyed the bowl a bit more the second time I tried it and savored the nuances. The soup was aromatic, with pork bone contributed to both body and flavor, while the garlic oil added a tiny bit of bitterness that added to the delicious complexity of flavors of the soup. There were also a few pieces of kimchee and some red pepper flakes in the soup to provide a little kick. Pork belly was melt-in-the-mouth smooth and fatty. Shoulder was slow cooked and shredded. This time there was no nori. This bowl compared favorably with those from specialist ramen joints.
The new snack dish, fried wonton, was a highlight of the meal. I had refused for years to order fried wonton because of an insistence to stay away from inauthentic dishes. The server highly recommended the dish. Given our confidence of the kitchen we ordered it. The wontons were great. But the sauce that came on he side took the dish to a whole different level. The wonton tasted pretty Italian to me with the cream cheese and pumpkin filling. The savory cheesiness blended well with the sweetness of the pumpkin. We didn’t have a chance to ask about the sauce, but it seemed like a sort of ume / yuzu sauce that was at once tart, sweet and bright that awoke the senses and made us super glad that we ordered the dish, and only $4.5.
The spicy beef noodle soup was very enjoyable, with beef bone broth as the base, sliced beef shank, and tender chunky braised beef (and lots of it), and a little bit of heat in the soup.
Its impressive that many dishes on the menu features components that require lots of time, or lots of ingredients to make, e.g. the pork/ seafood/ beef bone broth for different noodles, the different sauces. I don’t know how they manage to do all of that with a small kitchen staff.
