Well, it looks good 
I went to Ramen Tatsu-Ya yesterday. Yes, yes, yes, I’m just a slave to foodie trends (except I don’t get into them until a couple of years late). This is the Austin import that was the subject of enormous hype, pre-opening (surprise!, surprise!). User ratings have not been as lofty (no comment).
This is the place that has the current Cramen offering but I had decided to just go with their Tonkotsu Original before going in. It comes with their basic pork bone broth, chasu (soy braised pork belly), ajitama (soft boiled egg), wood-ear mushrooms and scallion. I added a ‘corn bomb’ but passed on a ‘spice bomb.’
The broth was incredibly rich and milky; I think I could have slurped the whole bowl but it was unfortunately not really hot. Nor were the noodles. There were fewer noodles than I’ve gotten in other samples and they were not as good as I’ve had at Samurai and Tamashi, nor the Sun Noodle packs I’ve bought at H-Mart. The Wiki article on the noodles mentions kansui, a type of mineral water, as an essential ingredient which gives the noodles a yellowish hue and makes them chewy and slower to get soggy. I thought the noodles here had very little if any of that ingredient; at first slurp, I thought they tasted like spaghetti and weren’t at all chewy.
The chasu was very good, a thicker single slice than the 2 slices in the bowl I got at Kuen, with some browning. I love wood ear mushroom and have eaten close to a whole plate of it off the buffet at Pine Forest Garden but this was shredded and indistinguishable to me. There was a lot of the mushroom and scallion added. The corn bomb was more butter than corn; I hesitated to add it at all when I realized how rich the broth was; when I finally added it and got it mixed in, it didn’t make a noticeable difference to me in the overall soup and I would pass on it in the future. I’d prefer to just have corn kernels to add.
The bombs are served on the side for you to add. Had I known that I would have gotten the spice bomb. It was described as about the heat level of sriracha and there are other spicy options to add. I have found I like to hold off on adding a chile oil or paste until the bowl has cooled off and is starting to get tedious/monotonous, to liven it up a bit.
It appears the only way to get any condiments/bombs/additional toppings is pay for them extra.
Because of the noodles, I’d rank this below Tamashi and Samurai for now but I will give them another chance. The broth is pretty incredible. It’s a very nice space; the music made me immediately think ‘60s-70s Austin vibe 
.’ I used to live in one of these 20s bungalows in this neighborhood and the transformation of this one was amazing. The next door home has been razed and turned into a parking lot so parking shouldn’t be a problem except at peak hours.
This was a beautiful bowl of soup when it arrived but the picture I took is beyond pathetically blurry. There are many pics online and they appear to be very consistent turning out these bowls so you can look there for a good idea of what it looked like.
I have my eyes set on Jinya Ramen on Louisiana if I can figure out where to park or Ramen Bar Ichi out on Dairy Ashford which has a small menu of ramen but offers Japanese fried chicken! Any of you guys out on the west side been there?
I’ve my eye the Dairy Ashford one and plan to go Monday after an appointment nearby.
Isn’t tepid broth a crime in the ramen world? It is to me for any soup but it seems a real failure in ramen.
For “blister your lips” great ramen try Ramen Jin on Wilcrest at Westheimer.
I saw Tampopo recently. Took me 3 viewings to get thru the whole movie. Not my favorite.
I’ve been reading up on ramen and the articles are making more sense now that I have a little experience. Judging by the condiments I got with this bowl, it seems this would be the Hakata style of ramen from Fukuoka on Kyushu Island. Whether all the bowls they serve here are also this style I don’t know.
I see from the online menu that for the chasu in this dish, there is supposed to be a choice of pork shoulder or pork belly. I don’t remember being asked but maybe I missed it because the guy spoke very softly. I’m sure what I got was shoulder.
I also see you have a choice of firmness of noodles. I remember seeing that before I went in but wasn’t asked. Next time I’ll try to remember to ask for the extra firm.
Will look forward to your report!
I wouldn’t call this bowl tepid but it should’ve been hotter as far as I was concerned.
I haven’t seen Tampopo but should. (I meant to respond to your earlier mention but forgot).
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Ramen Bar Ichi is closed Mondays. 
But I did use the opportunity to take a run through the Japanese market next-door that many of you have already been to. Very impressive! They have fresh Ramen kits in the refrigerated section. They also have American wagyu beef, Berkshire pork and 44 Farms beef. Also, some nice looking Ikura in seven dollar size packets. I’m definitely coming back when I am able to purchase and take home some of these products.
I am particularly interested in the soft salad!
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Crawfish pies (5) with remoulade
Seafood gumbo, large - very good and hot, thin roux, generous number of shrimp (31-50?), some crawfish tail meat, a small complement of scraps of fish, okra. I don’t think there was any crab. The roux was very salty; fortunately the rice was perhaps undersalted and helped to compensate but I hope it was just a fluke from the kitchen.
The pies were hot and the filling a little over-salted. The filling included shreds of crawfish tail meat, rice and green onions; it’s probably just their Crawfish Etouffee.
@ The Seafood Spot, a new place on Murphy, just south of 59/69, which for some reason was featured on 13. A bit nicer interior than Catfish Station on Beechnut; very quick service (the gumbo came out first, though it was the entree). I can’t find a menu on the website but there are pictures of the very large laminated card on Yelp.
I’m hopeful the saltiness was just a fluke.
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Now we can’t stop singing Hank Williams to ourselves. oh me oh my oh
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Looks terrific! Unfortunate location for the longtime seafood eatery Pier 61, which is also very good IMO.
Spicy carrots and onions - addictive. I started nibbling on this and it was almost all gone by the time I got my other goodies open.
Ragda Patties - off the appetizer menu but a big enough portion to be a meal in itself for me. A mashed potato patty (appears to be only one) smothered with the ragda/stew. The main ingredient of the ragda is white beans but there is ginger, onion, cumin, chile powder, asfoetida, etc., garnished with cilantro and sev. Unfortunately by the time I got home and opened everything up, the sev had gotten soggy.
Channa Masala - one of my favorite dishes from the cuisines of the Subcontinent. A nice level of heat that builds up in the throat and back of the mouth and lingers. This is going back a long way, but I think I never cared for chickpeas until I discovered channa masala.
Chicken Tikka Boti - my favorite version of this is from Savoy, about a block away, but I haven’t had it since the change of ownership there.
I also got an excellent loaf of naan, the best I’ve had from an Indo/Pak place on this side of town since Le Sani closed. I got a lot of food to go; I’ll have enough for at least 2, maybe three more meals. But I should have gotten at least 2 loaves of naan.
From Bombay Express, 10732 W. Bellfort. I posted about some fried rice from there earlier in this thread.
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I still have not tried Pier 61. It’s been there forever and I just never think of it. The gumbo looks good as do the fried dishes.
This place is table service but not as fancy as Pier 61 looks, more casual.
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I love chicpeas that Chana Masala sure does good. Is there anything like that in The North area. Yum…
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I’m not really familiar with Indo/Pak restaurants up there but it’s a very popular and common dish and should be widely available.
I see it on the menus of those two biryani places on Westheimer. It may be on the buffet at Govinda on 34th. I’ve been meaning to get up there since it opened but still haven’t.
It goes by different names including chana chole and just chole/cholay. Chana or chole bhature includes fried bread - I’m not sure I’ve ever had that.
Gazpacho - a cuppa - cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, onion, garlic, served cold. Hmmmmm Good.
Pepperoni pizza, Romana style - Calabrese pepperoni, freshly shredded mozzarella
I had glanced at a pic of this in the Press or Houstonia and assumed that red on the top was the tomato sauce. But no! I still wanted to try it and am glad I did. I was wondering if the carbonara I had here on a previous visit was going to be the most decadent thing on the menu. Well, maybe, or maybe not. For a pepperoni pizza this was pretty decadent.
@ Fresco
Coming up on gazpacho season, and that looks like a great one!
Tonkotsu - pork and chicken broth, green onions, kikurage mushrooms, bamboo, pork chasu, garlic oil - all are included in the basic floor model; I added only the ajitama - “half boiled egg.” Actually, it was a whole egg 
.
The broth was not as rich as at Tatsuya but it was a bit hotter. Noodles were thinner but a bit over-cooked for my taste, not at all chewy and unremarkable. Loved the bamboo - hadn’t tried that as an add-in but will in the future. Loved this prep of the green onions. There was a generous slice of pork.
This was a good bowl but probably comes in just behind Samurai in my first round rankings.
@ Ramen Bar Ichi. The ‘soft opening menu’ pictured in the Yelp gallery is still the menu in effect. There was a waiting list @ 2 pm but I was seated very quickly alone at the bar. A waitress took my order very quickly then I never saw her again. The soup was slow to come out but basically a very good bowl and I’ll be back.
I forgot the Japanese market is right next door and hadn’t made a shopping list but I did need to stop at TJ’s for some Life’s Essentials, so I passed on the Japanese market this time.
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Re-visited Luna Pizza with a friend. The slice of the day was their mushroom pizza; I’m not crazy about mushroom pizza but I went for it and it was good. I got two whole slices this time. The mini chopped salad was only about half as big a serving as before, on a plate instead of a bowl - that’s really what I went for!
My friend can’t stand mushrooms so he got a personal sausage pizza and I tried a slice - very good. They make their own sausage, I think.
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