More Noodling Around: Tajima Noodle House, Izakaya Masa, and Pho Cow Cali

Since it's still pretty darn cold (by our spoiled San Diego standards) and rainy here, I thought I'd get in another round of noodles.......

Tajima Noodle House:

Sadly, my last couple of visits to the original Tajima on Convoy have been the same. I've been underwhelmed by the broth, which wavers between too salty and bland. Still, I decided to drop by recently in the middle of one of our rainstorms...... I mean really, if it didn't hit the spot this time.....

 

Hedging my bets, I went with the Shoyu Kakuni Ramen.... the basic shoyu ramen with Buta Kakuni (braised pork belly) and Chashu in it. If I didn't care for this.......

 

And it didn't. On this day, the broth was seriously flat. The sweetness from the buta kakuni (which could have braised a bit longer) just emphasized the lack of richness. The Chashu was pretty dry, but not as bad as what I had at Gunco recently. The egg wasn't aesthetically perfect, but was nicely cooked.

I actually came back a few days later.... I didn't bother taking photos, and had the Shio Ramen, which was better, but not by much.

It's kind of sad actually. You'd think that with Yakyudori up the street, that Tajima would step up. I will say this; on my two visits, I really enjoyed the pleasant service. First by a young lady whose name I believe was Yoshimi. On the second visit, it was a friendly young man named Tony. Both were excellent......

One thing I am sure of...... I'm sure that the ramen tastes better at 2am in the morning.... having it during lunch with unimpaired tastebuds, maybe not so much.

Tajima Japanese Restaurant
4681 Convoy St., #1
San Diego, CA 92111

Izakaya Masa:

Spurred on by Dennis of A Radiused Corner, I returned to Izakaya Masa for another shot at the ramen. Dennis had told me that Masa now serves a Shio ramen. I was also told to order my noodles "barikata", or extra firm.

The ramen prices here are good, $6.95 a bowl, though the portion size isn't huge. Here's my Shio Ramen:

 

As always, the Chashu here is tender, but not falling to pieces, if a bit mild in flavor. The noodles were much better when ordered extra-firm, though I still wish that being from Fukuoka, the folks here could serve some real Hakata style noodles. There used to be a shop in Honolulu, run by an older woman called Hakata Ramen......though her broth wasn't very good, I got my first taste of Hakata style noodles which she had brough in from Fukuoka. The broth was slightly rich, much better than what I had before, but the shio (the salt) used for the ramen left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. I think the ramen here is slowly getting better...... but like Tajima, this ramen is probably better after a couple of beers......

Still, I love how this tiny restaurant is put together........

Izakaya Masa
928 Fort Stockton Dr
San Diego, CA 92103

Pho Cow Cali:

I've always thought that Pho Cow Cali (even when it was Pho HoaCali) was one of the most consistent Pho shops in San Diego.

 

So I don't know what happened on this day........

 

The meat, as always was good, the beefy flavored brisket tender, but not crumbling, the flank had some chew, but wasn't tough, the tripe decent, and the tendon slightly chewy, but good. The broth and the garnishes on this day weren't very good. The soup was lukewarm and almost flavorless, and it seemed that I got the last handful of bean sprouts which were broken into pieces, the basil was turning black. As I mentioned elsewhere, the two things that PCC had over Lucky was consistency and the meat. I'm pretty much a soup guy, and if the soup ain't good.....

Hopefully, this was an off day........

Pho Cow Cali
9170 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

So I came home today to find our living room a mess...... towels strewn about, stuffing from disembowled doggy toys everywhere....... and in the midst of it all was Sammy.... giving me his best pathetic "you know I'm innocent until proven guilty" look. (Do you notice that piece of stuffing material on his nose? Hmmm......)

 

 

Comments

[Cliff]

Every time I've been to Pho Cow Cali it's always been good too - I'm surprised they have off days :)

Although personally I prefer Tajima over Yakyudori...the last time I went there, everything was drowning in soy sauce and I nearly choked to death on the abundance of Miso residue in the soup.

[Kirk]

Hi Cliff - I was very surprised too...... I'm hoping that it was just a bad day. Tajima's ramen sometimes has a strange almost artificial taste to it. I do know that the salt they use for their ramen isn't very good. I like the shio that Yakyudori uses.

[Dennis]

Hi Kirk, next time we'd have a pitcher of beer and all will be swell. You can even crash at my place. ;)

[kat]

sounded like bad days, hopefully that is the case. hope sammy didn't get too much scoldings.

[Hao]

I've found PCC to be less consistent than Lucky recently, but my sample size is too small to do a rigorous comparison. Didn't PCC open a new location recently? I wonder if that may be part of the reason for perceived inconsistency.

[DD]

Love Sammy! What a little scoundrel :-)

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - If it's Tajima, we'll need at least two......

Hi Kat - Yeah, it was recent stretch of blah......

Hi Hao - That's interesting as I've always found PCC to be very consistent. I hadn't heard of that they owners opened a new place...... I need to check into that.

Hi DD - That he is.....

[Dennis]

I know what you mean Kirk. I can't remember the last time I had ramen at Tajima. And to think they used to serve up a decent Asari manila clam ramen. Long gone are those days. I might try the second location out of curiosity just to see.

[Lynnea]

but who could ever get upset with that cute little face? what a darling.

[Alan]

So what did you folks do to upset Sammy? Dogs normally do this kind of thing to retaliate for something. We have two girls -- Miso and Manju. Miso will sometimes do things like that when she is angry about something. Like us going out when she doesn't want us to. Or when she wants some attention and we just ignore her.

[moowiesqrd]

Hey Kirk! Hahaha... Bear's a master at the same look. Does Sammy do a slinky guilty walk, too? I noticed that there's cheetah-spotted stuffie with a rope handle. Bear has the same one and diabolically tears it apart at the seams, stitch by stitch. ;)

[Rosa]

Sad to hear Tajima has gone downhill. :(

Have you been to Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi in Gardena? Such rich porky broth and awesome noodles! My fave place so far.

There's a dog amidst all that fluff? ;) Cute...

[Vicki]

Hey Kirk - I went to Tajima for the 1st time the other day, and agree with your assessment of the ramen. Their grilled beef tongue, however, was amazing. I'm thinking of going back there just for appetizers.

[Food detective]

Guilty as charged!

Let's have noodles at Tajima at 2am to see what happen.

I actually like Pho Cow. I hope that it was an off day. I'm still a little bit grossed out when a kid vomited all over the place next to the cash register. I can never walk down that hallway to the bathroom again.

[Kirk]

Hi Dennis - I thought Tajima "Tapas" was meh.....

Hi Lynnea - Yes, it's really hard to get mad...

Hi Alan - Sammy is really good at tearing things apart..... of course the Missus and I have been busy with work, so this was bound to happen. I thought it was funny.

Hi GF - So Bear does that too, huh? Funny.....

Hi Rosa - Yes.... but not for a couple of years. They use the right type of Hakata Ramen noodles. BTW, for broth, it used to be Daikokuya for us.

Hi Vicki - If you go to Tajima on Mercury, try the Nankotsu - deep fried chicken cartlidge.

LOL TFD........ I like PCC as well; but it was really off on this day.

[Cliff]

Poo I may have jinxed myself by commenting on this one earlier. Just went to pho cow cali again for lunch and had a pretty disappointing visit. I got stuck in a table in the back next to the bathrooms and hardly ever saw a waiter; our water cups were empty the whole time. The broth was still pretty good but the noodles seemed too mushy. :(

[Kirk]

Oh no Cliff! That sucks.....