Nozaru Ramen Bar

A few months ago; none other than Taka-san from Taisho asked me what I thought about Nozaru. Nozaru? Apparently one of his regulars and even the local Japanese newspaper had mentioned the place. Because of the crazy influx of the "ramen is the new cronut" thing, I just put it on the back burner until we got back from Italy. But after returning from that trip, I finally managed to make it to Nozaru…..which is squeezed between the Ould Sod and the Rabbit Hole on Adams Avenue.

The location is very "San Diego hipster".....which is not a bad thing....wide open, casual....you know, right?

The ordering is the same....you can do take-out from the counter, or just occupy a seat and the really nice young man will (eventually) arrive with a menu and you can order something. There are basically four different ramen available; chicken based, miso based, spicy, and tonkotsu.

I decided to start with the Chicken Karaage.

This arrived nice and hot. Though it was on the greasy side and the batter was not crisp or light. It lacked a nice soy sauce flavor and was all white meat......to me, it was basically chicken fingers, bland and definitely not karaage. What bothered me the most; is that at first blush it seemed dumbed down.

My "Tonkotsu Heights" ramen arrived soon after.

First the good. Even though the boiled egg was cold, it was nicely cooked and decently flavored. The Chasu was tender, porky, and had a decent light sweet-soy flavor. The noodles were standard issue JFC and was a bit over-cooked for my taste. The bok choy.....in ramen....was cumbersome. The broth, while being decently hot, rather than having a nice smooth, collagen tongue feel, was on the greasy side. In terms of taste it was too salty with bitter tones. It was not the typical tonkosu that I enjoy.

It would be very easy for me to leave Nozaru with the many "one and done" visits I have...….though I usually don't do those posts....places like Trust, Juniper and Ivy, and Pardon My French....whose photos just sit in a folder, waiting for the day I might revisit. And yet, I decided to return for a second visit.

Though once seated, I had a real problem wondering what to order.

In the end, I went with the version of Abura Soba; basically ramen without broth ("oil noodles"), the "Adams Belly".

As a whole, this was much better than what I'd had before. The noodles weren't over-cooked, the poached egg really helped to coat the noodles. However, in terms of temperature, the pork and egg were ice cold, which lessened my enjoyment. The bacon bits were a nice addition, but were minced too fine....try picking all of that up with chopsticks.

For some reason, the flavor of the menma seemed to resonate through the entire dish. Perhaps it was me.

Still, I enjoyed this much more than the ramen.

I liked the nice young man working here. It is hipsterish ramen. Not much else to say about it.

Nozaru Ramen Bar
3375 Adams Ave
San Diego, CA 92116
Hours:
Mon - Thurs 5pm - 930pm
Friday      5pm - midnight
Satuday     12pm - midnight
Sunday      12pm - 930pm

Comments

[Junichi]

I believe it's the same owner as Ototo. I didn't like Ototos ramen so I never made it to Nozaru.

[kat]

:(

[Kirk]

Hi Junichi - Interesting. I will say; the ramen here is not even as good as Ototo. I mainly went because Taka-san was wondering about this place.

I know Kat.