Karami Ramen

It's a bit strange; I've heard so much about Ramen Ryoma's opening, but not so much about Karami which opened around the same time. Last week the weather had started cooling off and due to the fact that a lot of folks were on vacation, well......many of my meetings were cancelled, so I decided to head on down to the plaza that houses Nijiya, Spicy House, and Pho Mignon.

I arrived at 1130 and there were only two parties in the place during my entire visit. The lay-out of this tiny restaurant is somewhat neat; in a slightly cheesy kind of way....but it does remind me of some of the ramen places I've eaten at in Japan.

 My Server was super friendly, with a great sense of humor.

As you can tell by the name; Karami specializes in spicy ramen. I wasn't too sure about having that on my first visit, so I just went with the Miso Tonkotsu and Chicken Karaage.

The Chicken Karaage wasn't too bad; in fact, I think it was better than what I'd had at Ryoma.

It lightly crisp; the dark meat chicken was slightly marinated....too little for my taste; but it was moist and had flavor. Of course, I had to listen to the know-it-all young lady on the next table tell her dining companion that it was all wrong....it should be white meat instead of dark meat. Methinks she got her katsu and karaage all mixed up. It didn't help that she ordered the "tonkatsu ramen"......

Meanwhile; my Miso-Tonkotsu was disappointing.

The noodles were standard issue JFC stuff and overcooked for my taste. The egg was cooked nicely, but ice cold. The chashu had a nice band of fat, but was on the dry side.

The broth was way too salty and very thin for a tonkotsu style broth; totally lacking in the balanced tongue coating richness I enjoy. There was a hint of garlic; but not much else beyond the sodium. It was truly lacking in complexity. You know I'm reaching when I thought to myself; "hey, this menma is pretty good".

You can tell what I thought about the broth......

On the bright side; the server was really nice and that karaage wasn't the worst that I've had recently.

Anyway, Calvin just returned from vacation, and guess where he wanted to eat?

And you know what? I was ready to actually try one of these......

We both ordered some extras. Calvin went with the curry-rice, non-spicy.

It actually had a mild kick, was slightly beefy; but the meat was tough and dry. Not too bad.

I ordered the spicy chicken wings; which was "all show and no go".

It's got to be the blandest; spicy looking chicken wings I've ever had.....hardly spicy at all; it lacked in any nuance of flavor, no sweetness, it seemed to be using something like kimchi base, or something similar mixed into a paste like texture. The batter got gummy quite quickly. At least the wings were moist.

I order the Triple Super Spicy Chashu Shio Ramen...….

Well, this was also underwhelming. Our server, the same friendly young lady as on my previous visit, looked surprised that we ordered this. She warned us several times about how spicy this was......it wasn't. It just wasn't very spicy; and what heat there was lacked nuance. I did think it was better than the thin, salty broth I'd had last time; but I was just surprised that this wasn't very spicy.

The noodles were still cooked more than I prefer; but was better than on my last visit. As you can see; the chashu was on the dry side; and cold to boot, as was the tamago.

The young lady seemed genuinely shocked that we were unfazed by the triple spicy ramen. She said she was worried we'd get sick from the spice. But she really won me over when I told her, "would you like me to call tomorrow to let you know I haven't died?" Her reply was awesome, "ok, but no screaming on the phone...."

Now that witty answer might be worth another visit....maybe.....

Karami Ramen
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Mon - Thurs 1130am - 230pm, 530pm - 10pm
Friday      1130am - 230pm, 530pm - 1030pm
Saturday    12pm - 3pm, 530pm - 1030pm
Sunday      12pm - 3pm, 5pm - 9pm

Comments

[Jason]

So pretty much for everything you tried, there are restaurants in a 1 mile radius that do it better.

[kat]

:( cold egg & char siu...

[Soo]

Bummer it wasn't spicy as advertised.

[Kirk]

I love your comment Jason. So, in terms of chicken, there's better on the same block. As for ramen; let's just say Santouka is much better. Its just a half mile drive. So, not even a mile!

Not good eats Kat!

It just wasn't very spicy Soo.

[RedDevil]

High hopes -- dashed! How can "triple super spicy" not be spicy? Feeling you kat :<.

[Junichi]

Maybe it's Japanese spicy. My friend tried it on opening week. He said they probably use canned ramen broth. So I haven't bothered going.

[Kirk]

It was pretty whimpy RD.....

Yes, unfortunately it was Japanese spicy Junichi....but a weak Japanese spicy. The broth was pretty lousy.

[Derek R]

It never ceases to blow me away just how much BAD ramen there is. Hot broth, decently firm noodles, not cold/dry pork, and an egg that's not ice cold or cooked to death. It shouldn't be rocket science... >_<

[Kirk]

I'm waiting for things to hit critical mass; then things should balance out like any other "fad" Derek. Though, you could say the same thing about pho.....it shouldn't be rocket science....

[Elle]

I wonder if they would be willing to give you extra spice. I would ask for the spice paste on the side at Rakiraki (they give a lot and I can only handle a pea size of it, haha).

[Kirk]

I guess you could Elle.....though I think it seems a bit absurd to need more spice to make it decently spicy when it's already supposedly "triple super spicy".

[Derek R]

Touche via the pho COMMENT *laughs* I do feel like the pho in town is generally better than the ramen though I would say that most of the new pho and/or "hip" pho places that have opened in the past 5-10 years are pretty awful (while the mom and pop shops are at least decent). Now that I'm back in SD - I am definitely missing Denver Pho though.

[Kirk]

Hi Derek - These new pho places usually makes the pho broth way too "sweet" and without beefiness/anise tones. A pet peeve of mine.