Buta Ramen

Back in April I noted that ramen was coming to Linda Vista, as "Buta Ramen" was taking the place of Coney's.

Which had me wondering if we'd finally hit the saturation point for ramen in San Diego. Anyway, I drove by our first weekend back from vacation and noticed that Buta had opened. So, I decided to see how the ramen here was.

The place has that modern-slightly hipsterish look.

The Ramen on the menu has what I guess is thought of as clever names for the versions of ramen; the Shoyu Ramen is called "Soul You", the Tonkotsu with sesame is "Tahini Old School" and so on.

The young lady who I think is one of the owners and the young man at the counter were very nice; I believe they're Thai? It didn't sound like they were speaking in Vietnamese.

Anyway, as is my M.O. I ordered the Chicken Karaage ($5), there's a garlic version, but I thought I'd just go with the standard, just to see how things measured up.

This was not bad, slightly crunchy, moist dark meat, with just a touch of ginger, though it could have used more flavor as it was pretty mild compared to versions I enjoy. It needed more soy - mirin - sake.

And of course the Tonkotsu ($9); sorry I just couldn't bring myself to say "Tahini Old School".

The chashu was tender and had been nicely simmered as the porky-soy tones came thru quite well. From there; it was downhill. The egg was nicely cooked, but had no flavor. The noodles, straight, almost Hakata style noodles were over-cooked. The broth; sigh, what's with these bitter-salty-metallic tasting soups? Are they getting their obviously processed tare at the same place? Much like Kimae, the broth was oily rather than rich, and lacked that nice collagen, tongue coating texture. And it was so salty that I could not make out any traces of sesame paste.

That karaage wasn't bad though....so I returned this past weekend.

And started with the Agedashi Tofu ($5); which came with the Tsuyu on the side.

Which might not be a bad move as it preserves the fried crispness of the tofu. I did not enjoy however, the fact that it was ice cold and basically tasted like the typical bottled stuff you can get at Nijiya...in other words quite salty. The tofu was garnishes with some katsuobushi and was decently fried. I prefer my agedashi tofu to have a light crispness; this was more hard and crunchy.

I also ordered the Shoyu (sorry - like the tonkotsu; there's no way I could order a "Soul You" ramen).

The chashu again was good; perhaps even better than what I'd had on my previous visit. The broth; while not rich enough for my taste wasn't overly salty, with a decent soy sauce fragrance and flavor; fairly one dimensional, but much better than the tonkotsu broth. Sadly, the noodles were even more over-cooked than on my previous visit....literally mushy.

I'm thinking that Buta might do well here serving USD students and the such, as the prices aren't too bad. As for me; well, I place Buta among my lower second tier ramen places like Isshido and Kimae. Can't say I didn't expect this, but I always hope for the very best meal. Hopefully this isn't the best that Buta can do....I'll check back in a few months.

And if you get the chance, check out the menu on their website; it has "Agidashi", bean spourt, and memma sprinkled among the dishes and descriptions - hopefully they'll get that fixed.

Buta Japanese Ramen
5201 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92110
Hours:
Open Daily 11am - 10pm

Comments

[kat]

:(

[Soo]

At least the chashu was good.

[Kirk]

I know; kinda sad Kat.....

At the very, very, very least Soo....

[Junichi]

My friend tried it last week and said skip it so I've stayed away. Pretty bad when both noodles and broth don't deliver. I wonder if they got the tsuyu concentrate and forgot to dilute it with water?

[Kirk]

Your friend's recommendation was spot on Junichi.

[Sandy]

wow, is there such a thing as ramen saturation? we don't have that problem up north...

[Derek R]

I wish we had a saturation of GOOD ramen LOL

[Kirk]

Hi Sandy - Yeah, I think when Hillcrest has 4-5 places serving ramen in a mile-and-a-half radius we're kinda hitting saturation. Where about in North County are you referring to? I can always ask folks I know and go check some places out for you.

I wish Derek......I wish....