Shoyu Ramen To Go from HiroNori Craft Ramen

I usually really enjoy this time of the year......it's chilly (by San Diego standards) and I love my noodle soups. This year of course.....well, sucks. An acquaintance of mine has a relative who is an Optometrist, who told him this was "going to be his year".....after all, it was going to be 20-20, right? Well that one went down in flames I'll bet? Anyway, back to planet Earth here. I had to drop something off at work for the Missus and was wondering how things were going at HiroNori Craft Ramen. I'd really enjoyed my visits and checked their website to find that online ordering was supported. So, I went ahead and ordered the Shoyu Ramen.

After doing my duty, I headed over to Hillcrest.....I hadn't been in this area since last year! I found parking a couple of blocks away from the restaurant down Sixth Avenue and walked on over to HiroNori.

My order wasn't quite ready, so I waited outside. This was a week before the latest lockdown, so folks were eating at the outdoor tables and such.

For some reason, all the folks walking up and down the street and people eating and such made me kind of uncomfortable. I found a quiet area with good spacing from other humans.

A few minutes later; the really nice young lady walked my order to me and I was off. I had a rather uncomfortable moment......I'm not sure why folks don't social distance at traffic lights. They just all crowded around me....I ended moving to the point that I was halfway back to HiroNori. Needless to say; I couldn't get the heck out of Dodge fast enough.

I got home, cleaned up, and set about unpacking my ramen.

Unlike Menya Ultra, the noodle and toppings are combined together and was rather hard to separate. So I could pour boiling water over it to unclump. I just went ahead and got things into a bowl and then set the broth to a nice simmer.

I then poured the broth around the edges of the bowl and slowly worked to unclump the noodles. This worked fine. Also because it took a couple of minutes, it also warmed up the ajitama, which was nice.

The egg was excellent, cooked perfectly. The charred chashu was wonderfully flavored and tender. The menma added a wonderful crunch and the mild bitterness of the spinach gave the whole bowl a bit more complexity.

The shoyu broth had the same slightly velvety tongue feel that I enjoy; but it was much more salty than I recalled, which basically cancelled out any other flavors.

Those noodles had held up very well and had that wonderful, pleasant toothsomeness that I had enjoyed on previous visits.

Overall a very nice bowl; perhaps a bit on the salty side, but I did enjoy it overall. I really enjoyed the noodles as well. Still my second favorite ramen in San Diego.

HiroNori Craft Ramen
3803 5th Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 241-2856
Current Hours:
Open Daily 1130am - 8pm

Have a great and safe week everyone!

Comments

[sawyer]

Looks nice. Sure wish we had some legit options over here. I think I need to make some bamboo now. What's your favorite ramen place? Is it still Santouka?

[RedDevil]

20-20, fine, you got me, I chuckled! 😂. Thanks for the review as well.

[kat]

nice!

[Kirk]

My Goodness Sawyer! It been ages. It's really great to hear from you. These days in San Diego:
1 - Menya ultra
2 - HiroNori
3 - Santouka
I hope things are going well for you and your loved ones. It's really great to hear from you.
Take Care!

That poor fellow RD!

I enjoyed it Kat!

[Junichi]

I think the last time I went to Hillcrest was when they opened. Back when Yakyudori was on 6th I used to frequent that area quite a bit.

[Kirk]

Whoa, that's quite a while Junichi!