Special tonkotsu ramen ($14.80+) and Mazesoba ($12.80+)!
Saturday Japanese — special tonkotsu ramen $14.80+ + mazesoba $12.80+. Soup ramen + dry mazesoba pair at the Japanese chain.
Saturday Japanese dinner with BB — special tonkotsu ramen + mazesoba at $14.80+ + $12.80+. The soup ramen + dry mazesoba pair at the Japanese chain.
We ordered:
- Special tonkotsu ramen — $14.80+
- Mazesoba — $12.80+
Total: $27.60+ (~$32 final) for both.
The special tonkotsu ramen was the substantial soup bowl. Tonkotsu (豚骨) is the Kyushu-style ramen built on long-simmered pork bone broth that’s been reduced down until the colour goes opaque-cream and the texture goes slightly viscous from the rendered collagen. The “special” variant adds upgraded toppings — usually extra chashu, sometimes additional vegetables or eggs.
The tonkotsu broth was the headline. Long-simmered with pork bones at high heat (the technique that breaks down the collagen and emulsifies the fat into the broth), seasoned with salt or shoyu depending on the chain’s preference. The broth was the proper opaque-cream colour with the slight viscous coating.
Chashu was sliced thin — likely 2-3 pieces on the special variant, with the proper dark-soy braising glaze on each slice. The pork belly cut had the proper fat-and-lean balance.
The mazesoba (まぜそば) was the dry noodle variant. Different from the soup ramen format, mazesoba (literally “mixed noodles”) puts the noodles in a small pool of concentrated sauce-and-toppings at the bottom of the bowl, with no broth. You mix everything together vigorously before eating.
Mazesoba came from the Nagoya regional style — thick chewy alkaline noodles, with the mixed toppings of minced pork, raw egg yolk, chopped scallion, garlic, sesame paste, sometimes nori. The combination eats as a concentrated, savoury-umami bowl with multiple textures and flavours layered together.
The eating ritual for mazesoba is the vigorous mix. Use the chopsticks to mix everything thoroughly before eating — the raw egg yolk emulsifies with the sesame paste and the pork fat into a coating sauce that distributes across all the noodles.
Both bowls eat differently — the tonkotsu is the slow-soup-and-noodle ramen experience; the mazesoba is the fast-mix-and-slurp dry noodle experience. Splitting between the two lets us cover both Japanese noodle formats.
At $14.80 + $12.80 (++) this is fair Japanese chain pricing.
Overall: 4.5 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Strong tonkotsu + mazesoba pair — would re-order.
