Amy ScattergoodIf you want ramen burgers in Los Angeles, you're now going to have to wait until Keizo Shimamoto's ramen burger pop-up returns (Shimamoto has popped up twice here so far), or until Ikemen opens its much-rumored ramen burger joint. Jidaiya, the much lauded ramen shop in Torrance that has been serving them since the fall, has taken them off the menu.
The servers still serve the bowls of excellent ramen wearing ramen burger T-shirts, but they had to stop serving the burgers after the restaurant had problems with their ramen bun source. And, well, no ramen bun, no ramen burger.
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Jidaiya's tsukemen; Credit: A. Scattergood
“If we have some kind of festival, maybe we'll do them again,” said our ramen burger T-shirted server. “But not on the regular menu anymore.”
This is of course very sad, although maybe not for purists who prefer their ramen in its traditional bowl form and not shaped into something that resembles a hockey puck, albeit a very delicious one.
Jidaiya's bowls of tonkotsu, miso, spicy miso and new seafood ramen are stellar, so it's not like you'll be going hungry. Especially since the shop makes a mean tsukemen too, and has other fun things – takoyaki, gyoza, taiyaki – on the menu as well.
And hey, if not ramen burgers, then natto, which Jidaiya also has on their menu. Lucky us.
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