There once was this ramen-ya in San Jose called Do-Henkotsu. What made this place unique among a dozen or so ramen-ya in the area was its regional color and the owner’s (whose name I never got to know) pride in it.

The ramen itself was pretty good, maybe not the best, but different from most of the Kanto-style ones. The shop also displayed quite a few posters and offered magazines about Tokushima, a town in Shikoku where the owner is from (it’s where I learned about “Awa Odori”, a local festival whose dance I recognized immediately while watching “Kaze no Haruka”).

But the best part about the restaurant was the “itame”, stir-fry rice dishes. I still remember first trying the “nira itame” (stir-fry with leek, vegetables and pork over rice), then “kimchi buta itame” (stir-fry with kimchi, vegetables and pork over rice), and then finding out that “kimchi don” was the same as “kimchi buta itame”, but cheaper! :p Man, I really really loved “kimchi don”.

Then it closed, in early 2007 and is replaced by another (more generic) ramen-ya, Kahoo in March 2007. This place serves pretty standard ramen with their own “spicy” versions.

I’ve seen the chef of the new restaurant before. He used to help out the Do-Henkotsu’s owner. I think I first saw him late last fall. I was thinking he must be helping out and was secretly hoping that this new guy might be a new “franchiser”…

But alas, he was just learning the ropes, and the transition plan must have been going on for quite some time. I am just sad that I didn’t have a chance to say thank you and goodbye.

So, thanks for all the kimchi-don and other itame I enjoyed. If you ever plan to get out of a retirement, again, let me know.

Another favorite lunch place…

Actually this is the first banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich) place I’ve ever been to (I think it was in 2000). The price is a little bit higher than Dackao ($2.50 vs $2.00 all tax inclusive), but the portion is bigger, so for my wife, one would be quite enough (and she likes the taste here better).

This place is much smaller than the other and the selections are smaller. But it’s relatively cheap still. I usually get a shredded pork sandwich ($2.50) and a spring role ($3.00) and that would be more than enough for lunch.

I love sushi: Not the rolls, not sashimi, just nigirizushi. But I am also cheap. :p

For the past couple of years, the sushi place of choice for my wife and I were Sushi Maru in Sunnyvale, CA. It was a bit far from where we lived, but we loved its “price-performance ratio” (PPR). (If that wasn’t a factor we would go to Ino Sushi in San Francisco.) For a sushi boat place, their fish quality was very good. We’ve always ordered directly from the chefs and their cuts were fairly large and the taste were very good.

Well, that’s what we thought until a couple of weeks ago.

I think I’ve seen the sign for Sushi Expo around the neighborhood since I moved into the area a couple of years ago. But it never occurred to me that a better sushi place would be around the neighborhood. Also, the place was behind a couple of buildings from the main street and in a strip mall that looked deserted, so I didn’t think it could be that good.

Was I ever wrong! (And they’ve been around for almost 10 years.)

It turns out the Sushi Expo’s PPR is even better than Sushi Maru’s (both are sushi boat places). Their cuts are larger, and the bills are 10~20% lower. Some expensive items (cho-toro, for example) are maybe more expensive, but the quality was very good. On bonus, you get fried head for ama-ebi!!! (This has been the reason why we haven’t been enjoying ama-ebi at Sushi Maru).

For my wife and I, saba has to be good at a sushi restaurant. We order mostly saba, hamachi, and sake. We usually order toro, uni, ama-ebi toward the end. They were all good here.

Also, they seem to have various “creative” rolls. They aren’t really my thing, but they seem to be popular among the mostly non-Asian regulars.

Sushi Expo is run by a Korean chef/owner, Kevin. He is pretty cool (but we liked Eric, the other chef). The first time we were there, we thought the decor was “interesting”. I mean “interesting” by the TV showing CMT and country music playing in the background. I guess the fact that the place is a bit away from the center of Asian communities and most of their regulars are non-Asian probably played toward the ambiance. But did we care? No, the fish quality is very, very good. I’d say at least equal to Sushi Maru. And it is cheaper.

We did not try much else besides sushi. But we did order agedashi tofu once. That was not great. Had a very weirdly chewy texture. I think we would just stick to sushi.

My wife and I think agreed that we don’t have to drive far any more for good PPR sushi.

Continuing the lunch place reviews…

This is my favorite “Banh Mi” or Vietnamese sandwich place. If you are not familiar with Vietnamese sandwiches (I am sure a lot of people are familiar with “Pho” or Vietnamese noodle soups), you should. They are usually (always?) made with a baguette (usually about 10″ long), various julienned vegetables and various kinds of meats (“shredded pork”, “barbecued pork”, “chicken”, etc.).

Not only the crunchy baguette and the excellent taste, but the key selling point (for me) is that it’s really cheap! Usually a Vietnamese sandwich will cost you $1.50 – $1.75 (and not more than $2). Well, there are other “fancier” places (such as Lee’s Sandwich) which seem to charge way more.

I usually order two sandwich and I always get “shredded pork”. I also like “Chinese hot dog”, but I think shredded pork is the best. They also have many other small items. So, sometimes, I get one sandwich and spring rolls (3 for $2 or $2.50, I can’t remember). I guess you can consider it as a Vietnamese snack place.

Anyway, one of my Vietnamese co-workers have introduced me to this place many years ago and I don’t think I have found a better place yet (not that I was looking that hard). Recently, my wife was introduced to here, and she also likes it a lot.

Another lunch place in the area. Since I have a lot of Indian coworkers, I’ve been enjoying many great Indian restaurants in the area.

This place, although marketed as “Indian and Pakistani”, is a Pakistani/Muslim restaurant. That is, they serve halal cuisine. They are located near Scott and El Camino Real in Santa Clara off the main streets where you wouldn’t normally expect to find a restaurant. But they seem to be doing quite well.

This affordable lunch buffet ($8 per person including tax) menu is quite simple and vegetarian friendly, I think: pickles and salad, dal, a couple of vegetable curries, lamb curry, tandoori chicken and a dessert. Nans (bread) are brought out by the servers.

For me, the favorite is the nan. Most restaurant nans are quite greasy. Here, they are not. Also, they are always hot.

Other items are less greasy, so they are more like everyday menu. Also, the food goes pretty fast, so every dish is brought out from the kitchen constantly and kept fresh. I usually do not like lamb dishes, but I like it here (although often times you find more bones than meat).

The service is… okay. You need to actively ask for more nans and stuff. And during the peak time, you may need to remind them more than once.

But otherwise, this is a great quick lunch place. I’ve only been here for the lunch buffets, but I’ve heard that non-buffet items are also not bad.

Of course, if you want an authentic Southern Indian (vegetarian) cuisine, you can go to Saravana Bhavan, but that’s another story.

This is probably my favorite (and the best) Greek place in the area that I know. The surprising thing (at least to me) is that this place is hidden among the boxy office buildings where you would not normally find good restaurants.

I would not have been able to find this place if not for the catered lunch on Friday at work. Most of us thought the food was great and prepared fresh. I had to find out where this restaurant was, and since then it’s been one of the favorite place to go for lunch.

Until recently, they were only open during the lunch hours catering to the office workers. They expanded their hours to dinner, but I have not been there for dinner, so I am not sure how crowded it is. I’ve been wanting to take Hyun there but they are not open during weekends. Oh, well.

You can see their menu online, but I tend to order from the daily specials written on a long paper on the wall. Also, they have a very good selection of vegetarian dishes and desserts.

The decor is more like a casual sandwich (?) place. You order at the counter and they bring out the food. Lots of pictures and stuff about Greece.

I’ve heard about this place at Chowhound, but did not have a chance to visit. It’s in Fremont, so a bit far from the home, but not too bad from the office.

Their menu was similar to Santa, where you have the menu on the wall with three base soup (sio, shouyu, and tonkotsu) with various combinations of toppings.

Their store layout was similar to Ryowa , where you have several rows of bars (sits about 30?) and several tables (4 or 5, maybe). They also have a small shelf with comics.

No kimchi or other free side dish though.

I had a shouyu kakuni (“simmered pork”). Overall, the taste was similar to that of Maru Ichi (the soup and the pork).

Although the noodles were slightly undercooked to give the chewy-ness, I thought the noodle was a bit weak (too old/dry?).

Another thing, when I was slurping the noodles, I smelled of ammonia (?) from the noodles a few times, which bothered me. I think this was the first time that I’ve noticed this in a ramen-ya.

Anyway, the place seemed busy when I got there (around 1 p.m.), but by the time I left (1:30 p.m.), it became pretty empty. Given the location, I think most of the customers were ethnic Chinese.

A bit more exploring to do.

While doing a web search, I came across this name recently. It seems the shop is really new. It probably opened this year, or December last year at the earliest.

I’ve heard that it is run by the same guy who runs Sushi Maru, so I guess this means that more people see the opportunity and maybe this will make restaurant ramen more popular.

MaruIchi Noodle House is in downtown Mountain View, where Ryowa Ramen is. It’s a bit away from Ryowa and since it is new, it doesn’t seem to draw as many people yet.

The location used to be a Vietnamese restaurant and it seems they’ve inherited most of the stuff. Although it has several TVs showing some taped Japanese programs, the decor is definitely not traditional. There is no “bar” as one might expect and it is all tables.

One nice thing is that most of those seatings are diner-like booth seats. There are about 13 or so booth seatings with some regular tables, so the seating wouldn’t be a much problem.

Its main menu is, of course, ramen that comes in three flavors (tonkotsu/pork, shouyu/soy sauce, and miso/soy bean paste). You can add several toppings for a buck or two. The soup is, I think, on par with Ryowa. But I liked Maru Ichi’s selection of toppings.

They also have Maruichi Ramen, which is a tonkotsu ramen with stewed pork (as well as regular chashu) and spice cod roes. I think the stewed pork if very good and those who like the same thing from Santa should enjoy it as well. (But if you like some other soup flavor, for the same price you can add stewed pork and spicy cod roes to the basic ramen.) Anyway, this probably means that I don’t have to drive up to Santa as much.

Other than ramen and some set menus, they have udon and stuff, but I haven’t tried them. All their menu price includes sales tax, which I though was a good thing.

Each table has a container of kimchee a la Ryowa. It is less spicy Japanese stuff, not the real Korean ones, but it’s good not to be charged extra. There is also a bottle of roasted shavings of garlic that you can put in the soup. I thought this was an excellent idea.

The food is good and the ramen is good. I don’t mind the non-traditional decor and stuff. My problem is that the shop is not visible from outside! The shop name is on top of the entrance, but there is small roof (?) that blocks it unless you are on the other side of the street.

I think they can do a lot better business by putting up the rod and the shop “curtain” thingy (I don’t know what that’s called) outside the entrance. Maybe put “RAMEN” on the window or something.

This seems to be the latest ramen-ya in the South Bay. From their website, Ramen Halu (ラメン晴) opened in early 2003. I came across the name while “researching” for other entries and we decided to try it out.

It is not too far from Tokushima Ramen Dohenkotsu. It seems the place draws quite a few crowd and I think it will draw a nice contrast to slightly different styles of ramen.

The shop has a small counter (seating maybe 5 or so) and about 9 tables. There is a signing sheet inside the shop. I guess the owner likes surfing because there are a couple of boards up on the wall.

They have three flavors: Halu (pork), Tokyo (soy sauce), and Shio (salt). You can add more toppings (e.g., chashu). Actually chashu looked leanest.

The interesting thing about the place was the noodle. Halu ramen comes with thicker ones and the others with thinner ones. The thicker ones are thicker than those found in other places. I really liked the thicker ones. I didn’t care that much for the thinner ones.

For dinner they seem to have some more appetizers, but mostly, it’s only for ramen like most other places.