The Ramen Burger in LA!


Ramen Burger

Have you heard of the Ramen Burger™?

They say it’s the next Cronut.


Ramen burger on TV

Started in New York just two months ago by Chef Keizo Shimamoto, the Ramen Burger™ has taken the ramen world by storm.

If his name sounds familiar to you, there’s a good reason for it – Keizo and I have been friends for several years now, and I’ve mentioned him when we went to the Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum and his ramen shop Bassanova the first time Son and I went to Japan, and then again when we went back to Bassanova and then got monjayaki and ramen with him in the middle of a typhoon during our second trip to Japan with Rachael and her family.


Prep

A few weeks ago, Keizo sent out a message to a bunch of his LA friends. The ramen burger was coming to LA!

Even better (at least, as far as I was concerned), he was bringing the ramen burger to the Torrance Mitsuwa!

Since it was so convenient for us (we go to the Torrance Mitsuwa all the time), and we REALLY wanted to try a ramen burger, Son and I volunteered to help.


Allison with the Ramen Burger shirt

When we got there at 9:30am, they said there were already more than 300 people in line. (They weren’t going to start serving Ramen Burgers™ until 11am.) Some of the people near the front of the line had been there since 6am!


Ramen burger line

At one point, there were over 1000 people in line. The line wrapped around the entire Mitsuwa building, until the tail met the front of the line… and Mitsuwa’s a pretty large building.


Ramen burger line

Never have I been so glad to be able to volunteer for something – especially since it was a pretty hot day in Torrance.


Ramen burger line

Since there were so many of Keizo’s friends volunteering, I just hung out for the first couple of hours (and explained to all the random people passing by what a ramen burger is) while Son and Cam and Tracy (the other photographers) took photos of the prep and the enormous line.


Chef Keizo flipping buns


Chef Keizo showing volunteers how to cook the buns

Keizo was busy prepping, and showing all of the volunteers how to prepare the Ramen Burgers™.


Chef Keizo showing how to prepare a ramen burger


Chef Keizo with the first ramen burgers


Chef Keizo eating the first ramen burger


The first round of prep volunteers


Starting to cook ramen burgers for the media

It wasn’t long before the news stations and other journalists started crowding in.


News stations filming ramen burger prep


Getting ready to start


Keizo with his ramen burger

So… what is a ramen burger?


Allison holding a wrapped ramen burger

It comes wrapped in this neat wrapper that acts like a bowl, to catch the sauce and loose noodles.


Allison with a wrapped ramen buger

And when you open it up, you find two ramen “buns”, surrounding an angus beef patty, arugula, their special shoyu-based “secret sauce”, and green onions.


Ramen Burger

(Yeah, I’m a food blogger, of course I had to Instagram a photo of it!)


Allison taking a picture of her ramen burger


Ramen burger

So how does it taste?


Allison eating a ramen buger

Pretty gosh darned good, in my opinion.


Ramen burger with a bite taken out of it

I love ramen, I love burgers, and what Keizo has made is the perfect combination of the two.


Allison eating ramen burger with Lana in the background


The crowd

Everyone who had waited in line for hours seemed to think it was worth it, too!


The first people to get their ramen burgers


Keizo being filmed by CBS 2


Allison with her ramen burger shirt

Sweetest moment of the day? Keizo serving his mom the very first ramen burger of the day – and she loved it!


Keizo with his mom and brother


Lana being filmed by CBS 2

Hey, who’s that food blogger? Lana showed up! ^_^

Lucky woman didn’t even have to wait in line – one of the members of the media didn’t want to finish his, so he gave the rest of his ramen burger to her.


Allison and Keizo


The line inside Mitsuwa


People purchasing ramen burgers


Ramen burger prep line


Allison wrapping burgers

A few hours after we started, a couple of the volunteers had to leave, so I got to step in and wrap the ramen burgers for the next three hours.


Allison wrapping burgers


Allison handing off a burger

By 3pm, the last of the ramen burgers were gone. We had cooked, wrapped, and sold more than 500 of them. The day was a total success!

If you didn’t get to try a ramen burger this time around, you can try them every weekend at Smorgasburg in NY, or on weekdays for the next two weeks at Dassara in Brooklyn.

If you want to know when the ramen burger will be back in LA, follow me on twitter or facebook – I’ll announce it next time Keizo brings his Ramen Burger™ back to LA!

4 thoughts on “The Ramen Burger in LA!”

  1. Perrins -

    i remember seeing the story on the news and thought it was awesome. great shots!! i bet it was delicious!

    side note, i might be flying to Cali soon, the Martinez area is where i will be going. any recomendation of must try places??

  2. Adlyn -

    Love your blog!!!

    Not sure if you’ve eaten around San Diego, but please recommend your fave sushi places here. We have a Mitsuwa branch down here, but I don’t think it offers as much variety as LA.

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