Restaurant: Tsujita LA Artisan Noodle Annex
Location: 2050 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 231-0222
Date: September 19, 2022
Cuisine: Japanese Ramen
Rating: Oh so good
The morning after our Haige Star bonanza Jeffrey and I (with Hangry Rider joining us as a bonus) set out on a new Lunch Quest.
We were supposed to try this — supposedly — awesome fried chicken place tucked into the weird Colony in Santa Monica. It was closed for some reason (this happens a lot with Lunch Quest) and so we moved on after a bit of discussion.
The concept for this Colony place is that it’s a commercial kitchen that shares various facilities including a common sales counter. Basically the places here are takeout food. You can pick it up at the counter and eat in the adjacent alley. This isn’t my kind of thing as I hate disposable plates and utensils and really casual dining in general. I don’t mind an utter lake of decor, but I don’t like takeout.
The dining area doesn’t look half bad if you can stomach take out.
So after much debate we moved on to Tsujita Annex for some really excellent Ramen. I’ve been here before of course.
Jeffrey wanted to test out (and video about) this ghost pepper powder his friend Mark Wiens is promoting.
Dry ramen (no soup).
Two variants of their classic ramen.
Another different dry ramen.
The noodles and meat for their Tsukemen, which is when the noodles are served cold and on the side, and you dip them.
The broth for the Tsukemen — so thick!
Condiments.
I always forget how delicious Tsujita is. The annex version is a bit different than the main branch. It’s thicker and maybe more chunky, with a slightly more acidic balance to the broth (post tare). Both are awesome bowls of ramen. I think I still like the Tsukemen at regular Tsujita across the street a touch better but the classic ramen may be better here. And of course Killer Noodle is really my favorite of the trio.