TBA
Ramen Festival
Absurdly long wait to get in? Check.
Absurdly long lines once inside? Check.
Delicious ramen? CHECK!
Not worth the wait, but pretty tasty. We got there 30 minutes before they opened, waited 90 minutes to get in, and then stood through a crapload more lines to get food.
Most of the lines weren't that bad. Gomaichi (Honolulu) did a cold ramen that was sort of peanutty and just okay, but Tsujita LA's special cold fish ramen was extremely delicious. Monta (Las Vegas) did a thicker broth with their Hakata-style ramen that clung to the noodles when piping hot that was also pretty damned good (and their char shu was gorgeous looking!), and Orenchi (San Jose) did a very solid basic ramen with a slightly thicker broth as well.
Hayatemaru's (Los Angeles) seafood ramen was a little different, but also excellent. Plus at 1pm they opened the beer tents, which was pretty killer for those of us waiting in line.
The second-biggest line offender was Ikemen (Los Angeles) and their ramen burger. The noodles ended up very plain, although the meat was pretty good. The bonito (in the version we had) overpowered everything though. Not very good; supposedly Jidaiya (Los Angeles)'s take on ramen burger is much better, but sadly we didn't try them. At least for the 40 minute wait, we had beer...
Ban Nai (Fukushima) was the most nuts wait-- three hour wait once we'd gotten inside. Ray suffereed through it all. It was friggin' amazing ramen in the classic style with pretty good char shu, but holy crap, not worth three hours.
Lots of fun, but not worth the crazy lines. Three hours total combined wait for all but Ban Nai (and Ikemen) might have been tolerable, but otherwise, yikes. Had to go to The Local Place (King's Hawaiian) afterwards for dole whip to cool down from all the heat!