Ramen Yamadaya

I read an article that claimed Ramen Yamadaya was better than Orenchi's. With a claim like that, I had to check it out. It's located near Japantown in San Jose, at 1516 N. 4th Street. It opens at 11 am and it doesn't get crowded until after noon on a weekend. No need to wait in line before the restaurant opened.

Karaage (fried chicken)--10 pieces for $6.95. The skin was crisp and the meat was juicy but there wasn't much flavor. I prefer Orenchi's.

Yamadaya Ramen--$12.00. I chose the tonkotsu broth. Other options included tonkotsu shoyu, tonkotsu kotteri (black garlic oil), and tonkotsu spicy. The Yamadaya included 2 kinds of chashu, dried seaweed and egg. The egg was hard boiled and I prefer soft boiled eggs in my ramen. The chashu was good but there was too much meat. The noodles were on the thin side but still had a good bite to it. I thought the broth was too thick and still prefer Orenchi's. I was thirsty for the rest of the afternoon and wonder if the broth included MSG.

2015 05 17