I think the title of this new section is a little too long.
Re: Hole in the Wall Burger
A hole in the wall restaurant is a dining establishment that doesn’t have a lot of seats or many amenities. However these eating establishments tend to serve great.
So... with that being said, Hole in the Wall Burger Joint does just two things: make burgers and fries. But these burgers aren’t your run of the mill burgers. As trite as it might sound, these burgers are “gourmet burgers.” But yes you can get gourmet burgers at those fancy upper scale restaurants or at alternative places such as The Counter. However, the specialization that Hole in the Wall has with burgers makes these burgers infinitely better than the other restaurants that server gourmet burgers.
Anyways, I’ve been to this place a couple times already. You fill out a piece of paper that asks for the type of meat (beef, chicken, turkey or veggie), the type of buns (pretzel, brioche, old fashioned), cheese (swiss, cheddar, provolone), vegetables (onions, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles), dressing (chipotle mayo, ranch), garnish (bacon, egg, avocado) and fries on the side (kennebec, sweet potato). There are probably other options but I don’t remember them at the time of writing. I highly recommend having a beef burger with bacon, cheddar, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, chipotle mayo and kennebec fries.
They also have weekly specials. On my last visit, they had the “Pastrami Burger” which consists a beef patty topped with three slices of pastrami, three slices of cheese, thousand island dressing and coleslaw. Man this burger was messy but delicious. The thousand island was uniquely different as I tasted a hint of chipotle in it. Even though the bread was somewhat dry at the start, by the time I had my second bite, the juices from the burger had soaked through the bottom bread while the thousand island and coleslaw soaked the top. This burger was so large I had to use a knife to initially cut the burger in half.
I would recommend anyone looking for a decent burger to go here. Unfortunately, it is a little on the expensive side, but I think its worth the price. On a side note, this spot was the first “mayorship” I attained on Foursquare.
Re: Yamada Ramen
One of my favorite types of food is ramen. Most of the good ramen I’ve eaten have been in NorCal -- specifically in the San Jose area where a friend usually takes me around to eat ramen whenever I visit the Bay Area. I’ve tried all the ramen places close to work which includes Santouka Ramen inside Mitsuwa Market, the defunct Kinchan’s Ramen, Chabuya Ramen, Asahi Ramen and Ramen-ya. There are two new places opening up soon: Ramen Jinya and Tsujita LA. Ramen Jinya has another location in LA. Tsujita had a “flash” store inside a Mitsuwa Market last year. Tsujita currently is open but does not serve ramen... yet.
I stumbled upon this restaurant somehow looking at ramen pages on Yelp. Apparently when I looked, they had just opened that week. I ventured out the following day for lunch in hopes of trying it. Surprisingly not many people eat lunch at noon on a weekend... which is good for me. I tried their Tonkotsu Kotteri. The broth was good. It was rich, creamy and full of flavor. The description said there was some garlic in the broth but frankly, I really couldn’t taste it.
I went to Yamada Ramen again for dinner recently. When I arrived, the line was out the door. I put my name on the list hoping they could seat me at the counter quickly. My gamble paid off and the waitress seated me immediately at a communal table. I tried their regular Tonkotsu ramen. The broth was still good. It was rich, full of flavor, creamy and it tasted very fatty/oily. That was something I didn’t taste the last time (or wasn’t paying attention to). This broth is better than Santouka’s miso base and shio base broths. I ordered a side of the kakuni pork belly to go with the ramen. The combination of the broth with the pork belly made my day complete.
I would totally recommend people to come here. My only concern is the wait time since this is a new restaurant.
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