I've never heard of Mitsuwa before but after going in California, I understand everyone's anger in it being so far away from us in Chicago.
LOCATION: 3760 S CENTINELA AVE., LOS ANGELES, CA. 90066
So Mitsuwa itself is an asian grocery store which also had a food court, a pastry shop, and a little book store. Christel purposefully took me here for some amazing tempura and another round of ramen because I'm always ready for some ramen.
SANTOUKA
Since our goal for lunch was to eat some tempura we decided to share a small bowl of chashu hot miso ramen because Christel was saying that Santouka is a pretty famous chain and she wanted to make sure I tried it. I did have to add extra chashu because apparently a small comes with one piece and seeing as we were sharing I figured we could go for a little more meat, especially since I love pork belly. This little bowl of ramen was incredible. The meat was a great texture, the noodles were the perfect amount of chewy and this is one of the best broths I've had. I wanted to drink the whole bowl if only it weren't oily and spicy. I would totally go back to eat Santouka again.
HANNOSUKE
In all honesty, I haven't had too much tempura in my life but the few times I have tried it in Rochester I've loved it. I like the tempura is crisp and light and usually involves really great vegetables being battered and fried so I was pretty excited to eat this really great tempura that Christel was dreaming about.
Tempura was our main dish for the meal so we each decided to order our own original tendon which comes as white fish, two shrimp, a soft boiled egg, seaweed, pumpkin, broccoli, and a shishito pepper over rice with a side of miso soup. This is the best tempura I've had in my life. The first bite of fish was like an incredible explosion in my mouth. The fish was soft but still flavorful without being too fishy, the batter was crisp and just had a light oily flavor and texture to it that melted across my mouth. Everything after that was just amazing. The shishito was strong and bitter but didn't linger, the shrimp disappeared so fast because it was just so good, and my favorite pumpkin was fantastic. Even the broccoli, which can be mushy when its tempura, was still crisp and had the perfect broccoli texture. By the time I got to the rice and egg I was stuffed and I couldn't finish it in the end so this would be a good meal as a stand alone but I wasn't going to pass up the option of ramen so there are no regrets there. Even the miso was perfect and helped me wash down any lingering oily flavor and feel full but not heavy.
I love every part of this meal and it may be my favorite of the trip.