{"id":1111,"date":"2008-08-14T14:18:21","date_gmt":"2008-08-15T00:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.studionewmedia.com\/blog\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2008-08-14T14:18:21","modified_gmt":"2008-08-15T00:18:21","slug":"tenkaippin-ramen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/08\/14\/tenkaippin-ramen\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenkaippin Ramen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/a>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the television commercial, and I know that the bleached haired dude on that locally-produced travel program about Japan on OC-16<\/em> is the franchise owner, but until this Monday, I have never been there. Actually, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know here it was. JT had mentioned it recently, so I was curious if nothing else. After the muddy Monday DH ride, Ckucke, Root, and I were in need of some nourishment, so we headed down the hill into Kapahulu to Tenkaippin<\/em>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s located in the building on Kapahulu with the bad coffee chain store<\/em> across the street from the HD&C<\/em> building\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 okay, how about makai of Jack<\/em>, and catty-corner from Snorkel Bob\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/em>? Know where it is now?<\/p>\n

We found parking in back with no problem. The lot was nearly full, but there were a couple of open spots. We lucked out again when we entered the restaurant \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there was an open table right near the door. Two couples after us got the open counter seats, and a large group replaced the large group sitting at the window. After that a line formed outside. A quick look at the menu revealed about 8 choices for ramen. There were four basic soup varieties, plain chicken-based, shoyu-aji chicken based, miso-aji chicken-based, and a half chicken\/half pork \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paitan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em>. There was a fairly extensive list of sides like spicy menma<\/em> (stewed bamboo shoot slices) and kimchi<\/em> (Korean-style spicy pickled Napa cabbage) to adapt the basic ramen varieties to your specific likings. Gyoza<\/em> and chahan<\/em> were available, as were set combinations. The drink menu included common beer varieties.<\/p>\n

Service was fast, with water arriving quickly. I opted for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153assari\u00e2\u20ac\u009d shoyu-aji ramen<\/em> (about $8 USD before tax). Most of the menu descriptions were on the vague side, so this choice was a shot in the dark. Both Ckucke and Root had the standard chicken-based ramen, but Root added chahan, and Ckucke got some kimchi to share. Our food showed up reasonably quickly. The presentation was good, and the temperature spot on. The noodles were garnished with menma<\/em>, a lot of green onions, and a small (and I really do mean small<\/em>) piece of charsiu<\/em> (Chinese-style pork). The noodles were yellow, possibly indicating egg in the mixture. That needs verification. I felt the noodles were overcooked. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if this was just mine, the way they make it at this franchise to fit in to Western expectations, or the way they do it chain-wide. The noodle volume was a little small. The soup base was excellent. There was a good, rich flavor, with a distinct black pepper note. I would have given it a C+ if the soup weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so good, so I give it a B-<\/p>\n

I really need to go again to get a better sense of the place, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rank it below Yotteko-ya<\/em> but definitely above pedestrian places like Ezogiku<\/em> or Sanoya<\/em>. Tenkaippin scores lower than average on the value scale – I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel what I got was worth the eight bucks plus tax and tip I paid.<\/p>\n

Two-and-a-half grinning monkeys out of four<\/p>\n

Recommended with reservations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the television commercial, and I know that the bleached haired dude on that locally-produced travel program about Japan on OC-16 is the franchise owner, but until this Monday, I have never been there. Actually, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know here it was. JT had mentioned it recently, so I was curious if nothing else. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paJYlx-hV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}