mr. ramen & yogurtland.

we hit up Lil' Tokyo tonight with our regulars Mark & Christal. it was pretty dope... we were like, "Why don't we ever kick it here?" having been residents of LA all our lives. Lil' Tokyo has been around for a while, it's one of LA's hidden treasures. and we barely ever go. we will definitely be chillin' there more often.  

Adrian's dad (Tito Goody--dope name huh) used to go to this one spot called Mr. Ramen way back in the early 90's, so we decided to go there. they have all kinds of ramen, with broth varieties from soy sauce, miso, to pork bone. they also have other stuff on the menu, such as curry and bento boxes.  we decided to go with the combo, which includes a BIG bowl of ramen, 4 gyoza wontons, and fried rice, all for like $9.50--which the two of us shared. such a good deal. the boys wanted the pork bone flavor and me and christal were like "WTF is pork bone?!" (sounding like bimbos which i admit we do at times haha). but our dumb asses were like,  "YuMmM...this shit is good" the minute we took a sip of the warm delicious pork bone ramen. sorry God, we forgot about it being Friday.

in comparison to pho, we would prefer ramen any day. it has a thicker, more flavorful broth, and uses egg noodles versus the vermicelli rice noodles in pho. also, the boiled egg and pork  in the soup added lots of flavor, where pho usually contains beef. 

the service was just okay, our waitress was sweet but seemed kinda overwhelmed since it was a busy Friday night. we got a table within just a few minutes though. another good thing was that the food came out quick, and we were starving. in general, 

we thought the place was pretty good. plus its a nice late night place to eat, which is always a plus. and you get the whole lil tokyo atmosphere too. 

check out the cute shops and other eateries in the area. me and christal ended up spending a good amount of money on knick knack patty whacks at this cute japanese store. well not really useless knick knacks, but shit like eyelashes (for $1.29),  shiseido shampoo, detox pads you put on your feet, and car air fresheners. oh, the pleasure of buying knick knacks. i love that shit. in lots of ways, lil tokyo reminded me of frisco . aww, *sigh* i miss frisco so much. gotta go soon. 

Food rating

Adrian: 10 spoons out of 10

Rose: 9 spoons out of 10

Service

Adrian: 8 out of 10

Rose: 8 out of 10

so... on to dessert. we wanted to try some japanese dessert places but by the time we were done with dinner, they were all closed. dayum. its cool though, we found a yogurtland right around the block from mr. ramen, and shit, it was poppin' in there. and i mean poppin'. lil tokyo is central to USC and FIDM so there was a shitload of college students up in there. sorority sisters, frat brothas, fashionistas from FIDM, and tall ass, intimidating, sweat-wearing USC athletes. the wait to even get up to the yogurt machines was about 15 minutes. it was like waitin' to get inside a bar or club. it's cool though, totally worth it.

so if u haven't been to yogurtland yet, you should get up off your ass now and go. its ten times better and cheaper than pinkberry. soooo many flavors, such as:

fresh strawberry

green tea

pineapple tart

dutch chocolate

cookies n' cream

strawberry banana

pistachio

taro (ube)

NY cheesecake

dutch chocolate

plain tart

peach tart

and more... can't remember 'em all.

whats cool is that it's all self-serve and super cheap, at 30cents an oz. so, for what you normally pay like 5-6 bucks at pinkberry or even rosegreen, you can get for like 2 to 3 bucks here. with more variety. 

we went with a combo of 3 flavors: fresh strawberry, dutch chocolate, and pineapple tart (adrian loves it but its too sour for me) with toppings blueberries, strawberries, cookie dough, cheesecake bits, mochi, and mini m&m's. u ain't gonna find none of that good ass shit at pinkberry. 

here's christal contemplating whether or not she made the right decision to get pistachio. eventually she decides it was not a good choice. lol. it has some weird aftertaste. but oddly enough, when we were sampling it, it seemed pretty good. maybe it's only good in small amounts.

rating

Rose: 10 spoons out of 10

Adrian: 10 forks out of 10

so all in all, a fun night in lil tokyo. a chill spot to kick it.