Thursday, May 04, 2006

★★ Mamasan - Bellevue

Mamasan's started as a Japanese izakaya (pub) that only had one ramen dish, but their nagasaki champon ramen became so popular that they have expanded their ramen menu. Now they serve a large variety of ramen, including shoyu and tonkotsu just to name a few. I ordered their popular dish, the Nagasaki Champon.

The Soup - is a flavorful mix of seafood stock mixed with tonkotsu soup (pork bone)... at least traditionally that is how champon soup is made. Mamasan's champon seems to favor the seafood flavor some more.

The Noodles - are medium thickness, slightly curly noodles, most likely pre-packaged noodles. The noodles simply didn't have the firmness and texture of Japanese ramen, it was soft and didn't come close to matching the strong flavored soup.

The Toppings - are a variety of seafood and vegetables that was stir fried, slightly seared and then cooked slightly in the broth.

Overall - The soup and toppings were great, though the noodles at Mamasan always seem to be a hit and miss. Sometimes the noodles will come out okay, sometimes it ends up being too soft. Fortunately their champon soup is always good. I will probably try their shoyu and tonkotsu ramen next time, but these are soups that require a lot of time to cook and I don't think they can afford to hand cook all these different types of soup stock from scratch. But if you live in the Seattle area, Mamasan is probably as close as you can get to sample a large variety Japanese ramen.

Mamasan - 131 106th Ave. NE Bellevue, WA 98004

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1:40 PM

    well mamasans food is lousy, overpriced and they know it, the place is for japanese businessmen and the delicasy are the hostesses, order a dish at night and you get to grope (*ahem* amongst other things) and do as you please with the hostesses, the top girl there is Nana, or more commonly known as Michiko, call her anytime and she will meet you anywhere, if your a little loney, she will tell you a story with a happy ending ~_^ in return all you have to do is go there and order a dish, the food is not good, but the "service" is the main course. If you need a female companion or girlfriend for an hour or a few minutes, either going there or having her come to you, Mamasan's is your place. If your hungry for food and not erokabu (courtesans or women of loose moral value) or caba cho (caberet queens or readily available women at your disposal), then better go somewhere else.


    - James

    ReplyDelete