So what’s so bad about a food court?

Maybe I should elaborate. Food Courts in American malls are generally bad. I mean, if a restaurant is in the local mall’s food court, chances are that the food is, ahem, pedestrian. Food meant for the masses and designed to appeal to people from Sioux City to Santa Clarita. And the less said about “ethnic” food chains that almost exclusively exist in food courts, the better. Think Panda Express or Sbarro’s or even Wolfgang Puck Express for a better idea of what I’m trying to get across here.

You can find good food in here (besides the groceries)
Food Courts in ethnic (read: not Safeway, Vons, Whole Foods or the like) grocery stores however, can be really good. Hell, even my beloved hawker centres in Singapore can be considered “food courts” minus the air-con. If you’ve got air-con, you then become an indoor food court.
Here in Costa Mesa, you have an udon place, a donburi place and a ramen place and a couple of other places tucked away inside this Mitsuwa Marketplace. Sometimes they are even part of a (gasp!) chain.

There’s good eats in this food court. Really.

Santouka Ramen in the food court
In Santouka’s case, they ARE part of a chain of ramen restaurants. From Tokyo. Does that still make them an evil chain? Probably not. Does their ramen deserve the hype? Well, that’s what I’m here to find out, 10 minutes away from John Wayne Airport (SNA), having a late lunch.

What to eat? How about that one on the left bottom corner?
According to ramenramenramen.net and rameniac, they’re part of a Tokyo based chain that is expanding in Southern California. Now I’m normally a Kyushu-men (Tonkotsu broth & stewed pork) kinda guy and this will be the first time I’ve had Ashikawa ramen (pork bone & seafood stock), which hails from Hokkaido. I ordered the #7, the shio ramen combo with the noodles and broth in a bowl and the pork and other condiments on the side (Sally would appreciate that), leaving the springy ramen noodles swimming in the surprisingly light shio broth with sesame seeds by itself. It was great! Although you can’t really tell the greatness by that simple statement because it’s not in ALL CAPS and in 60 point strong text, because that would be tacky. When you assemble your #7, drop the chasiu into the broth and then bury it under some noodles for a minute to warm it up. Then chew slowly, letting the buttery, meaty goodness coat your tongue before you let it slowly slide down your gullet. So there’s something good in THIS food court. Eat here!

The number seven comes with noodles & broth separate from the sides…

…so you can make your own bowl of shio ramen!
If this is what “chain restaurants” can be like, let’s have MORE Japanese food chains in supermarkets!! Santouka’s also in West LA too.
Santouka Ramen (inside the Mitsuwa Supermarket)
665 Paularino Avenue
Costa Mesa CA 92676
714-434-1101