April 16, 2004

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Publication Date: Friday, April 16, 2004

A noodle soup kitchen

By Grace Rauh

There's nothing quite as soothing as a hot bowl of noodle soup. Whether I'm sick at home, craving some warmth or indulging in the simple pleasure of lifting an unruly bunch of noodles with a pair of chopsticks -- these soups rarely disappoint.

On a recent trip to Southeast Asia, I passed up airplane fare on a return flight through Tokyo and held out for some real Japanese noodles. When the plane landed, I dashed out, made a beeline for a noodle house and promptly polished off a massive bowl of hot udon soup topped with seafood tempura. Months later, I was still reminiscing about the food eaten on the fly when I settled into a leather booth at Maru Ichi, the no-frills Japanese noodle house that opened on Castro Street in December.

The downtown restaurant focuses on ramen, but serves hot and cold udon in addition to several side dishes. Don't think salty ramen that come in a plastic package -- Maru Ichi's noodles taste markedly fresher, although they are not homemade. A manager told me they are planning to make their own noodles and are perfecting the recipes now. Fresh noodles would do wonders for this spot and help it gain a foothold in the downtown restaurant scene.

The bare-bones noodle house has no music, takes only cash and is most atmospheric when packed during lunch or dinner. Overhead televisions in the restaurant's corners play an endless stream of Japanese shows, and fortunately, the volume is low. I was easily entertained by a sumo wrestling fight and a game show where participants are strapped into a chair that spins wildly.

On each visit, a server greeted me with a glass of cold barley tea on ice. I sipped the nutty tea while perusing the simple laminated menu, which boasts photographs that aid noodle novices.

Diners can choose from three types of ramen broth -- tonkotsu, a creamy and flavorful base made from pork and chicken; soy sauce flavor; or miso. Each soup is topped with a piece of dried seaweed, roast pork, green onions and half of a hard-boiled egg. Kikurage, or jelly ear mushrooms, come with the tonkotsu. Much like a make-your-own sundae menu, extra toppings like cod roe and bamboo shoots can be added for one to two dollars each.

The barley tea is the best accompaniment to any of the soups. The restaurant's sweet tapioca drinks ($2) overpower the soft broths and the dark balls at the bottom of the glass were a bit hard on the inside.

On my first visit I skipped the ramen options and went straight for my personal favorite -- the nabeyaki udon, or hot udon noodle soup ($8). Within minutes, a massive metal pot arrived filled with steaming broth, udon noodles, a piece of shrimp tempura, shiitake mushrooms, chunks of chicken, slices of fish cake, seaweed, green onions and a poached egg, the yolk still gooey. The light broth, with its hint of mushroom flavor, and the thick chewy noodles anchored the dish. I cracked the soft egg white to release the liquid yolk and savored the rich center with a spoonful of light broth.

The plain chicken didn't add much to the soup, and the tempura's fried exterior dwarfed a skimpy shrimp. Aside from fish cakes that tasted processed, I savored everything and brought home a substantial portion that sufficed for dinner later that night.

I returned with a co-worker for lunch, and we shared the bukkake udon, or cold udon noodles ($7.75), and one of the lunch specials -- tonkotsu ramen with pot stickers and a California roll ($8.25). Although the massive lunch combo is a great value, the sides were lackluster and a distraction from the noodles. The pot stickers were fried to a crisp and the California rolls -- made in advance and placed under a plastic cover during most of the day -- did not taste fresh or flavorful. But I loved the ramen.

The tonkotsu broth is the big winner in this soup. It is creamy without being too rich and salty without overpowering the flour noodles, pork and mushrooms. The soft white noodles are simple and complement the broth. The roast pork is soft and buttery and breaks apart easily with chopsticks.

The cold udon noodles do not come with broth and are topped with a piece of crispy shrimp tempura, shredded seaweed, barbecued eel and what the menu dubs "sticky yam," which is actually daikon, Japanese radish. The gooey daikon turned the noodles into a viscous heap that was too slimy for my taste. The eel was soft, fresh and tasty, but the dish lacked compelling flavors.

On a subsequent visit I tried the house special, the maruichi ramen ($9.75), which is made with the same tonkotsu broth but has extra toppings like mentaiko, cod roe with red pepper, which gave the broth a pink hue and added salt and richness to the soup. The restaurant's owner and most of the staff come from Kumamoto, a region in southern Japan famous for mentaiko.

The maruichi ramen also featured stewed pork known as kakuni. It was soft, and a hunk of buttery fat clung to a sliver of pork meat.

A side order of donburi ($4.50) -- rice topped with eel, white tuna, salmon or fatty tuna and green onion -- could be a small meal all its own. With a pile of ginger and wasabi clinging to the bowl's side, the rice and fatty tuna tasted like a bowl of sushi. There is plenty of ground tuna, and the generous dish is a pleasant, albeit filling, way to begin a meal.

Kids' meals ($4.75) include ramen soup and flan, and are a great deal for anyone with a small appetite. I chose the soy sauce-flavored ramen and was pleased to find that the broth was not overpowered with the strong salty flavor of soy sauce. Squiggly egg noodles, which are lighter than those made from flour, are used in this and the miso soup.

To call the dessert "flan" was a stretch. A plastic cup of prepackaged custard pudding arrived on the table and although tasty, it would serve the restaurant well to at least put it on a plate and dispose of the packaging.

Hot and flavorful soups, efficient service and good prices are keeping Maru Ichi's leather booths full at lunchtime, but the new restaurant needs to perfect its homemade noodle recipes to stand out and stay fresh. Hot noodle soup may be difficult to pass up, but a bowl of homemade noodles is nearly impossible to turn down.

Dining Notes

Maru Ichi Japanese Noodle House

E-mail Grace Rauh at grauh@mv-voice.com

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