Ramen Star Now Serves Brunch, Fluffy Japanese Pancakes

Japanese restaurants are known for dishes like sushi, ramen, tempura, beef bowls and miso soup. No one thinks about ordering pancakes at a Japanese restaurant — until now.

Ramen Star's menu of housemade ramen and other dishes that fit the familiar fare of traditional Japanese restaurants has been expanded. The restaurant is now serving brunch, including soft, fluffy soufflé pancakes, a popular specialty in Japan.

Ramen Star chef/owner Takashi Tamai is the creative mind behind the Sunnyside shop, and the new brunch menu is something he'd been planning for months.
The brunch isn't the usual eggs, bacon and biscuits lineup. It's decidedly Japanese in taste and tone, even though it includes typical bites like sandwiches and buns. The sandwiches include a Katsu Sando (tonkatsu fried pork cutlet in a sandwich, a popular item in Japanese convenience stores), a corned beef (okay, this one looks pretty familiar) and a "TLT (tofu, lettuce and tomato). The buns are the Chinese folded buns that have become common, but stuffed with sausage and bacon, raw salmon and avocado and miso eggplant.

Tamai also offers his daily menu of Temaki, or long handrolls: tuna or salmon, California (nope, the rice isn't on the outside, which would make it fake sushi) and avocado. The menu includes sides of sausage and bacon, miso soup and and corn potage soup.


But the star of the brunch menu is the Japanese pancakes. They're not as fat as ones that have been featured in YouTube videos of pancakes served in hot spots in Tokyo, but they're just as soft, jiggly and delicious, available in plain, banana chocolate and berry mix. The pancakes are served with Tamai's thick, almost ice-cream-like whipped cream that adds an extra layer of subtle flavor that isn't overly sweet.

Like a lot of Japanese sweets and confections, the overall flavor is rich and satisfying and won't make you feel like you just ate a bowl of candy. Okay, yes, there are plenty of Japanese sweet treats out there, but this isn't one of them.
On a hot summer morning, the pancakes were a perfect appetizer for Hiyashi Chuka Soba, a summer specialty in Japan of cold noodles served with cucumbers and protein, in Ramen Star's case, chicken and thin omelet. Tamai showed his creativity by circling the platter with crunchy fried onions — he loves to combine various unexpected textures in his dishes. We also tried the Mazemen, mixed noodles, ramen served with other ingredients, including soboro ground pork, kimchi, and corn.

If diners still need to chill out after slurping up cold noodles, Ramen Star has the right dessert for summer in the city: Kakigori, or Japanese shaved ice. Tamai bought a special ice shaver from Japan and brings it out when the temperatures rise. It's not a Slurpee or a Snow Cone — kakigori, like a proper Hawaiian shaved ice, is made with fine ice that has the texture of snow.
The Katsu Sando will be next on my list of Ramen Star brunch items — if I can have the willpower to avoid the pancakes.

Ramen Star at 4044 Tejon Street and is open 11:30 a.m.-1:50 p.m. and then 5 p.m.-8:50 p.m. Mondays through Friday, and Saturday and Sunday 11:30 a.m.-8:50 p.m. More information is at the restaurant's website,  ramenstar.com.