物語 · Our story
From a Fukuoka street stall to Sawtelle Blvd.
Kenji Hoshino spent ten years at a yatai cart in Hakata learning one thing: how to make tonkotsu taste like it was cooked by someone who cares. In 2014 he opened a 14-seat counter in LA. The line started on day two.
How we got here
Twenty-eight years of broth
Hakata, Fukuoka
Kenji starts washing bowls at a yatai cart. He learns the broth three years later.
Los Angeles
He moves to LA and cooks ramen pop-ups out of a friend’s bar kitchen on Sunday nights.
Sawtelle opens
14 counter seats, one ticket machine and a line out the door from day two.
Little Tokyo
A bigger room for groups, with the same broth sent over fresh every morning.
Arts District
Our late-night counter on 3rd Street, open until 1 am.
Three things we won’t change
豚骨
Broth
Pork bones simmered 18 hours at a rolling boil until the soup turns milky white.
麺
Noodles
Mixed, rolled and cut every morning at 6 am. Thin for tonkotsu, wavy for miso.
タレ
Tare
Our soy and salt seasonings age for two weeks before they touch a bowl.
“If the broth isn’t right, we don’t open. That has happened four times in twelve years.”
Kenji Hoshino, founder