Japanese Invasion at Atsu-Atsu Ramen, Araneta Avenue

Check out our REVISITED REVIEW for an up-to-date dining experience.


We were craving for ramen noodles so we decided to have a RR (Ramen Run) to Atsu Atsu Ramen.  (Also our voucher was about to get expired... hehehe :D ).

Atsu Atsu Ramen at Araneta Avenue, Quezon City

Situated between construction companies & warehouses, this quaint hole-in-a-wall restaurant is not that noticeable so you do need to keep your eyes peeled. With its abundant parking spaces, you will have no trouble finding a space to park. Go up the steps & it's the only establishment on that floor.  

Atsu Atsu Doors

Upon entering the Atsu Atsu sliding doors, you'll notice that this isn't your typical Japanese restaurant. There were wooden tables & benches and the servers don't wear the traditional kimonos. 

"Irashia Mase!"

Menu

This will be the greeting you'll hear as you enter the restaurant. According to the ever reliable internet, this means "welcome". As you can see on the menu, it's spelled with 2 R's, but on the net it's just one R. Hmm.. maybe it's another accepted spelling of the word, like flavor/ flavour or color/colour? Now I'm rambling...

Kitchen w/ "bar"

Pork Tokyo Ramen

While waiting for your food to be served, you can watch the chefs do the cooking. This is called "open cooking".  Showing your patrons what your kitchen looks like?  For me, this type of kitchen is a gutsy move on any restaurant. There should be no mistakes or mishaps happening in the kitchen since all eye are on you. Whew! Talk about pressure.

Mini salads & Iced Tea

The voucher included 2 mini salads & 2 iced teas. The mini salad consisted of shredded lettuce, carrots & a large slice of tomato with Japanese dressing. The veggies were fresh but this really was just a side dish, even lesser portions than an appetizer. The iced teas were a brand from our local supermarkets.

We were given a choice between 2 Tokyo Ramens, Seafood or Pork. We chose pork which was a sho-yu based  ramen soup with pork, green onions, fishcake & hard-boiled egg.  Served pipping hot on a large bowl, this is a great dish for sharing. The soup was tasty, the pork was tender, and the noodles? The noodles were cooked just right and were quite filling. YUM!

Voucher Add-ons

The vouchers also included 2 bowls of garlic rice, 4 pcs gyoza & 3 pcs fish tempura. 

Garlic Rice

The serving was quite small considering this was to be eaten with the gyoza & fish tempura.  I don't think it was even 1 cup. A little too garlic-y and did not have the usual garlic bits you see in other restaurants.

Gyoza

This looked appetizing, a little brown on the bottom and you can see the delicate folds of the wanton wrapper. It's the dipping sauce that completes the dish. Overall this is was cooked nicely and tastes quite good but nothing special.

Fish Tempura

This was actually a 3pcs dish but I was excited to taste one, I forgot to take a picture first <smacks forehead>. Quite small and a little salty.  It just tasted like fish, no other flavors or spices popped up.  Somewhat ordinary.

Shrimp Tempura

When we saw on the menu that it was a 5pcs Shrimp tempura for just 200+ pesos only, we thought we hit the jackpot. "Here's a restaurant that serves affordable tempuras", we thought since other restaurants charge at least 350+ and above for the same dish. We gladly ordered it and when the dish came.... silence. We were quite disappointed with the shrimp size. Lesson learned, we shouldn't have expected more for less. 

Would we be coming back even without the voucher? For the ramen, yes. For the other dishes, hmmm... not as much.

SERVICE: 

TASTE:

VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY:

'Til our next Good Eat!

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