Ramen Waraku Dining

Sometime in the midst of the pandemic, when restaurants were still closed, I started trialing all the random ghost kitchens at 60 Moris St, not that far from my house.  It was then and there that I discovered Ramen Kobo Waraku, the cloud kitchen version of Ramen Waraku Dining, and, some very glorious takoyaki.  I think it was the best takoyaki I've ever had, including many versions in Tokyo.

Fast forward to now.  I was browsing around on Doordash, and saw takoyaki at a number of places.  Suddenly, I was craving takoyaki.  I needed it, stat.

And thus, delivery it was, this time, from the main restaurant, Ramen Waraku Dining (the cloud kitchen outpost has since shut down I think).  I ordered a complete meal starter, main, dessert, and drinks this time, eager to try a wider range of items.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
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• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

I ordered on DoorDash, and my order was quickly confirmed.  I did ask for utensils and my order didn't come with any, and I wasn't able to put in any special notes (e.g. sauce on the side) so I had to call to ask for that, but, otherwise, the ordering was easy, and delivery was reasonably fast.

Drinks

I was impressed with the line of sake and beer available for delivery, so, even though I wouldn't normally order drinks with my meal if dining at home, I threw some on last minute.

Calpico $3, Amabuki Sunflower Sake $15.

I selected an interesting strawberry sake and a calpico, as I realized I hadn't ever had calpico before.

Unfortunately, they were out of the strawberry sake and substituted a sunflower sake.   The description of this one said "Sharp and dry. Good for ramen.", which wasn't what I was in the mood for at all.  Luckily I had a yuzu highball in my fridge that I paired with my meal instead.  When I had the sake later, it was fine, and not really particularly sharp nor dry.  I'd still like to try the strawberry one.

Appetizers

The reason I ordered from Waraku is that I was really craving good takoyaki, found on their appetizer menu.  I was craving it once I remembered how glorious the takoyaki from their 60 Morris St ghost kitchen was.  Other appetizer options included seaweed salad (which I would have ordered except I had some of my own from a sushi delivery a few days prior to finish up), edamame, fried shisitos, chicken karaage and fried squid legs, and braised pork belly slices.

Takoyaki. $6.50. (Toppings on the side).

"5pcs deep fried Takoyaki topped with Takoyaki sauce, mayonaise, aonori, bonito flakes."

I knew that some of that glory in it the first time was from having it hot and fresh, and this would suffer a little, but, I was still optimistic.  I asked to have the sauces on the side so it would hold up better for delivery, and I could likely heat it up as needed.  The restaurant did this with no problem (once I called to ask, since I couldn't through DoorDash), with the mayo, takoyaki sauce, and bonito all in their own containers.  The regular garnish of green onion and aonori seemed forgotten though.

The takoyaki were only lukewarm when they arrived, and fairly soggy, so I popped them into the toaster oven, glad I had asked for the toppings on the side.  They heated up easily, soon piping hot, and I assembled my perfect bites with the sauces.

The takoyaki let me down.  First, they weren't as crispy as before, which I attribute to delivery and basically getting soft in the warm container.  I'll forgive them for that.  But the real issue was the amount of squid inside.  Where I lauded them for being loaded with squid before, the same was not true this time.  Several of my balls were all batter, save one tiny tiny little piece of squid in each.  Sadness.  The batter was good, and it was creamy and gooey and tasty, but, I wanted chunks of squid after all.  **+ for the balls themselves.

The sauces were as expected, the takoyaki sauce slightly sweet, slightly savory, very salty, the mayo, well, mayo, but creamy and a good balance.  The bonito was bonito.  Average toppings. ***.

Overall, I was able to crisp them up, and there were good elements to the dish, but the lack of squid inside was the downfall, and I wouldn't get these again. **+.

Rice Bowls

While ramen is the focus, rice bowls are available as a mini meal, in 4 varieties: chicken kara-age, pork chashu or kakuni, or sukiyaki beef.  I opted for the later, just to have another component to my meal.  

Sukiyaki Beef Bowl. $6.
Add bean sprouts + kikurage mushrooms, $1 each.

"Stewed beef, soy sauce, onion, green onion, and sesame over rice."

I knew the rice bowls were fairly no frills, so I added additional toppings, bean sprouts and kikurage mushrooms, to jazz it up a bit.  All the standard ramen toppings were available to add on, I could have added marinated egg, bamboo shoots, corn, etc, etc but settled for just two.

The bowl was a bigger size than I expected for the modest $6 price, but it was mostly rice.  The rice wasn't particularly good.  I'm not really a rice girl in general, but this was fairly mushy, not seasoned.  Not dried out and clumped together I guess, but, not very good.

On top was a reasonable portion of the stewed beef and onions.  It was nicely marinated/cooked in a soy sauce mix, so it had good flavor.  The pieces were fairly fatty and chewy though, not particularly great either.  

The toppings were the highlight, both the included pickled radish and green onions and sesame, and the ones I added.  All were quite fresh tasting and actually went well with my takoyaki too.

I appreciated these toppings, and the reasonable price, but this base really wasn't very good. **+ for rice and beef, ***+ toppings.

Dessert

One reason I ordered from Waraku was the memory of the great takoyaki, but, the other is most certainly for dessert (I know, I know, common story with me).  They actually had interesting desserts, and, in particular, a black sesame based dessert that I'd kinda been thinking about since I saw it on the menu a few days prior, around the same time I had a kinda mediocre black sesame filled croissant from Hanabi (review coming soon).  In addition to the black sesame one I was eyeing, they also have a matcha mont blanc and red bean matcha mochi.

Black Sesame Mont Blanc.  $6.

"Both sesame paste and roasted sasame into sponge dough, which enables us to invent very filling and savory sasame-made Mont Blanc. Accentuating sasame flavor by choosing subtly sweetness of soymilk whipped cream for inner cream."

The packaging for the mont blanc made me laugh a little, as it was in the same size large bowl as the rice bowl.  A mont blanc should be ... a majestic mountain, and this looked so little in the big bowl, lol.

From the top it looked about as I expected - like a black sesame cream spaghetti mountain.  I was eager to dig in.

The black sesame paste spaghetti outer layer was good - slightly savory, slightly nutty, lightly sweet.  It had a decent black sesame flavor, and did taste a bit like chestnut (e.g. traditional mont blanc) although I don't think there was any chestnut in it.  Thicker than a cream, not quite as thick as a paste, somewhere right in the middle.  It was good, and the portion was appropriate too.

Black Sesame Mont Blanc: Inside.

Under the black sesame spaghetti-paste-cream was a dome of whipped cream.  I didn't taste the "subtle sweetness of soy milk", it tasted like regular whipped cream to me, but, it was good whipped cream, and, as a whipped cream lover, I appreciated how much there was.

And finally, the base, black sesame sponge cake.  Light airy cake, lightly black sesame flavored.  It wasn't particularly moist, but it wasn't too dry.  It was fine basically, and a nice balance to the cream components.

Overall, this was good - the different elements were all decently done, the ratios were in good balance.  I added some fresh fruit and a scoop of black sesame brittle ice cream (!) and really completed it, but I think it would be fine just as it was too.  I wouldn't go out of my way for it, but it was good, fairly unique, and a nice change from my regular dessert line up.

***+.