Today we’d like to introduce you to Yohei Uchida.
Yohei, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When I came to LA 5 years ago, there were so many Japanese ramen restaurants, serving typical Japanese ramen. Therefore, I thought it would be better to come up with my own modern style menu, focusing on chicken and vegan broth in addition to the traditional pork broth.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was tough going through all the issues of starting a new restaurant. Since we got our start by taking over the ownership of the previous restaurant in the space Takara Ramen Bar there was a foundation but we had a short time to make it our own before we opened in fall 2014.
The biggest problem was time: we had to do all the work within a month including remodeling and adding a new menu. To be quite honest, the previous business, Taraka Ramen Bar, was not doing too well and began to lose loyal customers, so we had to change the entire concept and menu in order to get new customers.
In the short time we spent transforming Takara Ramen Bar into Urban Ramen, we completely changed the layout of the restaurant. Takara was previously a Vegan restaurant and basically kept the same layout from that restaurant, when we remodeled, we began to free ourselves of what the space previously was. As one of our staff says to reflect our Hollywood heritage, it was a reboot.
Urban Ramen – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Urban Ramen is a modern Japanese restaurant that focuses on Ramen. In order to distinguish ourselves from competitors, we offer a number of chicken and vegetable based broths while most restaurants solely do pork. We also offer sushi, rice dishes and Poke. I run pretty much everything including the kitchen operation, new menu, and event planning.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment would be to see our loyal customers eating our ramen that I’ve put a lot of effort into creating. Every change we make to the menu comes with a risk, and we’ve been able to keep the ship afloat this long, and for that I am proud.
Today we’d like to introduce you to Yohei Uchida.
Yohei, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When I came to LA 5 years ago, there were so many Japanese ramen restaurants, serving typical Japanese ramen. Therefore, I thought it would be better to come up with my own modern style menu, focusing on chicken and vegan broth in addition to the traditional pork broth.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was tough going through all the issues of starting a new restaurant. Since we got our start by taking over the ownership of the previous restaurant in the space Takara Ramen Bar there was a foundation but we had a short time to make it our own before we opened in fall 2014.
The biggest problem was time: we had to do all the work within a month including remodeling and adding a new menu. To be quite honest, the previous business, Taraka Ramen Bar, was not doing too well and began to lose loyal customers, so we had to change the entire concept and menu in order to get new customers.
In the short time we spent transforming Takara Ramen Bar into Urban Ramen, we completely changed the layout of the restaurant. Takara was previously a Vegan restaurant and basically kept the same layout from that restaurant, when we remodeled, we began to free ourselves of what the space previously was. As one of our staff says to reflect our Hollywood heritage, it was a reboot.
Urban Ramen – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Urban Ramen is a modern Japanese restaurant that focuses on Ramen. In order to distinguish ourselves from competitors, we offer a number of chicken and vegetable based broths while most restaurants solely do pork. We also offer sushi, rice dishes and Poke. I run pretty much everything including the kitchen operation, new menu, and event planning.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment would be to see our loyal customers eating our ramen that I’ve put a lot of effort into creating. Every change we make to the menu comes with a risk, and we’ve been able to keep the ship afloat this long, and for that I am proud.
Pricing:
- Hakata Tonkotsu $11 (Black garlic oil $1.50 extra)
- Maitake Vegan Ramen $13
- Spicy Chicken Ramen $13
Contact Info:
- Address: 7300 W Sunset Blvd (the one with the grass on the wall!)
- Website: www.urbanramen.com/
- Phone: (323) 512-6077
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urbanramen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urbanramen/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/urbanramen
- Yelp: https://www.facebook.com/urbanramen/
- Other: https://www.yelp.com/biz/urban-ramen-los-angeles-2
