IRVINE, Calif. — Inside Irvine’s Gyutan Ramen just across from the University of California, Irvine, clusters of college students congregate; some talk, but mostly, there’s chewing and drawn-out slurping.
Since August, the restaurant has been slinging bowls of its signature gyutan ramen, a beef tongue twist on the vaunted classic. After multiple research trips to Japan and countless bowls of ramen eaten, Executive Chef Jon Kim wanted to offer the familiar and something new.
Kim brings two decades of experience in Japanese cuisine. Many of those years were spent as a sushi chef, and one of his past employers decided to get into the ramen business. They sent him to Japan to research and develop his own recipes and explore ramen as art. The most traditional Japanese shops cooked their broth for 24 hours, which limited how many bowls they could sell. Some could serve just 100 of the dish, a satisfactory number to them, but not for Kim. His vision was for a faster turnaround and more ambitious output.
His efforts led him to a less involved, eight-hour cooking process that would allow him to make over 60 quarts, suitable for more than 400 bowls of ramen.
Shortly after his return, he thought about going into business for himself. After years in the competitive sushi industry, Kim was looking for a change.
“The sushi industry is so heavily saturated and the cost of sushi is getting so high,” he said. “On the business end of things I needed to make money.”
The restaurant is new, sort of. Another location of the same name in Anaheim was recently sold, leaving this version alone. But not for long, the owners hope. Over the years, ramen has boomed as a fast-casual comfort food prized by owners for its cost-effectiveness and enjoyed by patrons for its predictability and familiarity.
“Ramen has become super popular and huge in the past five years. Everyone in the industry knows that,” Kim said. “Los Angeles was the spearhead. It led the charge, and now it’s spread to Orange County.”
He added that this dish is familiar to almost everyone, from 25 cent dried ramen packets to the freshly made offerings now scattered across southern California restaurants.
Future plans are in flux, Kim said, but he and his partners have already begun a search for a central kitchen large enough to produce ingredients — the broth for each bowl of ramen — to supply upwards of half a dozen restaurants.
His concept is aimed at the masses.
Kim offer’s the basics, like tonkotsu and shoyu ramen. But he wanted to play with those staples. With stiff competition like HiroNori, also located in Irvine, Kim wanted to “think outside of the box.”
But he also wanted it to be accessible. Gyutan Ramen’s goal is to be an everyday destination, offering enough variety for those who don’t want ramen every day.
It distinguishes itself with its beef tongue and a bowl of uni truffle ramen, a holdover from Kim’s days rolling and slicing sushi. There’s also kaaraga, Japanese fried chicken and curries, like chicken katsu. If someone isn’t in the mood for a hot bowl of soup, there’s something on the menu to suit them.
Kim’s new restaurant comes as many restaurants recover from COVID-19 and a steep dropoff in business. In fact, his shop took the place of another ramen restaurant, which folded underneath the difficulties of recent years. As COVID-19 cases rose, people stayed home, on government order or personal fear. And institutions like UCI suspended most in-person classes and activities.
That’s not a problem anymore. Gyutan Ramen’s biggest problem has been kitchen capacity. While the restaurant has room for 48 people, customers can always get food to go and sit right outside in the courtyard filled with seating. The sticking point, instead, is how much ramen they can produce.
The shop is slammed as soon as it opens at 11:30 a.m. and closes from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. just so the staff can catch up for the dinner service, which runs until 9:30 p.m.
Business is back.
“It’s been crazy,” Kim said. “It feels like any normal year would feel.”