It was a ramen day. But it was no ordinary ramen day. It was a Ramen Burger day! You may have heard about it or seen it before. Much like the cronut craze is invading San Diego from New York, the ramen burger has made its way to Raki Raki over in Kearny Mesa. I’ve been meaning to try it and finally the day has come.
They have several varieties to choose from but the Signature Tsukune Ramen Burger had my name written all over it. All burgers come with sweet potato fries. I’m not much of a sweet potato guy and was hoping they had something to substitute, but unfortunately they did not.
I read some other reviews (Kirbie’s and Darlene’s) of the Ramen Burger and was curious to see how it stacked up. Looks like the powdered sugar is here to stay on the sweet potato fries. Mixing savory and sweet is not my thing so the fries with powdered sugar by itself seemed okay to me. But mixing it with the ketchup or spicy mayo presented the contrast I try to avoid. I have to say I enjoyed the spicy mayo quite a bit though and I was able to mask the sweetness (lucky for me) with a big dip of spicy mayo.
The chicken patty itself had flavor for days and was oh so juicy. I don’t know if the ramen added a whole lot to it because it was in between soft and mushy/a little harder on the outside. I do wish it had a little more crunch or texture on the outside so it held up to the juiciness of the chicken. I enjoyed the chicken and couldn’t help but wonder what it would taste like with a regular bun.
The chicken was almost juicy to a fault. Hands got a little messy before the meal was complete as you can see. It was fun to give it a try though! Personally with a few small tweaks I’d confidently order it again. Ramen soup can’t be easily replaced and holds a special place in my heart. You can’t dethrone it that easily without a fight.
Our natural instinct to have spam once we spotted it on the menu kicked in. It featured the same lovely spicy mayo we had with the sweet potato fries. Can’t say we’ve had spam before with cucumber and avocado. It was pleasant and slightly less heavy than normal, while providing an extra bit of texture.
We didn’t go all in with the burgers and had to order a regular Pork Ramen just in case. Yum. Once again I was reminded why broth and noodles belong together. There was a table of four next to us who ordered the burgers and I noticed a few other tables trying them out as well. Guess everyone wants to get in on the Ramen Burger trend. So there it is. It wasn’t so much that the burger was bad. Quite the contrary. If I never had ramen soup before, maybe I’d love it. But the ramen came before the burger.
San Diego, CA 92111
www.rakirakiramen.com
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