47890 Warm Springs Blvd., Fremont, CA., (510) 353 - 1133
Last visited - September of 2009
(Image from http://www.ajisensf.com/)
We went here by accident. I wanted to find Kuro-Ramen and instead we saw this on Yelp and got excited. We've had Ajisen at two other places before, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia. What a weird coincidence, we thought.
To disclose, this was supposed to be a light meal before a night of gaming and cocktails at Dave and Busters at the Great Mall. It turned out to be a lot more food than we thought. We found the place after a drive through the quiet city parts of Fremont. It was a starry night and we opened the moon roof to get a better sight of the sparkling sky. Boy was that a stupid idea, the smell of Fremont's garbage dumps could be smelled from afar.
We arrived at the restaurant and were seated by a young Chinese girl. I wasn't expecting a Japanese person, but she did have the usual "irashaimase" greeting from the Ajisen Ramen franchises. The Japanese beer posters and the giant banner that said "Kumamoto tonkotsu" style reminded me of Japan's ramen shops. We ordered our ramen, two beers, and a plate of their kara-age fried chicken. She took our order and we saw the cooks in the back making our order. They had an air of pride in their work. At least they dressed the part, like izakaya chefs in Japan.
The food came and it was pretty tasty. The noodles was not soggy and the broth was rich with flavor. I went for the miso and my girlfriend went for the volcano. She usually goes for the spicy stuff. Our ramen was good and the fried chicken was good too. It came in six giant pieces: each of them equal to the size of three chicken McNuggets stacked together. It became a hearty meal. We slowly enjoyed our meal, and listened to Jpop music coming from overhead speakers. It was a nostalgic treat!
