South Bay: Orenchi

My family has been talking about Orenchi since before I moved back to the Bay.  We finally seized the opportunity to go when my cousin came to visit from Taiwan:

The lines get pretty crazy at Orenchi, so get there early.  As in 30 minutes before they open early.  You probably won't be the first.  But you'll be able to get your name on the list and get seated in the first round:

The servers at Orenchi are incredibly cute and very Japanese.  They crouch by your table while taking your order and it takes a bit of concentration to understand their English.

Here's what my father loves about Orenchi:

Their tako wasabi or wasabi octopus is really, REALLY fantastic.  The wasabi gives it a great kick (and nose cleanse) and the octopus is fresh fresh fresh.  So light and refreshing that I wish I had some right now.

My mom wanted to try the karaage (fried chicken):

And the age takoyaki (fried octopus balls):

The takoyaki tasted like every other takoyaki that I've ever had.  Tasty, but nothing particularly mind-blowing about it.  The karaage was freshly fried and delicious.  But in the end, the tako wasabi blew both out of the water.

Because we were one of the first parties seated, my mom was lucky enough to order the tsukemen or dipping noodles:

The only serve 15 at every meal.  That's right.  15.  Total.

The rest of us each ordered an Orenchi ramen:

The Orenchi ramen has a tonkatsu soup base with pork, green onion, bamboo shoot, mushroom, sesame, and nori.

And an onsen egg:

Just look at that beauty.  Biting into one of these makes me so, so happy.  After eating these at Orenchi, my dad went home to try to master it himself.  Thanks to Youtube, my dad now has it down.  (Boil for six minutes and then immediately soak in a ice water bath.  Easy peasy.)

I absolutely loved Orenchi.  The soup got a bit salty toward the end there, but overall the noodles were Q, the pork was fatty, and the egg.  Oh, the egg.

I love eggs.


Orenchi
3540 Homestead Rd
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 246-2955
http://www.orenchi-ramen.com/