In this series, El Estoque reviews restaurants in the area alphabetically and tries the restaurant’s recommended dishes. In this edition, EE continued the alphabetic theme with a trip to Mori Kitchen. Mori Kitchen is a Japanese ramen restaurant that replaced Carl’s Jr. on South De Anza Blvd. after it closed down in 2013.

Overall Rating: ⅘
Overall Price: $9.95

Although the exterior of Mori Kitchen is dull and can go easily unnoticed, the interior is elegant, modern and well lit. Upon walking into the restaurant, you immediately notice the long line to order your food. At 8 p.m. on a Saturday, the building was packed with people waiting to get their share of ramen. In terms of cleanliness, everything is kept clean and tidy, and the workers are extremely friendly.

Appetizer Curry Croquette ($3.95)Beautifully plated, these curry croquettes were served hot with a sweet sriracha mayo sauce. Although this dish was rather oily, it offered great texture. The croquettes had a thin layer of crunch and soft insides made up of potato. The sauce provided a nice sweet flavor that blended well with the croquette.

Rating: ⅗

Main Dish Tonkatsu Base Shoyu Ramen ($9.95)

With a simple yet elegant set-up, the ramen had a quick turnover and was served quickly and hot. The noodles were the highlight of the dish as they were very chewy and had a soft texture. On first taste, the soup was watery and had a hint of pork flavor, but after a while the ingredients of the dish dissolved and the soup had a wonderful subtle garlic flavor. The meat was fatty and absorbed the flavors of the soup.
Rating ⅘

Main Dish Tonkatsu Base Shio Ramen ($9.95)Although this dish had a different soup base, it shared a lot of similarities with the last. This soup was salt-based instead of soy-sauce based, but both were made with pork. After the ingredients settled, this soup had a creamy texture. Very much like the shoyu ramen, the shio ramen had soft chewy noodles.

Rating ⅘

Check For two 2 people, the restaurant is reasonably priced for the amount of food they serve. The waiters were very friendly and made an enjoyable experience we would come back for again.