Snappy Sushi Now Snappy Ramen!

[wobblymusic.livejournal.com]

I stopped by Snappy Sushi for lunch today and discovered that they've had a makeover and are now Snappy Ramen! They still serve some sushi, but the menu has been radically cut back with only a handful of rolls available -- just tuna, salmon, eel, avocado, and cucumber in various forms and combinations. The ramen comes in 5 varieties -- Chicken Shuyu, Tonkotsu (pork), Spicy Ramen, Tsukemen (not yet available and the server couldn't explain what it was), and Cold Ramen. I had the chicken and while it was OK, I can't say it was great. Saporro, for example, is much better.

I'm somewhat baffled by the change. I thought their sushi was quite good and relatively inexpensive. The ramen costs $10-14 and wasn't great. Admittedly, I only tried one thing. Maybe the Spicy Miso is better? I'll probably give it another couple of tries (I'm curious about the mysterious Tsukemen as well).

Comments

[unferth.livejournal.com]

I found this post by someone who knows a lot more about ramen than I do offering a review, and an explanation of tsukemen.

http://japaneseamericaninboston.blogspot.com/2013/08/snappy-ramen-davis-square-now-has-ramen.html

[wobblymusic.livejournal.com]

From that review: " However, I didn't leave hungry (a problem I have at Sapporo) ".

Seriously?! I thought the portion I had today was much smaller than what I've had at Sapporo.

I guess I should post that on the review...

[davelew.livejournal.com]

Surprising that both that review and the OP have the same incorrect spelling of 豚カツ, where the Japanese is pretty explicitly "katsu" and not "kotsu".

[unferth.livejournal.com]

The photo of the restaurant's chalkboard in the review I linked shows the same spelling, so presumably they're following that.

[wobblymusic.livejournal.com]

It's surprising that I copied the spelling from their menu?

[sovay]

They still serve some sushi, but the menu has been radically cut back with only a handful of rolls available -- just tuna, salmon, eel, avocado, and cucumber in various forms and combinations.

Well, crud! I was just thinking about their garlic scallop roll.

[alphacygni]

Seconded! That garlic scallop roll was a thing of beauty, and I hadn't had one in too long. I am very bummed.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I figured they were going after the same market segment as the place in Porter Sq that always has lines out the door.

Is there someplace else around here that does brown rice sushi?

[teko.livejournal.com]

Genki Ya, in Fresh Pond, has brown rice or multi-grain rice as an option for all their rolls.

[jadelennox]

Seconding Genki Ya. Hoboy their banana, cream cheese, avocado is amazeballs.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds fantastic!

[nurrynur.livejournal.com]

You can also get brown rice sushi from Blue Fuji in Medford. They are on Foodler and deliver to Somerville. I do like Genki Ya better, though.

[teko.livejournal.com]

I stopped in the day they switched over and asked, and the waitress seemed sort of uncertain. She said that it was a very sudden change and that it's an "experiment", and they were going to be introducing new food and some of the old rolls bit by bit. She said they weren't sure if they were actually changing the name of the store to Snappy Ramen or if it would still be Snappy Sushi. She also wasn't sure why they stopped selling all of the hot Japanese snacks and entrees that they'd had recently.

If I were a restaurant owner and I saw lines down the block every night for YumeWoKatare ramen, I'd be tempted to jump on the bandwagon, too. But Snappy Sushi was always quite busy & had a unique product, so I'm not sure what the thinking was, really. I'll miss the Newbury Fashion Roll :/

[cos]

There are a *lot* more sushi places than ramen places in the area. Perhaps they're making a guess that the number of ramen restaurants relative to how much people want ramen, is a better ratio than the number of sushi restaurants relative to how much people want to eat sushi. Even if people want sushi 5 times as much as they want ramen, that might still be a good bet considering how overwhelmingly more sushi places there are.

[abilouise.livejournal.com]

Is it also reasonable to assume that the profit margin possible on noodles is higher than the profit margin possible on sushi-grade fish?

[cos]

No idea. To assume? Probably not. I would not be surprised if the margin on sushi were higher, or lower, than on noodles. If you know people who own some sushi or noodle restaurants, find out for us! :)

[teko.livejournal.com]

I was actually wondering if the switch to ramen had anything to do with the recent closure of nearby Captain Boston Fish, where I believe they got their seafood. Maybe their supply costs went way up on fish?

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Given the prices people are charging for ramen, wouldn't surprise me...

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

If anything, I'd guess that the driver is being able to avoid having a large staff of trained sushi chefs. In the end, most of the cost of anything is labor.

But I must say that $14 for a bowel of ramen strikes me as rather expensive.

[laryu.livejournal.com]

That's spectacular news. I'll check it out tomorrow. I find brown rice sushi to be inedible and noodle soup is comfort food for me so I would take this trade any day.