Biwa

Biwa is a bit of a Sunday tradition, but it's been a long while since I've ordered the ramen. With the weather dipping below freezing (even for just a moment) I thought it was high time to hit up a bowl of shio, along with chashu pork, of course.

I also got to try an onigiri with pickled saba (rice ball stuffed with mackerel) which was really delicious.

Oh, and the food is still awesome, and I shall miss it immensely. it makes me sad, all the people there are my friends.

In full disclosure, before the database crashed, HungryC wasn't happy at all with the shio ramen at Biwa.

Ducked in tonight after a couple of stiff drinks at Thatch, and looking to get some grubular action. Some excellent dishes tonight, including a beef tongue special (grilled? sauteed? dunno) but the only picture that really came out was for the karaage fried chicken, so I'm posting that one.

One of the things I like about the breading about the karaage at Biwa is the touch of curry. It's not as greasy as I normally like my fried chicken, admittedly, but it's still pretty good.

The pickled saba was again a very good dish, as was the wakame seaweed salad and the poke tuna. I was also enough of a fan of the kimchi pancakes (dunno what Biwa calls it on its menu; I would refer to it was kimchi pajeon).

I'm a little off put by the lack of bottle offerings from the Biwa sake menu, but we made do by ordering multiple tokkuris of sake anyway, I s'pose.

feeling Ramen-y yesterday, I stopped in at Biwa. Never made it to the Ramen....

after sitting down and catching up with some of the cooks that I know, I noticed a few new menu Items.

Natto is now on Biwa's menu. A true take it or leave it dish, I fall on the take it side. I like that fact that its getting more play around town, its a bit like the NANA(North American Natto Association. no its not real)all of a sudden got it put on every Japanese menu in the city.

Iobeyaki, a couple peices of Mochi doused in Shoyu, then grilled and smashed between nori. Liked it, very mellow flavor. Texture exactly what you would expect from mochi. Dont know about what mochi costs, but it seemed a bit skimp on the portion for $4. anyways, its worth trying.

Kimchi Kare-age. yes, battered and fried kimchi bits! as good as it sounds. Its a perfect bar snack, and I hope this follows the Natto in showing up on more and more menus.

those three things, 3 skewers(chicken,beef,garlic), a beer, and a tokkuri and I was done. Ramen will just have to wait.

Had dinner last night at Biwa, usual suspects - hanger steak, lots of pork belly, lamb, kimchi, chicken kare-age, tartare...and ramen. I've been less than impressed with the ramen at Biwa, mostly due to the noodles. I ordered the chicken ramen, the broth was clear and simple, and the noodles were great - curly and toothsome. As others have pointed out, they retooled their noodles and ramen, and it took me over a year to try it again. Sucks to be me - this was a good bowl of soup. I'm going to hit the counter at Biwa more often just for the ramen.

open nightly until midnight...starting June 12th (a friday). very cool news...c'mon portland people!

I've been in a coding frenzy the past two days and was about to undertake another project of mine when all of a sudden hunger struck. It was 9:15 and I didn't really feel like driving but I knew that walking meant that anywhere I went would put me way too close to the "kitchen-is-closed" point. And then I remembered that Biwa started doing late night.

I still arrived early enough to be able to partake of Biwa's regular menu, but they switch to a shorter late night menu after ten o'clock. I started with the yukke, a Korean beef tartare with sesame oil and quail egg, as well as a special chilled noodle and crab salad that they had that evening, before moving on to some grilled veggies.

The beef tartare had a great sublayer of heat to go along with the sesame oil, and overall there was a really nice texture. Tack on an order of rice (either in the form of an onigiri or just as a bowl) and I'd be set. Great dish.

My drink of choice this evening was off of their cocktail menu, dubbed A Personal Matter, combining Irish whiskey, Fernet Branca and coke. Good stuff.

The crab salad special was nice, good flavor on the dressing with tons of shiso and other herbs, too. Prolly a tad meager for the price ($11) but crab ain't cheap and the dish was really good. The grilled shiitakes were great as always. While the ramen and kimchi at Biwa get all the attention, I think where they shine best are their grilled items.

My favorite grilled item last night were the grilled fava beans, which came out piping hot. After getting the bean out of the pod, one could also peel the second layer off of the bean, but I just kept it on. My procedure: only open one or two pods at a time since it keeps the beans hot, but open those two, then take a bean, dab it onto the sliced lemon for a bit more moisture, then dip it onto the salt. I requested some togarashi red pepper to jazz it up even further. Great stuff, and perfect for a new visitor to Biwa, too, as it conjures up the familiarity of edamame while still stepping outside the box.

I'm a fan of Biwa in general, and definitely as a late night spot, as their soundtrack always has a cool, urban energy that's hip without being frenetic. The food is top notch, and they've got a full bar which is key because my drink of choice will always be a cocktail. Careful observers may have noticed this tweet from Sel Gris, revealing that during the month of June, they'd be offering a free glass of sake to late night visitors. Here's a look at their late night menu:

Noticed that not all of my pictures survived, so I'm reposting them. Clockwise from top left: the wakame seaweed salad, the shioyaki saba salt-grilled mackerel, the grilled tofu with miso sauce, and a dimly lit picture of the old shio ramen (which has been replaced by the chicken ramen).

Biwa was the first stop of the night on Thursday with the Pres. and VP of Shimizu-no Mai. Marcus was doing a free tasting to introduce their sakes. All I can say about it was that "free" attracts the same ilk to a sake a tasting in SE as it does to Costco in Clackamas. You could have told me that that group was waiting for the next batch of Steak Um's from Flo at Costco, I wouldnt have questioned it in the slightest!

That being said, I did get an opportunity to try a few dishes at Biwa that I hadnt had yet. The Cold Soba w/shrimp(nice and light, shrimp a little overcooked but still tasty), Chicken livers(still not a fan) and the scallop skewers(quality scallops, and like all things yakitori at Biwa, expertly prepared). Some old favorites were ordered up as well. Grilled Mackerel, Karaage, Kimchi-Karaage, an Armada of chicken and beef skewers, and copious Oshinko(pickles).

no one even thought about any ramen. take that for what its worth.

After arriving late to a lazy Sunday BBQ, I found myself at Biwa looking to grab some food to help soak up the relatively high amount of gin that managed to find its way into my system. And this is where the counter special of ramen comes into play.

I seemed to be one of the few fans of the shio ramen here at Biwa, and I was definitely sad to see it go, but I am a fan of its replacement, the chicken ramen. The broth actually has quite an eggy character, or at least one of incredibly rich chicken. That broth, just salty enough and just meaty enough, wouldn't be too out of place in a Hainanese chicken rice preparation.

I ordered it with extra wakame seaweed, which ended up being a good call as it introduced an additional vegetal quality to each bite. The broth is quite unlike the big, porky broths that you Hakata-heads might enjoy, but it's quite a nice "summer" bowl of ramen.

The menu has undergone a few changes since I've last been here, so I'm eager to come back to try some of the new items, especially the mabo-dofu (hehe, I can spot a Sichuan dish when I see it). Here's the current menu:

Let it be said that a belly full of Biwa (and a glass of the Personal Matter, combining Irish whiskey and Fernet) is a great way to provide sustenance for a cigar night. Nothing kicks off the evening right like sitting at my preferred ADA chairs right next to the grill station at the town's best yakitoriya.

I do not know what is going on at Biwa lately, but my last three visits, over the course of a couple months, this place is an unmitigated disaster! Last nights visit being the worst so far(although, not by much).

overcooked skewers served with dry, clumpy,off flavored spicy mustard

short rib special that was a ripoff at $9(3or4 oz of meat maybe). reminded me of my aunt who can't cook, making pot roast. a couple sad potato slivers and 1(!)baby carrot , halved and cooked til Gerber texture was acheived.

Miso w/tofu that is passable except for some really bizarrely textured tofu.

The service was quite possibly worse than the food. nuf said.

not to be completely negative......the rice was good.

So, Not only will it be fairly easy for me to pass Biwa up from now on, I think its going to be one of those places I have no problem warning others of. Just not worth your time/money/patience.

Not discounting CO's experience, I should probably post a counterpoint. I was there recently to take advantage of the counter specials. The $5 ramen special was the best bowl of ramen I've had yet at Biwa, with great, curly, al dente noodles and a perfectly soft-boiled egg ($1). The dark broth was full of flavor (and little bits of floating pork fat). The $2 skewers - pork belly and hangar steak - were great, with the hangar steak better than previous visits. I enjoyed the soju collins cocktail, but I'm not too picky on the drink front. Service was efficient - I was able to sit down, order, eat, and pay all in about 12 minutes (10:30 pm, Friday night).

I think you can still do well here by keeping it simple. I guess I would probably want to get back to try some of my other previous favorites (like the tartare) to see if they've slipped, but a spot at the counter here for ramen alone makes it worthy to me.

I've eaten there a few times in the last month and haven't noticed any significant change in quality, either with the food or service. *shrug*

Hm, maybe things are just getting inconsistent?

We went in Tuesday night and both ordered the biwa ramen. While the noodles were better than usual, the broth was not only boring but also luke warm - baffling for a place that prides itself on ramen. The charred onion flavors and rich pork I mentioned in my review were mostly absent.

The pork belly went only half eaten (a first for me anywhere) with a strange toughness, like it was overcooked at a low temp. Beef onglet was more disappointing than usual (although I've always said I greatly prefer Tanuki's), small and again overcooked.

Chicken thighs were delicious however - perfect temp and flavor.

In light of the comments above I'm hoping it was just an off night, but cold ramen?! really? It's a shame, the option of semi-late night ramen is welcome this time of year.

Let me clarify a bit.

When I first started going to Biwa(maybe 2+ years ago), I found that across the board the food items and service ranged from about a 5 up to a 9 or so. Now it seems that the range is from a 2 to a 5.5 or 6. See, I will take a 5 here and there if I have the possibility of getting a solid 9, but its really hard to walk into a place and know that the best you are going to get is a 6 and in all likely hood you are going to get some 3's and 2's.

oh, and the Sake/booze markups at Biwa are so high as to be beyond the pale. Kinda hard to enjoy a 'bar' when you can't stomach the prices.

Mmm... pork cheek skewers ....

Mmm... Biwa Burger. If this were simply just another $7 burger, it'd be noteworthy enough, but add on the fact that it's topped with that piece of chasiu pork and you've got a big winner.

kind of tired of having to disconnect my jaw to take a bite of a dang burger BUT this bun does appear to have the marks of proper toasting/grilling.

http://guiltycarnivore.com/2010/03/12/ramen-biwa/

When Biwa first opened, I was eager to check it out for the ramen alone. While I loved everything else about Biwa, the ramen fell a bit short. But they’ve retooled dish, and the noodles are consistently curly and toothsome, and the broth that comprises their namesake ramen is deeply flavorful, redolent of roasted onion and simmered pork, most comparable I would estimate to a dark shoyu stock.

Today is their 3rd birthday. They've got the burger on the regular menu tonight special to celebrate