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Gaijin, Nicole Maskour and Tuvan Pham's Family-Friendly Ramen Shop in the Former Kite Runner Cafe Space in North Arlington


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"During the restaurant's soft opening, the two owners want to hear customer feedback."

Based on nothing but reading the article, I'm going to give one piece of advice that may sound contrarian at first, but please at least think about it:

Keep your prices high enough so that every single bowl of ramen you sell makes you feel like you're not just surviving, but thriving.

Why? Here are 10 reasons, off the top of my head:

1. Despite the history of low-rent, low-cost restaurants in that area, the demographic has a comfortably high income.

2. You have a monopoly, for now, on Northern Virginia ramen, Annandale notwithstanding (don't use this to hold your customers hostage).

3. $11 for a bowl of ramen sounds expensive, but it's a full meal, and large bowls of pho are creeping towards the $10 mark.

4. It sounds like you're using organic, high-quality ingredients, and cooking them with labor-intensive love.

5. Just as people pay more to shop at Whole Foods, they'll pay more to have a healthy bowl of soup - careful with the MSG (that's a personal pet peeve).

6. We don't need another ethnic restaurant to go belly-up on the Lee Highway corridor - we'd *like* you to succeed.

7. If you're going to succeed, at least one of you will need to leave your full-time job in the near future.

8. If you're going to succeed, both of you will need to leave your full-time jobs in the medium-term.

9. You have only 44 indoor seats, and 17 patio seats - at two turns a day, maximum capacity, $10 per cover, that's $1,220 a day. Total.

10. You *must* serve beer and wine in order to survive, and you should charge a reasonable price for a can of beer ($5 or so).

If you want to discuss this some more, join us, and write me here - I'll be happy to help you.

ETA: 11. Vanquish the music on your website. Trust me on this one - I signed back on just to type it. :)

PS - Congratulations!

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I'm really surprised they named this place Gaijin. That's a slightly derogatory word for foreigner in the Japanese language. It's similar to Haole in Hawaiian. 

They probably didn't know that because they're Gaijins. :)

Neither Gaijin nor Haole register with me as derogatory, because I'm both a Gaijin and a Haole.

Didn't Arnold Schwarzengger use that second word in The Terminator because of a match from the "Possible Responses?"

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They probably didn't know that because they're Gaijins. :)

Neither Gaijin nor Haole register with me as derogatory, because I'm both a Gaijin and a Haole.

Didn't Arnold Schwarzengger use that second word in The Terminator because of a match from the "Possible Responses?"

:(

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Felt it was a bad joke.

Sorry about not double spacing after the quoted text.

Meh, I don't even know what the words mean. Don't take it so hard, and color me ignorant. :)

My guess (again, ignorant) is that it can't be *that* offensive, or there would be an uprising.

The double-spacing comment was another joke. :)

Smile, dammit! :)

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Meh, I don't even know what the words mean. Don't take it so hard, and color me ignorant. :)

My guess (again, ignorant) is that it can't be *that* offensive, or there would be an uprising.

The double-spacing comment was another joke. :)

Smile, dammit! :)

No worries, I wasn't taking it that hard. Brevity of communication on the internet can sometimes be misconstrued.

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If the owners ever read this thread, I'd like to offer my thoughts.

I have attempted to indulge my ramen desires in Arlington 4 times now.  Every time I want to go, Gaijin is closed.

Gaijin is closed on Sat and Sun for lunch. Why? Ramen, hell all noodle soup, is perfect hangover food.  Not that I know.

Closed for lunch.  Why?  Lee HWY has so much flow at that location that I"m sure you'd hook some fish.

Closed on  Monday.  Ok, I'll give you this one IF you were working a full service but since you aren't, I"m not. Went early to preschool pick up just to order take out. No, I could not have ramen last night.  This is where I would have written my review but instead, this is what you get.

If ever I can dine with you Tu-Sun 4-10, I'll give it a try but on the 4 occasions I've attempted, I"ve not been able.

FIX IT!

Rant over. Thank you, fine DR readers, for indulging me.

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Hello everyone!

We were invited to join this discussion by Don himself through Facebook. Happy to see that we are the topic of any interest.  :wub:

Yes, our hours are weird (we are very sorry for any inconvenience that this causes our potential customers). We are open from Tuesday through Sunday from 4pm-10pm......These are the hours that we must maintain in order to control the quality of our food. With the staff we have now, we can only commit to these limited hours of operation. If you want to know more please keep reading.

We consider ramen soup as an art form- and our cooking techniques are authentic Japanese (despite our name "foreigner" or "non-Japanese" "outsider" :ph34r:). Our methods require us to cook 4 different types of broth for 7-10 hours daily before serving. We use fresh ingredients daily (pork and chicken bone, cabbage, carrots, corn, apple, bonito) and boil the soup for hours before we can serve. Once we perfect our processes, then we can hire more staff and train them to cook in the very early morning (1 am) to serve for lunch around 12 noon.

We **hope** :huh:  that we can open for lunch on the weekends this winter, but we still have concerns with having the space to sustain our soup line for lunch/dinner on the same day. Basically, to keep our promise of fresh cooked soup, we would have to cook the soup we are serving for dinner during lunch, which is difficult to do given the volume that we serve for dinner and projected for lunch. With long cooking times, and a promise for the best we can in every bowl, our hours are limited.

We often wonder if our customers would be okay with a "lunch menu" no ramen served, that would help us a lot- but we have concerns that it would upset customers (no ramen for lunch at a ramen shop?!). We do have really tasty small plates and wings... but not sure if that would suffice for hungry lunch crowds.

So far either people love us or hate us. We LOVE what we are doing and are very proud of the products we are serving.

I hope that explains our hours of operation and I hope to see you give it a try!

Thanks,

Gaijin Ramen Shop Co-Owner Nicole :D

gaijinramenshop.com

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I love a logical explanation and will have ramen for lunch today. Maybe that will cure my crankiness.

It's very common in Asia for small "mom & pop" operations to keep odd hours. And once they are out of food for the day they close up shop. People have their favorite spots and they learn the idiocentricities of the owner.

There's this little Asian fusion place near my office that I got to weekly. I usually go early and one day I went a little late to order my usual sushi platter. "We are out of all sushi" the owner said with concern on her face. I ordered something small and said that I'd be back. "Wait" and ran to the back. She came back with some of her mom's home- made veggie-chi (not cabbage, not kale) as a free side. How sweet was that!

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Had a really nice dinner here last week.  The details have faded, but we started with the steamed buns with beef burger - two buns to an order, and it really did have a little hamburger in each one.  Tasty bun, but I'd get the chicken or pork or tofu next time (but kids will like the burger, which may be the idea).

Four of us had ramen, and we all liked it.  I had tonkatsu ramen with pork shoulder - the broth was delicious and rich and layered in flavor (befitting their statement that they cook it all day starting in the morning). There are loads of additional toppings to choose from, and I like that so many of them are vegetables.  I ordered a Nitamago boiled seasoned egg, which was nicely cooked (less cooked than hard-boiled, but not runny) and tasty; marinated mushrooms, which always make me happy; bamboo shoots; and roasted sesame seeds. (I was tempted to get avocado but wasn't sure how that would be w/ramen.) Very good bowl of ramen, good quality ingredients, very filling (didn't quite finish mine). The noodles were good, though not quite as springy as Daikaya's.

I don't recall what everyone else had, but one friend (more of a ramen connoisseur than I am) got the spicy tonkatsu and kimchi as a topping, and loved his bowl (he commented on both the broth and noodles being very good).

Service was friendly and helpful. The room is more attractively done than when it was Kite Runner.  We all liked the food and will definitely go back.

Menu is here (warning, autoplay music):

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Had a really nice dinner here last week.  The details have faded, but we started with the steamed buns with beef burger - two buns to an order, and it really did have a little hamburger in each one.  Tasty bun, but I'd get the chicken or pork or tofu next time (but kids will like the burger, which may be the idea).

Four of us had ramen, and we all liked it.  I had tonkatsu ramen with pork shoulder - the broth was delicious and rich and layered in flavor (befitting their statement that they cook it all day starting in the morning). There are loads of additional toppings to choose from, and I like that so many of them are vegetables.  I ordered a Nitamago boiled seasoned egg, which was nicely cooked (less cooked than hard-boiled, but not runny) and tasty; marinated mushrooms, which always make me happy; bamboo shoots; and roasted sesame seeds. (I was tempted to get avocado but wasn't sure how that would be w/ramen.) Very good bowl of ramen, good quality ingredients, very filling (didn't quite finish mine). The noodles were good, though not quite as springy as Daikaya's.

I don't recall what everyone else had, but one friend (more of a ramen connoisseur than I am) got the spicy tonkatsu and kimchi as a topping, and loved his bowl (he commented on both the broth and noodles being very good).

Service was friendly and helpful. The room is more attractively done than when it was Kite Runner.  We all liked the food and will definitely go back.

Menu is here (warning, autoplay music):

Great recap. And thanks for linking to the menu - those prices are ridiculous(ly cheap, I mean)! Cocktails for $5-7 (makes up for the $8 Sapporo, I guess); add-ons for a dollar or two (pretty standard, but starting with a $10-11 bowl is fantastic)...have to get here soon.

Cheers!

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After 5 months of waiting, I finally made it to Gaijin. While I am not a ramen expert, I love soup. All soup, and soup-like foods.  I went with high hopes and yet feel no compulsion to go back.

Here are my experiences in order of occurrence:
1. My date.  Somebody, loves Pho and pitched a 5 yr old hissy fit when I explained that ramen was like pho, but not pho.  He also does not love Shirley Timples. Who knew? Can't blame them for these two.

2. The edamame:  I am almost positive that it was microwaved, freezer-burnt, or both. However, my 5yr old date and I agreed that it was really good (although I like a firmer pod). Strike one.

3.  Kids sized pork ramen:  7$ seems high but it was good. It just comes with noodles, broth, and a thin slab o' pork. More on that later. Since he didn't eat it, I am positive that the 2 yr old will, so not a loss.  I didn't LOVE the broth. It was ok but not amazing.

4.  My ramen:  black miso with added corn.  Good but not great. I usually want to drink so much that I almost drown myself but this, I could take or leave. It did taste better the longer I enjoyed my bowl which was interesting.  strike 2; I like addictive soup and at 13$, I am used to addictive soup.

5.  Service: inattentive although the waitress was really cute. (attractive and cute personality).

6. Great pork and noodles. I really like the slab of pork. It is very tender and the perfect amount of fat. I know from reading ramen threads that y'all like firm bouncy noodles and these would qualify.

Will I be back? Maybe.  I really, really love soup and soup like things. I might should try every broth before I write it off. Winter is young. I have time.

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Matt and I went here for ramen two weeks ago.  I had the tonktosu with a soft egg and bean sprouts.  I liked the noodles a lot and the pork and the soft egg.  The broth to me was very gravy like almost in a way, and it was good, and I had something like that in Japan that I really liked, but I would also like to try other broths.  This may not be my go-to broth.  It was really good on a cold day when I wanted something filling.  Other things on the menu looked really good.  I am sure we will be back here, it's close to the house and I thought very affordable for the ramen.

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Just a quick review.

I just realized that I have only been back once in this entire year.  I took a 3-yr-old on a date to Gaijin  a week ago.  We started with edamame that was perfectly well prepared and had big yummy salt crystals on it.  My date ate most of them.  My date had the kids chicken ramen and I strongly recommend this to anyone who likes chicken broth or chicken.  Shredded chicken was added to the ramen and it was tasty alone or in combination with the broth and noodles.  My date actually fished around in her bowl for the chicken with her fingers until I showed her that we did, indeed, have a fork. 

I had double miso ramen and it was very good. I added corn and bamboo shoots but I wished that I would have also added the egg.  I think that would have given the dish a little more depth. 
 
This second visit was far more satisfying than the first.  Service was much better too. It's fall; go get your soup on. ( I mean, drink some; not spill it on yourself.  )

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We showed up at Gaijin at 6:55 PM with friends on Saturday because we were close and it has a happy hour until 7 PM.  The waiter was very friendly and said don't worry about it when we mentioned we wanted to get our orders in before happy hour ended, he said we were there and it was no rush.  That provide to be true as one member of our party got a second sake probably 30 minutes later and it was still on happy hour pricing for him. 

We basically had apps for four people with drinks and later one ramen.  We ordered Kimchi (*2) $1/hh ok size plate for the price and good flavor it was all eaten, Tater Takoyaki (*2) $6/hh - basically tater tots with two different sauces on it and some bbq pork (like pulled pork) good hh food - don't really recall the sauce, Oishii Oishii Steamed Buns (fried chicken) $6/hh the fried chicken looked good but don't remember feedback from the eater, and fried pot stickers under another name $3/hh for four which were tasty good at the happy hour pricing but not worth $5.

For drinks I think it was $2 off beer, sake and wine.  But then they had an anytime menu of select mix drinks for $5 (maybe they took Don's feedback to heart)!  So one person had the little drink glass jars of sake (*2) on hh, two of us had the mixed drinks and one a large Japanese beer on hh.  Drinks were small but fairly priced.

Everyone was happy with both the food and the drink.  I was the only one that was up for Ramen and I ordered the Spicy Tonkotsu - which was VERY tasty, it was a creamy like broth (but still dark) it felt like it had coconut milk or some other ingredient to give it a nice creamy spicy taste.  Three of us tasted it and everyone enjoyed the broth.  I don't eat that much broth because of the salt so my wife took care of eating all the broth.

The staff was very friendly and were welcoming back a lot of people.  The yelp reviews on the place was about three stars, probably because people who are driving around the metro area for food were disappointed comparing it to X other Ramen place, but from our experience we were very happy.  The combo of nice people, tasty food and very well priced drinks made for a nice happy hour.  Everyone would be happy to return.

 

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Made it here last week for dinner. It was a little hit or miss.

  1. A hit - The Tater Takoyaki was quite good. Potatoes with sauces and meat. What's not to love? I could eat a lot of this.
  2. A hit - lots of sake drinks to choose from. I am not a sake guy, but my wife really like the one she ordered. I had acceptable wine.
  3. A hit and a miss - The Chicken ramen was quite good. The broth was lovely. The fried chicken and mushrooms were good additions, the carrots were quite forgettable. The noodles in this were really great.
  4. A miss - Spicy Tonkotsu ramen. The broth was....surprisingly bland. The spiciness that was adde to it was fine, but nothing special since the underlying broth was so bland. The extra scallions and little bok choy were good additions and the extra pork I added in addition to the pork that came with the dish were good. The noodles in this were a bit too clumpy unfortunately, but added the desired slurpy texture just fine.

Service was good, generally speaking. They forgot to provide implements to eat the tater tots, but it was easy to flag someone down. Traffic was a little tricky at firts but we sound on street parking about a block or so away after circling around once. Oh I forgot to mention we added an egg to each of the ramens and they were good.

I would be willing to go again and explore more of their menu, maybe trying one of the miso ramens the next time. But one suggestion I would have to the folks that run the place -- I would focus on the broth and nail that every time more than anything else (followed immediately by the noodles). 

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I think it must be a not-nailed-every-time issue, since I've had the Tonkotsu ramen (not spicy) with very flavorful broth a few times. So I like your advice to the chefs.

I've started getting the chicken ramen lately, since I ordered it once when I was sick and liked the broth so much. (I always add marinated mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and usually add roasted sesame seeds and an egg. I want to add bok choy too, but that's a lot of food already.)

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On 9/24/2015 at 3:30 PM, GaijinRamenShop said:

Yes, our hours are weird (we are very sorry for any inconvenience that this causes our potential customers). We are open from Tuesday through Sunday from 4pm-10pm......These are the hours that we must maintain in order to control the quality of our food. With the staff we have now, we can only commit to these limited hours of operation. If you want to know more please keep reading.

We consider ramen soup as an art form- and our cooking techniques are authentic Japanese (despite our name "foreigner" or "non-Japanese" "outsider" :ph34r:). Our methods require us to cook 4 different types of broth for 7-10 hours daily before serving. We use fresh ingredients daily (pork and chicken bone, cabbage, carrots, corn, apple, bonito) and boil the soup for hours before we can serve. Once we perfect our processes, then we can hire more staff and train them to cook in the very early morning (1 am) to serve for lunch around 12 noon.

We **hope** :huh:  that we can open for lunch on the weekends this winter, but we still have concerns with having the space to sustain our soup line for lunch/dinner on the same day. Basically, to keep our promise of fresh cooked soup, we would have to cook the soup we are serving for dinner during lunch, which is difficult to do given the volume that we serve for dinner and projected for lunch. With long cooking times, and a promise for the best we can in every bowl, our hours are limited.

We often wonder if our customers would be okay with a "lunch menu" no ramen served, that would help us a lot- but we have concerns that it would upset customers (no ramen for lunch at a ramen shop?!). We do have really tasty small plates and wings... but not sure if that would suffice for hungry lunch crowds.

So far either people love us or hate us. We LOVE what we are doing and are very proud of the products we are serving.

I hope that explains our hours of operation and I hope to see you give it a try!

Thanks,

Gaijin Ramen Shop Co-Owner Nicole :D

gaijinramenshop.com

Went back to read the thread from the beginning and noted that they have different hours now than they did when they first opened -- lunch and dinner Thurs.-Sun., closed Mon-Wed.  Glad I checked as we often like to go there before an event we have semi-regularly in the neighborhood, which is usually on Thursdays but will be on Wednesday this month. 

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The hours are still weird, but less weird. Thursday-Sunday 11:30-8.

Loved the cucumber salad and tonkotsu was absolutely amazing. Husband's hatcho miso was very good but delicate in a way that just couldn't compare with the macho tonkotsu. He finished his, I still had some noodles left, but no broth. Lunch for 2 with tea about $46.

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