☰
Bustling off-Strip ramen house serving a simple but excellent menu of ramen soups and rice bowls.
Second location: Monta Chaya - 9310 S. Eastern Ave. #116
This restaurant was re-reviewed in the December 2010 LVA; some of the information contained in the review may no longer be accurate. Top ramen? Almost all of us have eaten that packaged soup with the really skinny noodles at one time or another when funds were lean. Heck, a few of us lived off the stuff. But did you know that ramen soup is a really big deal in Japan? Now it’s big in Vegas, too. Monta takes ramen very seriously, evidenced by the fact that you can’t take it out unless you accept the noodles uncooked (so they don’t get soggy in transit). Eating Las Vegas author Max Jacobson calls it “the best ramen bar I’ve eaten in since I left Japan in the mid-’80s” and that was good enough for Monta to make it into the book as one of the 50 essential restaurants. As described in our brief review last month, there’s not a lot to this place. It serves three versions of ramen soup—shoyu (soy), miso, and tonkatsu (pork bone). The shoyu has a clearer broth and will likely be the best choice for most. The other two are a bit thicker with more complex flavors. Though not as cheap as those five-for-$1 ramen-soup packages, these big bowls are inexpensive enough at $6.95 to $7.25. You can pay more by adding extras like pork, egg, and onions, but the base soup comes chock full of ingredients, so you don’t have to add a thing. There are seven non-soup items on the menu and nothing else but beverages. Try them if you like (especially the gyoza dumplings and kimchee fried rice), but it’s the ramen that makes Monta special. Monta is located in the same mall as Raku (LVA 3/09), about four miles west of the Strip. There are less than 30 seats in the place, so be prepared to wait during peak hours. This restaurant was reviewed in the October 2010 LVA; some of the information contained in the review may no longer be accurate. This place has all the Vegas food critics fawning and we’ve scheduled it for an upcoming Local Corner. But here’s an early heads-up. Monta is an authentic Japanese ramen house that serves this noodle soup in three variations. The big bowls of soup start at $6.95 and that’s about all you need. But also good are the gyoza dumpling ($5.15) and kimchee fried rice ($6.95). Monta is at 5030 Spring Mountain Rd., next door to another good Japanese restaurant, the recently expanded Raku (LVA 3/09).
