bay area ramen

I’ve started rating ramen places in the Bay Area since July, and here are the ones that I’ve been to so far!

1. Ramen Nagi
2. ShaLaLa Ramen
3. Ichimi Ramen & Rolls

Ramen Nagi

Ramen Nagi is one of the most recent ramen chains from Japan to come to the United States, with lines winding around corner for a wait that could last a few hours. At a minimum, you should plan on arriving half an hour before the restaurant opens, and even then, expect an hour and half wait.

When you reach the front of the line, they’ll take a dozen of the people in if there’s space and then do “orientation”. (I know, it’s quite an ordeal!) The owner of the Palo Alto branch will give everyone an ordering sheet, and then go over the ordering procedure. Ordering is kind of a “build-your-own ramen” process. You choose the type of flavor, thickness of noodles, broth, amount of garlic, firmness of the noodles, and vegetable adds.

There are four types of ramen you can choose from, five if there’s a special for the day:

• Original King - This is the ramen that the manager recommends for first-timers; you don’t get the extra meatballs or pork bellies, but it’s the “original” flavor. ($13.95)
• Red King - Red chili paste ramen, includes a meatball in the middle in addition to the extras in the Original King ramen. ($14.75)
• Black King - Ramen with black squid, also including a minced pork ball with black sesame. ($14.75)
• Green King - Basil ramen and olive oil with parmesan cheese, with an Italian bent. ($14.75)
• Special/Limited - Depends on the day, time, etc.

Selling Points: When you think of tonkatsu broth, you think more of fatty, greasy, rich pork sauce. The broth is what makes or breaks ramen. Since I don’t run marathons every week, I only eat tonkatsu broth once in a while, and typically order miso or some other fake ramen broth, instead. At Ramen Nagi, the second option on the ordering sheet is “richness in oil”, which allows you to specify how much amount of oil you’d like. I was afraid that if I marked “None”, I’d sacrifice taste and texture, but that wasn’t the case. What sets this place apart from the other ramen restaurants, is the ability to do this: to specify zero oil and grease in your bowl. I’m unclear on how they are able to separate grease from the broth. At home, I would simply skim off the greasy white film on the top after refrigeration, but doing this would necessarily mean that the broth isn’t fresh. The broth tastes very fresh, so I looked up other ways to separate oil, real time.

They actually refuse to put eggs and additional ingredients into the broth itself, and instead, serve them on the side. This is a plus, in my book, and their rationale is that the broth must be maintained at constant 80 degrees at serving time. Unfortunately, eggs are considered extras, and you have to pay for it ($1.75), though as you can see above, it’s cooked to the perfect level of rawness.

Final assessment: Probably the best ramen in the Bay, though the wait time doesn’t merit consistent repeats.

Back to the top

Shalala

Their specialty: slow-cooking the pork, chicken, and vegetable broth to especially rich levels. They sell an assortment of other items, but their Tonkotsu ramen is their prize menu item, with an extremely rich and tasty broth. Personally, I’m not too much a fan of the fatty broths, which makes me places Shalala under Ramen Nagi, but I do appreciate the quality of their slow-cooked soup.

When Shalala first opened, I was a fan. I would regularly order Tsukemen Ramen, a so-called dipping ramen in which the ramen noodles are served in a separate bowl. The selection at Shalala is where Shalala exceeds Ramen Nagi in experience, since Ramen Nagi only serves four types of ramen. As for the quality, when it first opened, it was perhaps my favorite ramen spot in the South Bay. It might have been an off-day when I took the profile picture on the right, but the Tomago (slightly runny egg) was undercooked and leaking into the bowl. As with most restaurants, the throughput each day, being offset from Castro Street in Mountain View might have degraded their attention to detail.

Back to the top

Ichimi Ramen and Rolls

This isn’t really a ramen shop, and it sits on University Ave, near Stanford University, which is one of the more touristy strips in the South Bay.

Final assessment: Probably the best ramen in the Bay, though the wait time doesn’t merit consistent repeats.

Back to the top