Ramen shops have popped up all over the Bay Area dishing out bowls of the classic Japanese comfort food. But members of the Japanese diaspora have long been disappointed by the offerings here. The broth is a little thin. The noodles can be a bit meh. Many wonder why their favorite dish to cure a hangover isn’t as good as what they can get standing at the bar of a ramen shop located on the platform of a Tokyo train station. The desire for a better bowl of ramen has propelled a handful of Bay Area residents to try their hand at improving on the dish by making a better noodle or changing up the recipe for the broth. In our latest edition of All You Can Eat, our series on Bay Area food cultures with KQED food editor Luke Tsai, we’ll talk about innovations in ramen and where you can find the best slurp around. What’s your favorite ramen restaurant?
Restaurants mentioned in the show:
- Nute’s in Bernal Heights
- Ramen Hiroshi (mulitple locations)
- Mensho Tokyo in San Francisco
- Shoki Ramen House in Sacramento
- Hokkaido Ramen Santouka in San Jose
- Menya Shono in San Rafael
- Hanabi Ramen in Burlingame
- Ramen Gaijin in Sebastopol
- Ramen Champ in San Jose
- Ramen Hajime (multiple locations)
- Ramen Parlor in San Mateo