So, I am a noodle fan. I like em in every style – pho, spaghetti, chinese beef noodle soup… And, I LOVE ramen!

For those of you who aren’t familiar, restaurant-style ramen is a completely different thing than the dried stuff you buy at the store. And the quality of ramen at real Japanese restaurants vary quite a bit. Santa has mastered the ramen noodle.

This tiny little shop seats about 20 people max, and there is ALWAYS a line, but we lucked out and got seated in less than 5 minutes. The menu is basically ramen cooked different ways with a bunch of side dishes. The reason Santa rocks is that the flavor of the soup is embedded into every bite and the noodles are just thick enough and soft enough.

The ramen is delicious and mouth watering. I think their broth is one of the best. I do prefer the shoyu broth more than the other two (pork or miso).

However, the ambiance and the service are not that great. The place is so small that the wait is usually over 45 minutes. I personally think the wait is worthed, but I can’t wait until they move to their new place by 92.

This place is great! I’m not a ramen connoissour, but I do loves me some noodles. We came here later on a Wednesday afternoon, at 1:35ish. The place is very small and even then, there was a bit of a wait. Decor is nothing special and the service is sparse, but once you get your bowl you just dig in and that’s all I need, really.

My companion had mentioned that the pork broth was definitely the broth to get, but they routinely run out of stuff and sure enough, there were several small signs informing us that they were currently out of the pork broth and boiled eggs.

Ordering is a little confusing – there’s an array of placards on the wall that show the base broths – shoyu, pork, and soy bean (miso). Under each base broth, there are a variety of toppings – extra pork, noodles, fresh seaweed, roasted seaweed, bean sprouts, etc. The base level broths show prices like, shoyu $7.00, pork $7.50, miso $7.50 or something like that. Underneath, you’ll see stuff like boiled eggs $8.50, fresh seaweed $8.95, etc. This does NOT mean that the toppings cost $8.50, but rather, it’s the total price (assuming that you get the broth at the top of the column). I thought that wasn’t that intuitive.

Anyway, on to the food. Being out of the pork broth, I got the miso broth with extra pork and fresh seaweed. My companion got the shoyu broth with bean sprouts. I also ordered the chicken karage don, which is only $1.25 extra on top of your meal. You get a couple pieces of chicken karage (breaded and fried chicken pieces) on top of some rice.

The ramen was chock full of stuff – there was bamboo, roasted seaweed, bean sprouts, scallions, and then my pork and fresh seaweed. The broth was amazing! It was bursting with flavor and really infused the ingredients with savory goodness. I looked a little more closely at the broth and noticed lots of little white particulates – you guessed it, fat!! My companion said that it’s probably pork fat. It really makes the broth very savory and not greasy at all. I cringed a little at the quantity of it, but it tasted so good that it didn’t matter.

Would love to go back – great value! Some of the best ramen I’ve had in the Bay Area. Gotta get there early to ensure that they still have pork broth. And the atmosphere/decor is what you’d expect from a place like this. As I’m writing this they still have not moved to their new location, and when asked about it, they simply replied, “We don’t know.”

Best ramen place in the Bay Area, hands down. The place is tiny, the wait is long, but the food is well worth it. The shoyu broth is unlike any other. Also be sure to get the chicken karaage.

it’s not a pretty restaurant, but the ramen and their appetizers are greeeeat! My favorite is the pork favor roasted pork ramen, fried chicken, and roasted chicken livers… yum yum! They’re moving to a bigger space by the end of Sept 07. I can’t wait :P

i can tell u this is the only place on the peninsula with decent ramen. u can tell by the ever present line to get into this place.
out of the 3 types of ramen (shoyu, pork, miso) miso is the best.. great umami flavor, not overpowering. too bad they always run out of these if you go too late, so i recommend getting there before 8pm.

if the ramen doesnt fill u up, try the chicken karage appetizer. nothing special but fills the fried goodness void.