New mall ramen…

This is always a welcome sight in my ramen-scarce area. This is Majikku Ramen in Daly City. It’s in that mall on Skyline where Ranch 99 and the KFC is. If you’re Asian and you live in San Francisco, chances are you know where this is and can get here blindfolded.

New Ramen shop! Sorta of in my area…
The sign above usually means, “come in and eat”. So I went this evening.

It was pretty busy because it was dinner time
The place had chill out lounge music which would be great for the kind of bars I like to frequent, but even though it’s not really ramen shop music, it worked with the decor which is very modern-y and new. That’s fine since this place has been open for only a few months.
Many things can make or break a ramen shop besides the actual food. The ramen is of course, the reason you go to a ramen shop but the service, the variety of food (or lack thereof) and the atmosphere can also make a place worthwhile.
Or it can break a place.
First the good stuff. Decent tonkotsu broth. Good flavor without the MSG hangover.

Here’s another added (and rare) feature here. Cha siu slices that are rich, flavourful and hella tender! The noodles were decently springy. I think I was here on a good night.

Makes your mouth water, dun it?
Before the ramen showed up, ordered some chicken yakatori and wasabi chicken from the Robata-Yaki menu. Both very good and worthy of piss alley in Shinjuku.

Great with beer!
Now the not so great. The miso ramen was extremely oversalted to the point of causing a salt/msg headache. Canned bamboo shoots in both bowls were rubbery and limp. But at least the noodles and cha siu kept their ramen-y goodness. Both bowls also came out not as hot as I’d like. My miso ramen friend didn’t have problems with the warmth of the bowl so that may be a matter of personal preference.

The bowl looks good…and the cha siu still rox!
Now so far, we have good appetizers and passable ramen. Before I continue, I should mention that they have lots of free parking. Here’s where the place falls flat on its face. The service is bad. It’s the kind of service that you’d expect in a typical Chinese restaurant here. No, I’ll go further than that. It genuinely seemed like they were very disinterested in doing their jobs. There was no greeting from the waitstaff when we signed in and waited for our wall-facing counter seat. Service was incredibly slow despite the fact it was the dinner hour.
Come here if you’ve got the craving for ramen/izakaya food. Just don’t expect the experience and treatment that you’d usually get from one of these places. Order simply, eat and leave. Also interesting…there were no Japanese diners or staff inside…
Majikku Ramen
240 Skyline Plaza
Daly City CA 94015
650-756-2988