Walking Ixus

An izukaya opened up in my ‘hood a few months back called Oyaji.
Well, not really “in my hood” as it’s about a mile as the crow flies. Maybe in the other side of my ‘hood. A 2 minute drive or a 20 minute stroll in the howling wind and cold that marks a San Francisco summer out here.
The best way to describe an izukaya is a bar that serves beer and nihonshu and food that goes good with both. So there’s all kinds of stuff, from ramen to a full sushi bar to yakitori and the like. Menu here.
Schu called and wanted to eat. I suggested Oyaji. We went. I ordered a starter of California Maki and Cha-Siu Ramen. The sushi here is fresh made and the rolls were pretty good. Purty too.

Tastes as good as it looks
They have an excellent selection of sake and shochu. Not so much on the beer. Although they did have the dark Asahi I drank a lot of last time I was in Tokyo. Burp.

Necessities of modern life lor.
The ramen arrived and the broth was flavorful, but not too heavy or too full of MSG. The noodles were of the thick kind and were not overcooked. Springy.

Imagine, a nice bowl o’ ramen close by my house! Waaaah!

Not overcooked, they’re springy!
Some minuses though. The egg was unusually salty (maybe stored in soy sauce?) and the bowl didn’t come out as hot as it should have. Nitpicking here though, because…

the cha-siu was tender and there was just enough fat to give it good taste without being gross with the fat on top. Mmmmmm.
It’s best to walk here from the house though. Then can walk back, thus burning off all calories!
Oyaji
3123 Clement St.
SF CA 94121

A few years ago, near UCSF, there was a kick-ass ramen shop called Katana-Ya. They made lots of ramen and had some other kinds of food (non ramen).
Now, a new Katana-Ya has opened up in Downtown San Francisco on Geary, near Mason.

The new Katana-Ya on Geary Street

This is the banner you look for. It says “ra-men”

The restaurant is dominated by the sushi bar…
This new incarnation of Katana-Ya is a sushi bar/restaurant that happens to serve ramen, instead of the other way around, like the old place. I ordered miso cha-siu ramen and hoped for the best.

Mi-so ra-men. Will it be “yum?”
The broth was flavorful, the cha-siu had a bit of fat on it and was tender (but not as fall-apart as Santa Ramen’s stewed pork) and the noodles were the thick kind, nice and hearty! And as an added bonus, it’s actually run by Japanese AND a couple of the people running the place worked at the old place!
In short, I like!
Katana-Ya
430 Geary Boulevard (at Mason)
SF CA
Open for dinner, 1700-0200 every night!
This is a LOT closer than Santa Ramen…

San Francisco claims to be a foodie’s town. How can that be when there are exactly FIVE ramen shops in the ENTIRE city and none of them are really that outstanding…
Although we did have one shop called Katana-Ya near UCSF that closed a few years back. Now THAT was great ramen!
To get great ramen now, you have to drive about 20 miles (50 minutes from my place) down the 101 to San Mateo where the ramen epicentre of the Bay Area is. San Mateo is home to Santa Ramen, a ramen shop off a non-descript street away from downtown San Mateo.

If it helps, it’s across the street from Nazereth Plaza…
Santa has a great selection of ramen dishes and broths. They have shoyu, miso and my favourite, tonkotsu! It’s hard to find places that do tonkotsu here, let alone do it right.
Tonkotsu is a pork and chicken based broth that involves boiling bones for many days and nights. Ramen is a regional dish and tonkotsu hails from Kyushu, land of the Tsubame, Kagoshima, Hakata, Beppu , Hamasaki Ayumi and Moritaka Chisato! Tonkotsu is also extremely rich, milky and absolutely delicious! Here’s a place in Tokyo that makes it VERY well (since visitors to Japan dun usually make it to Kyushu..).
Santa also is known for their stewed pork. Basically it’s thick pork slices that replace the cha-siu that you would normally get in your ramen. When you pick it up with your hashi, it literally falls apart. It’s that tender and that flavourful. And since this is their speciality, you need to get here early because they only make so much each evening.
Which brings up the issue of the queue. Santa is open for both lunch and dinner and they have incredibly long queues when they’re open. Even longer on the weekends.

Hours of Operation!
I was able to have stewed pork exactly once, on the same night that the Chinese New Year parade was happening in SF. So there were less people in the queue at Santa and I was able to partake. The next time I tried, I waited for 45 minutes until I was next on the list to be seated. Then they ran out of stewed pork. Then I left for In-and-Out.
This time, I ordered tonkotsu cha-siu ramen and slurped down! The broth was good, but a touch salty and the thick noodles were just a touch soggy. Not as snappy as I usually like. And if you want an egg, that’s extra.

Tonkotsu cha-siu ramen. Tamago (egg) is extra…

Despite these nits to pick, it doesn’t detract from the utter goodness that Santa is. The restaurant itself is warm and loud (means lots of people slurping!) and it’s still kick-ass ramen! I’ll do a follow-up next time I’m here and get the stewed pork again…
Santa Ramen
805 South B Street
San Mateo CA 94401
The neat thing about having a place like Santa is that other shops of similar quality will open up nearby. Like Himawari!