Bay Area Ramen rating update - 6/3/2011

Some new ramen restaurants and updates on the list. The new restaurants I found were from E-じゃん, a magazine on Japanese lifestyle in the Bay Area, curtesy of Jun.

We tried Ramen Shalala in Mountain View by Castro St recently. A post on Chow Hound claims that the chef used to work at Kahoo Ramen. Given my opinion of Kahoo, that does not raise my expectations. :p Hsin-Tien had shio while I had spicy miso. We felt that the broth lacked depth. The broth tastes like it's mostly a chicken base, so it was light and somewhat oily. The spicy miso reminded me of tan tan men. The noodles were quite good, so was the chashu, which was flavorful, fatty, and tasty. We felt that we would prefer Ryowa (Hsin-Tien) or Maruichi (me) over Shalala. The waitress did say her favorite was the shoyu, so I will probably try that when and if we come back. One final thing, the chicken karaage was a complete disappointment. There was not much taste, and the thick breading was flavorless and did not stick on the chicken properly. (HT)

I also tried Yuuraku in San Mateo. This is actually a Japanese Chinese restaurant, i.e. chinese food adapted to Japanese tastes. Still much better than American Chinese. ^_~ They have a large variety of ramen, which can be a red flag. I tried the Yuuraku Ramen since that was what was listed in E-じゃん. It was not a traditional ramen and rather interesting. The meat slices were thin but chewy with good flavor. The broth is supposed to be spicy shoyu. It's interesting but not very complex. I think overall it's an ok ramen house and would like to come back to at least verify their more traditional ramen offerings.

I have also made some adjustments to the list. I've decided to promote Santouka, since we've had it very often and still find it to be very high quality.

Pictures for Shalala:

My spicy miso and Hsin-Tien's shio

Pictures for Yuuraku:

The ramen menu and close up of the meat for Yuuraku Ramen

Revised list:

Top
Santa (Tonkotsu)
Orenchi (Tonkotsu, Shouyu, Shio)
Santouka (Shio)

Middle
Ramen Dojo (Tonkotsu stamina)
Maruichi (Tonkotsu variation)
Ramen Tenma (Okinawa, pork based)
Haru (Various)
Ryowa (Butter Corn)
Himawari (Tantan, Shio)
Yuuraku Ramen (?)
Shalala (Shio, Spicy Miso)
Katanaya (Kayanaya ramen, shyouyu-based)

Bottom
Kahoo (Shio)
Ajisen
Kumako

Question mark?
Ogisan in Campbell. New
Douhatsuten in Palo Alto.