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Mon-Sat. 11:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
"Still love this place (after nearly a decade)...Reina & her sisters are awesome--always smiling & friendly. Love the fresh sashimi, and the…" read more »
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It seems like 50% Japo, 50% Chinese.
The noodle is home made but it was over cooked.
The noodle was over cooked, Goddammit!
We came here only because Suzu was packed.
So, it's not too bad but it's not too good either.
It's SO "A-OK" PLACE.
You know what I mean.
A-OK.
"No more, No less, give me a ramen and let me out of here" kind of place.
The Super-duper A-OK, So-So, not too good not too bad but lame, don't take your date, over cooked Ramen with Old but sweet Asian waitress place that you should not be thinking about it.
But the old Asian waitresses were pretty sweet and gave us good service.
Suzu maybe smaller than Sapporo-ya but Suzu has twice more young Asian waitresses.
I think it's because they are too-old so they may not like the place become too busy like Suzu is.
I know Suzu has better Ramen.
I know Suzu is cleaner.
I know Suzu has younger waitresses.
But, I like to say out loud to support old people have a job!
So, the waitress might saying :
"don't take the job away from us
don't you leave our life in misery
if you go "Suzu" we'll be broke
'cause losing job is hard to do
Remember when we were the only one
Only one Ramen shop at the J-town
But now Suzu took over
Losing business is hard to do
They all say losing job is hard to do.
Now we know, we know that it's true
Don't say that this is the end
Instead of losing the business we wish that you can come back again."
........................
I understand that.
BUT DON'T OVER COOK THE NOODLE!!!
The truth is that the only reason I came here because the Suzu was very busy.
Natto-Ramen!
12.50 bucks!
Is this gross-out or what?
When I saw it in the menu, I said to myself that…
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I heart this place!
HOMEMADE noodles... pickled cabbage as a small appetizer (I heard to clean you palate) equals yums in my tums!! It is about 11.00/bowl but it is worth each slurp!
I always get the kimchee ramen... comes with veggies, pork, and kimchee. Homemade gyoza is always a hit too.
Probably my number 1 or 2 ramen spot in the city.
Walked by here plenty of times but never ate here. On Sundays a lot of restaurants are closed in SOMA so we had to drive around to find a place to eat. Originally we were going to try the other ramen place downstairs but the wait was 45 minutes. Yikes! Not waiting that long for anywhere except for Santa Ramen.
I had the kimchee ramen and the shrimp okonomiyaki. The kimchee ramen is pretty good. The kimchee is the the pickled sour kind and makes the broth sour. I happen to love vinegar so it works for me but maybe not for everyone. The broth was ok... but the noodles were decent. It's suppose to be handmade noodles but it wasn't super impressive. The okonomiyaki was ok... the restaurant across the way has a much better one with noodles in between it.
Won't be first up on my ramen list to eat/try but it's a decent quick dinner for a limited selection on Sunday.
I ordered Kimchi Ramen and it was not hot at all. They skimped on the pork but I was impressed with the amount of noodles I received.
The boyfriend and I ate here after checking out the brand new addition to Japantown, the New People building. I ordered the Kimchi Ramen, because the menu claimed that it was spicy, and the bf ordered the Cold Ramen.
My Kimchi Ramen wasn't spicy at all, but it was definitely the saltiest ramen I have ever had. I felt like I was just ingesting pure sodium. I probably drank about 4 glasses of water during my meal. I tried to just eat the noodles at least since I was starving, but even that led to a massive headache and severe bloating from water retention after our meal. If you slapped some ears on my head, I might have been the spitting image of Totoro.
Keep your $10 and just boil some noodles in pure soy sauce and salt if you want the Sapporo-Ya experience. I'm surprised my body didn't go into toxic shock.
I did try some of my bf's Cold Ramen, which was actually very good, so if you do decide to eat here (I definitely do not recommend it though), go for the Cold Ramen. That is safe to eat.
FOOD:
1.) Miso Cha-sew Ramen = Kinda thicker than I expected, tasted good, but didn't come out hot enough?
2.) Cha-sew Ramen = Their ramen has everything! Bamboo shoot, egg, spinach, and lots of meat
Anyway this was the place I remember I ate and really liked. Better than all the other places I've gone to. Lots of meat, they slice the eggs, and it comes out very presentably. But I guess they should, since their ramen is like $3.5 more than average. And their noodles aren't just yellow egg noodles like some places.
SERVICE:
Pretty good, helped us pour our leftover soup / noodle into the containers.
ATMOSPHERE:
Japanesey, kinda casual, it's in that Japanese mall, across from Sophie's Crepes
The food was okay but by no means good. We were there late on a Monday night, and service was slllloooooowwwwwwww. Really slow. As in we had to flag someone anytime anything was needed.
For a place that is supposed to be a good Ramen place (which if you make your own noodles you should be), it's mediocre.
I had:
Gyoza - Decently crispy on outside and chewy on inside. I liked it.
Japanese pancake - I haven't had this too often so I am by no means a connoisseur. Tasty though.
Chashu ramen - Forgettable especially compared to better Ramen places.
Real, homemade noodles, with an old fashioned noodle machine out front to prove it.
My meal here was actually breakfast. After wandering around till 11 am trying to decide what to breakfast on, we wandered into Sapporo-Ya to get... brunch, haha.
I ordered the yaki soba, and also got to try the vegetable ramen. There is nothing more exciting than starting your day with homemade noodles. If I lived in SF (or if Sapporo-Ya was in LA), I would be in there more than once a week.
Japanese noodles are for mid-westerners, bland and seasoned with salt.
After reading many posts on my favorite ramen house, I'm shocked it's getting the negativity and the low ratings. People need to understand that this place is a one-trick pony.... RAMEN! The noodles ARE homemade. Allbeit I've been coming here for over ten years and have only seen the chef making noodles just this year. You can taste the freshness and the texture of the homemade goodness. I've been on a endless search for a ramen house that can even compare to Sapporo-ya. Shy of Japan, I've been to many on the west coast: Santa Ramen, Maru Ichi, Daikokuya (LA), Ramen Nakamura (Hawaii)... and the search continues!! Now I must say that some points in the 1-star ratings are true unfortunately... service is lacking. I recommend going on Sundays when both the chef who's Japanese and the old mama-san at the front are working. And my usual is the Miso Ramen with corn and extra bamboo! YUM!
Damn, the Japanese ramen place where nobody CARES what's your name...
It seems true as everyone is saying, this place has gone downhill from its stellar years. The servers are lackadaisical, and so is the food, unfortunately. Had gyoza for appetizers: they tasted store-bought, and were not fried/steamed the proper way with one side nicely crisped up, and the rest gently steamed. Each piece came looking lumpy in its own unique way. The vegetable-pork filling did not taste fresh, either.
On to the ramen: the noodles are NOT homemade (or if they are, it certainly escaped me), and the broth, from judging my miso broth, was pretty mediocre. Tasted like miso broth from miso soup. It would have been much better if they did as other ramen shops do, and use miso as BASE for a more complex broth miso'd enough to brand miso, instead of simply dumping miso soup in with ramen noodles. HALF-ASSED, too bad I couldn't give them a HALF-ASSED PRICE!
The chashu (pork) also wasn't that great. I can't find enough inspiration to continue writing here; but you get the message, this place is MEDIOCRE MEDIOCRE, MEDIOCRE. About as a good as a random place in a Tokyo subway, yeah, not even.
I've been coming here for....well since i can remember. I've always got the same thing, Miso ramen. The noodles are made on site and are the best noddle in town. The broth, well I guess it depends on who's making it. If the owner is making the bowl, its the best darn thing ever. If it's someone else, its still good, just not 5 stars worth.
Came here with friends, on a Sunday evening in the rain. Needing something warm, chose the Miso Ramen. The ramen noodles were good, but I didn't feel like they tasted very different from others I've had. Definitely would not beat out Santouka Raman. But the prices are decent and the staff are all nice people and you couldn't beat noodles on a rainy day.
Pretty good yakisoba. not quite as good as mom's home style, but nonetheless pretty tasty. Girlfriend got kimchi ramen, which she did not recommend, as it apparently did not have enough kimchi. A little pricey, but it is J-Town.
I absolutely loved the shrimp okonomiyaki! It was gone in seconds. I wasn't blown away by the vegetable ramen I had, though, and it may have been because my expectations were so high (I hadn't had ramen in years). I was also getting quite full from the okonomiyaki. But it made me happy nevertheless. My friend had the cha-shu ramen and was disappointed by the stiff cha-shu meat. Perhaps they were having a bad day? I don't know why I'm making excuses for them. The Japanese lady that worked there seemed so sweet.
Was I supposed to be impressed? Because I wasn't.
The gyoza wasn't anything special, and the miso cashew ramen with homemade noodles wasn't either. It wasn't as infused with magic like Katana-ya or Santa Ramen. I was hoping that when I put it in my mouth I'd get some special pizazz and a heavenly flavor but all I got was disappointment.
The service wasn't fantastic either. No, "Hi and welcome, would you like to start off with something to drink?" It was more, "Hi. Ready yet? No? Ok I walk away now"
The place wasn't horrible. But like I've said before, with other competing restaurants literally meters away, how can you possibly get it wrong the first time?
The best Japanese noodle I have never ever had in SF.The restaurant has been in SF for 30 yrs and ive been there since i was 10. I love the food and the noodles are made fresh everyday and it still the same taste,they never disapoint. the foods a bit pricey but it's worth it.I just love it.
Upon walking into the door, an unpleasant "wet dog" smell greeted me, it must be the carpet but gradually the scent stopped being distracting. Had ordered the hayashi chuka (cold ramen). Seems like the noodle was a tad overcooked so it felt a lil soggy. I always thought noodles in hayashi chuka should be springy and the taste overall with the noodle should be light and refreshing. I've definitely had better noodles elsewhere. Service was also rather curt.
Big bowl of homemade noodles and soup. What more can you NOT ask for?
a whole hell of a lot.
1) trash pork
2) unsavory, thick noodles completely overcooked
3) uncared for boiled egg
4) spinach, i mean really?
5) how can shoyu have absolutely no flavor, is that even possible?
pure unadulterated hot dog hell
any place you walk into in the east village is far and away better than this, even a bullshit new-wave veggie ramen joint.
sad.
indeed.
Homey, comfort food in a casual setting. Good sukiyaki, decent ramen, very tasty gyoza. Katana-ya has better ramen but this place is worth a nod.
I had the shrimp okonomiyaki... I didn't enjoy it.... I could've made something better....
Meh... totally....
I probably won't go back....
I was very excited when I found out this place serves okonomiyaki but they ruined the experience. On top of the long wait on an empty weekday afternoon, the server had a really bad attitude and was pretty much tossing the food onto the table and speaking to us in a very condescending tone. No matter how rude servers are, I've always tipped at least 15% but this is the first place where I wouldn't even have left a penny if they hadn't already charged us a mandatory gratuity fee for a party of 5. The food wasn't even that great.
They make their own ramen, so I highly recommend the ramen. I'm from Japan and I think the ramen here is good.
BUT, maybe only go here for the ramen. The other meal choices have not looked as good as other restaurants when I've seen other people order.
That said, the cha-shu ramen is good. Kimchi ramen doesn't have nearly as much kimchi as a kimchi ramen in Japan would, but the flavor was still good.
Hm. I am reading all these groovy reviews about this place and perhaps I went on a bad day or something. If you see the rest of my reviews, you will see that I am in general not at all a picky eater, and usually love anything that is edible. Somehow, I was really not feeling this place.
The service was fairly surly, which was puzzling because the place wasn't exactly packed to the brim and the waitstaff was overworked.
I got the BBQ pork chasumen and thought it was ok. Not super flavorful, the meat was tender but wasn't exactly brimming with flavor. It was $9.90.
My husband got the pork okonomiyaki which I thought was really gross actually. It was covered with tonkatsu sauce, which I love, and mayonaise, probably kewpie brand. It was just a lot of sauce going on. It was $10.50.
I was pretty disappointed, because it takes a lot to get less than 3 stars from me, less than 4 stars really, but I wasn't feeling this place. I guess I could try it again but I feel like there is no point since there are a zillion Japanese restaurants in this city.
Big bowl of homemade noodles and soup. What more can you ask for?
I know what not to ask for, Kimchi ramen. There is something seriously..not right about this dish. Skip it.
Chasu ramen, miso ramen; the two you cannot go wrong with. Boyfriend never had ramen before I brought him to that place in Daly City, then Genki, but I knew this wasn't real ramen. I knew the REAL ramen was waiting for us at Japantown. Homemade noodles are so freakin delicious. You can taste the freshness! I always ask for no bamboo - just a waste of space in my bowl. The chasu ramen is has a soy sauce based broth with extra pieces of pork (I think 5 or 6?) where as the miso ramen has 2 pieces of meat..but a killer soup. *drools* I was getting full half way through my meal. Neither soup was too salty, neither was bland. I rarely hear boyfriend say he's stuffed, but this bowl of ramen stuffed him. We sat there sluggishly as the waitress brought us our check. Tad bit expensive, but worth it compared to other ramen joints, such as Genki, which seem so much more generic when you compare them to family owned restaurants.
Miso anything is a winner in my book.
I can only review the ramen we had here this morning. We wandered in here because everything else nearby is closed before 11:30am on Sat. and we were hungry looking for brunch..
-- decor: avg
-- service: not enough info to comment, avg.
-- Miso ramen -- AWESOME soup base, noodles, not really that different from any other noodle soup I have at a typical Chinese restaurant.
** note: the Miso soup base is worth 4.5 stars, but the noodle makes go down to 3 stars..
They are not bad, at least avg quality. However, given the myriad choices of other Japanese restaurants in this plaza, I may not come back any time soon.
I ordered teriyaki dinner plate, plum wine, kimchee side dish.
I must say that I am very impressed with my dish. I love their home made salad dressing, and kimchee was fabulous. It was a little big portion for myself, ending up eating like pig.
I would certainly go back to have same dish again.
My family's been coming here for YEARS!! Mommy-dear, being the nutritionist momma, never let me touch tonkotsu or Himawari style ramen. Aka.. nice floating chunks of pork fat. We stuck to the good clean healthy stuff!
This place makes their own noodles each morning. And instead of some fancy shmacy electric machine like Maruichi, they have the old school hand cranky one.
The ramen noodles are super good... nice and thick and chewy! I always end up getting the kimchi version. I love the sour crunch paired with the shoyu broth. They're also generous with giving you menma (bamboo) and the chashu slices. My parents love the miso... I'm not a fan of miso unless its in a clear broth with tofu. On the most recent trip, Sam got the chashu ramen. The chashu is well flavored, not as smokey as the Halu, but it was tender and well seasoned. MMMmmm... perfect on a cold day....
Review #883
My favorite ramen place in all of California so far!
I always, always order the soy sauce ramen and I always leave satisfied. The portion is just right (for me at least) and all the ingredients taste perfect. One bowl is about $10, but that doesn't keep me from coming every time I'm in town. They really do make the noodles on-premise using the ancient-looking machine that seems to be just a display piece. I've been to Sapporo-Ya for lunch once and I've seen someone churning out the noodles, so a myth it is not! One thing to remember is that the sushi is incredibly expensive here, so go elsewhere for sushi. Otherwise, food is great and service is fast so you can make it back to the garage for your car before the hour's up (to save $$ on parking of course). If not, there is a nice ice cream shop in the other part of Japantown across the indoor bridge where I get my green tea ice cream.
There are more trendy places - but none I've tried have matched the wholesome, authentic, traditional Japanese quality at Sapporo-Ya. They specialize in homemade noodles and homemade broth with super high quality ingredients.
NOTE: The yelp photo with the blue awning doesn't help in locating the place, because that is the view you see AFTER you go inside the Japantown mall and go UPSTAIRS. From the street, all you see is the sign, without any indication of where to find it once you go in the mall. It is worth the search though!
The atmosphere is 'old school' - not new or trendy, and I don't count off for that because the place has a good comfortable vibe, and is all about the quality of the food.
The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is that the service - while efficient and professional - would need to be a bit more energetic and welcoming (in the tradition of the excellent home-style Japanese restaurants) to receive the fifth star "as good as it gets" rating. But the food here is good enough to make it well worth going to.
I wanted to like it, I really did.
I ordered the beef yaki soba and it was ok. it was noodles with some beef topped with ginger.
It was a very generous serving but nothing about it wowed me.
Price-wise it was about $11 if I recall correctly.
In a competitive Japanese food market in the Japantown, what sets Sapporo-Ya apart from the rest? Supposedly, they make the noodles right there at the restaurant, you can see the big machine as you enter the place. Oddly, I've never seen the machine actually in use, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, as it does look used and they probably start making noodles early in the morning.
So for a place that tries to get your business with the idea of freshly made noodles, why am I not excited when I eat them? The broths are usually okay, but you can really tell if a bowl of ramen is good if the noodles blow you away, which they don't really here. Not saying they're bad, just average, perhaps a bit of a letdown when you expect much more with the enticement of freshly made noodles.
Service was also all right here too, usually when I go the place is reasonably busy and the wait staff sometimes talks to themselves, but they're still very attentive when a customer needs attention.
Wow... pretty disappointed with my last visit. They use to make the thin, egg-noodles that were yellow and had some bite to them. And their broth was rich and full-flavored. They've switched to this nasty white noodle with no texture or flavor. And their broth fell among average group of ramen places. Okonomiyaki was still good but that's too hard to mess up.
Recommendations: Okonomiyaki
Conclusion: Clean up your act, or you'll lose all your business to the ramen places downstairs.
I will never go here again. I ordered the terryaki dinner, and the other 4 that joined me had ramen. It was the worst japanese I have ever had. My dinner acquaintances said their food was bad as well and their stomachs started to hurt. My bf told me to send back my food when I got it (soggy tempura and freezer burnt chicken teryaki that looked microwaved with funky fatty pieces that curled). I told him its alright, Ill just not eat it. At the same time the chinese speaking lady waitress did not come by the table at all to ask if things were okay or to refill my water or the others sodas. So we had to wave her down to ask for refills. She said refills we free and my bf got one refill. When we asked her to refill my cousins glasses, she only refilled one though the other glasses of my other cousins were empty.so we had to ask her to specifically for a refill my cousins glass and my water and was rude and grumpy about it. Then she ignored us and never came around to check on us and then started to clean the table even though we were still sitting there. Then I thought well I will leave less for a tip. Then she leaves and ignores us for awhile as we sat in silence and I get up to ask for a bill. I was pretty upset at the nasty food and bad service so I didn't leave a tip but paid the 75 dollar bill (for 2 adults and 3 children). We all went to the bookstore across the way and I started to check out the magazines and saw the chinese waitress walk back and forth behind me. I thought she may be looking for her daughter or something. My 10 year old cousin said she went downstairs and harrassed her screaming at her asking "where is your mother.. The lady you were with" she wouldn't let my cousin go and she said I was upstairs. So she came upstairs and went up to me and asked me if I was the one that ate at her restaurant and showed me my signed receipt where I paid the bill. I said yes, is there a problem? She said I forgot to leave a tip. I said with all due respect the food was the worst japanese in my life and service was bad. She said this isn't toykyo, its america so what do you expect? And she said she was busy that's why the service was bad and its america so I have to leave a tip. I said no, its not required. And she kepts on arguing that I must leave a tip. So I asked another couple around if we are required to leave a tip at a place with bad food and service and they said no. She blocked my movement and kept on insisting that I leave her a tip. I ask her what does she want, money or something? Then she says " if you don't tip, I will charge for the refills." I said she told us it was free. Then I was pissed since she kept on arguing with me so I said I was going to call the police I ask her for the address when the police was on the phone and she says she doesn't remember and runs off.
Can you believe this place? Bad service, overpriced nasty food, and they chase you down and demand a tip and harrass you?
I will never return. The additional bad thing is that I had a painful stomach ache afterwards as well.
Went here last week before my haircut in J-town. I was craving Ramen and got the Miso Ramen and I wasn't disapointed.
But it wasn't your regular miso ramen- it was a cross between a Miso Ramen and Hakata Ramen (Tonkotsu/ Pork bone marrow ramen) because it had a lot of buttery Fat taste to it ( No I did not get the Butter Ramen, which has a piece of butter floating in the pic!!!). But the ramen was yum- the noodles were good and the portions were huge!!!
Hubby got the Yaki Soba and he wasnt happy about it- he said I make a better yaki soba! =)
I think I will go back- but just for the Ramen- not the other stuff.
I ate at this place a few weeks back, and I'll say that it was alright. I may eat there again, but I won't be rushing back.
I saw that they made their own noodles, so I thought I'd try out the straight forward shoyu ramen.
Best to get a simple uncluttered dish to judge their overall execution.
On a scale of 1 - 5 --
Noodles: 4
Broth 2.5
Ham: 2 (what the heck, it was like they just took a breakfast ham cutlet and threw it in there. Too much of a good thing, and I shouldn't need to cut the ham to get it in my mouth when I'm eating with hashi!)
I'm not a ramen connessiur, but I've had some yummy well balanced bowls in the US and Japan, and this one ended up being a bit less than the sum of its parts, which were OK. But the ham was too huge and thick, and the broth was a bit weak and un-nuanced, though tasty. The noodles were nice, in any case.
I won't hold it against this place (some of my favorite eating spots are ugly as sin) but the ambiance of the restaurant is kind of gray and cold feeling.
I think they may have changed owners or chefs recently because there's been a noticeable change in the quality of their food.
My bf and I used to come here fairly frequently and always had a good meal. But the last time we went with some of his friends, everything we ordered tasted bleh.
The broth was super bland, all the worse because we'd ordered miso ramen, which is supposed to be a little salty.
And the gyoza was TOTALLY different from what I'd eaten there before. I remembered the gyoza being very meaty and awesome, and maybe they gave me the veggie ones by accident, but it was all crunchy with too much cabbage. -_-
I guess we'll just have to wait in the long line downstairs for Suzu Noodle House whenever my bf needs a ramen fix.
Came here on a cold, rainy Saturday. I was in the mood for noodles. Even though Eugy has pointed at this place and said it's horrible, it's been years since he came here, so I talk him into giving it another shot. We weren't disappointed.
I'm not going to say that this is the best ramen I've ever had, but it was decent. The noodles were great though! The broth could have been better, but it wasn't horrible. But the best thing here...
OKONOMIYAKI!!!!
I was so happy to see that they had okonomiyaki on their menu. It was really great too! I'm going to come back here just for that!
The gyoza are obviously made in-house and they are wonderful. The stuffing is super juicy and flavorful and the wrapper has a nice texture.
Overall, this place is good. I'll have to try the curry next time. It looks great! And comes in a huge portion.
This place is horrid. #1, its run by chinese people and the service is lacking - dont get me wrong, I dont care who runs it as long as the quality and taste is great... but unfortunately this is not the case.
The "home made ramen" - well the noodle is not bad but the broth is way to salty. I got the miso chashuu ramen and it was basically miso paste and tons of salt. The home made ramen doesnt make up for the poor broth quality and its a bit more expensive then other ramen places in the area.
I would mark it as a place to avoid until you have no other option - probably be better off going to Nijiya and getting packaged ramen instead
My favorite noodle shop in the city. Home made noodles make all the difference. I always get the Miso Ramen. I sort of avoid everything else on the menu.
Also they are really cool about the kid. I have been bringing him in there since he was 2 weeks old.
Happy Hour Draft Beer $1.75!
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
99 cents beer & hot sake
Neighborhood: Excelsior
Neighborhood: Pacific Heights
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: Pacific Heights
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: Pacific Heights
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: Pacific Heights
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: Pacific Heights
Category: Japanese
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