Artisan Noodle Tatsuki

I'm utterly sad that this placed closed.  PLEASE PLEASE ANYONE HAVE ANY INFORMATION if the owner reopened elsewhere?  I went here once pre-'rona and I LOVED it so much.  

Super rich bursts of flavorful each slurp.. I proclaimed that this is the BEST ramen in San Diego, and I've tried them all (Nishiki, Menya, Yamadaya, Tajima, RakiRaki, Santouka, Ryoma, etc etc etc... which are all amazing in their own right!).  What made this place heaven for me was their spicy miso ramen.  Just PERFECT spice, that I have yet to find anywhere else.  

Please say it ain't so! Please re-open!!! :'(

I have never had tsukemen before but had heard amazing things so I was excited to try it out. Unfortunately due to covid we could only do takeout. We ordered and the food was ready within 25 min on a Friday which isn't too bad.

We got the miso tsukemen and the spicy miso tsukemen. The regular one comes with an egg. The spicy one comes with what felt like chili oil on top. Otherwise, they seem exactly the same with the dipping broth filled with pickled vegetables and bean sprouts. They didn't give us a lime either which my partner said is typical.

The flavor of both of the broths was at first taste really great. The spicy one had a good amount of heat but not overwhelmingly so. However, once you start eating it with the pickled vegetables and the meat, it all eats extremely salty. Usually we like to drink the rest of the broth for noodles/ramen but we both left ours unfinished. The egg was overcooked and the inside wasn't runny at all. The meat was a tiny, thin slice and extremely salty (you can see a theme). The noodles were decent. Well flavored and had a good texture but didn't benefit from the 20 min drive home so they were stuck together.

Overall, pretty disappointed. I think a lot of the components need work and with so many other options for noodles and/or ramen around, I don't think I'll be rushing back.

I ordered  ramen through Grub Hub and I got noodles with barely any broth. I called and they said they wouldn't give me my money back. SHAME ON THIS PLACE and Grub Hub for their lack of customer service!
Update: the restaurant called me back and are giving me a full refund. Note, this isn't my first time ordering here so I was a bit surprised when I opened up the container and found that they didn't provide any broth to pour over my noodles.  The veggies are typicallon the side and they threw it in the sauce (sauce bc that's what I got).

Came here a little past noon on a Tuesday.  Almost every seat was filled, but it was just a short wait to be seated.

After we sat down and ordered; however, the wait for our actual food was really long. We probably ordered at about 12:25 at the latest and got our food at 12:47 and later (we were keeping track of time because we were supposed to be back at work by 1:00).  I really don't think it's supposed to take over 20 minutes to prepare and serve ramen.

Anyway, I got the red spicy miso ramen with an added egg and the broth was amazing - super thick and rich with great flavor.  It came with thicker noodles, mushrooms, and chasu.  The only visual difference between white and red ramen is some red oil they drizzle on top.  Also, the difference between regular and spicy is a scoop of daruma paste.  There are instructions on how to use it on posted signs on the walls.  There was a thick cut of chasu, and the egg was cooked perfectly.

My friend got the white miso ramen.  She didn't ask for spicy, but hers came with the daruma paste on top.  They didn't charge for it tho.  Hers also came with thinner noodles.  There was no indication that there were different types of noodles they used.

Either way, the food was great, but it just took so long to get our food.  There was just one guy in the back preparing everyone's orders during the lunch rush.

Tatsuki took over the yamada-ya that use to be here.

I've been to the Tsujita LA before and had a memorable experience. Can't believe an associate is here in SD opening up a shop!

As you know, it's DTSD and parking is horrendous and $$$ unless you are lucky with the street parking instead of the paid lots nearby.

I walked in for an early lunch pre-thanksgiving. Who knew they are so busy even for a weekday lunch!

I ordered the shiromiso tsukemen. This was an amazing meal. Wide egg noodles al dente, broth is thick and flavorful with tender pieces of roast pork belly. I added the dried seaweed condiment to the broth. The broth isn't too salty to consume. The ajitama is slightly more cooked than I like but it was pretty good too.

I ordered a take out of the akamiso tsukemen and the broth was just as good, but expect that the noodles wouldn't be able to withstand the hours of sitting.

Be mindful that they charge a small container fee for take-out orders.

This is the best as a fresh meal, eat it there if you can!

Back to review again. They finally gave us limes! It really changes the taste of the tsukemen, and gives it a refreshing flavor that cuts through the fat/richness. Just squeeze the lime juice all over the noodles, then start dipping away!

I also came back on another few visits to try their ramen a couple times. I am glad to say, that I thoroughly enjoyed the Spicy Red Miso Ramen. The noodles are thick and chewy, which I love, and the broth is piping hot, and rich.

As promised from my previous review, updating the rating to 5 stars because we get lime now, haha.

Hands down the fattiest and richest broth in SD! Since that is the case, do not come here expecting "generic ramen broth". This is a different style so may not be for everyone. I think the people who gave it less than 4 stars, had wrong expectations. Yes it is fatty broth and thats how that style is supposed to be. It was so good! My boyfriend and I were transported back to our Japan trip earlier this year. Our favorite ramen was in Kyoto and Artisan Noodle Tatsuki came pretty close to that. Highly recommend ordering the Miso Tsukemen. Growing up in SD, I've tried A LOT of ramen spots. This place definitely ranks in top 3 for SD. Other two are menya and ajisen. Each of the ramen spots are up top for different reasons, they're all apples and oranges.

We also came on a saturday night and was 3rd on the waitlist so not bad at all (5-10min wait). The service was very friendly and since we also sat at the bar, we also got to give our compliments to the chef afterwards. It was cool that he initiated a conversation with us.

Parking will be hard since it's near the gaslamp area but luckily we were already in downtown earlier that day so it was easier to snag parking.

So let me start off by saying that this ramen is not for the faint of heart. I love drinking the broth at other places but I just could not do it here because of the thick layer of oil over the top. No matter how deep I tried to dip my spoon into the bowl it just kept coming up with this rich pork-y spicy oil. So I had to settle for slurping up the noodles and tasting the broth that way.

This place reminded me of one of my all-time faves, Tsujita Ramen in West LA, though I do believe Tsujjta does it a little better.

After mulling over the menu I ordered the spicy red miso ramen plus a soft boiled egg (cuz ramen without an egg is like a birthday without cake). It came out topped with a scoop of the spicy miso, bamboo shoots, and sliced scallions. I have already gone over the richness and greasiness of the broth, but the noodles were thick and chewy, perfect to withstand all of the heavy soup they were swimming around in.

The chashu served with the ramen was rather unremarkable. It fell apart too easily in my chopsticks and did not seem to have much flavor, or at least not enough to stand up to the intense broth. The bamboo shoots were a nice addition to the bowl for a bit of extra chewy bite.

The service was friendly and quick, and the place wasn't even that busy for a Saturday lunch. Hopefully I'll get the chance to come back to SD sometime for more!

Mediocre ramen in my opinion.... Maybe it's cause I just came back from Japan, so my tastebuds are spoiled. I got the tsukemen ramen with soft boiled egg.  The broth was wayy to oily in my opinion and quite watery, which made it hard for the flavor of the broth to stick to the noodle. The noodle was decent  - had a good chewy texture to it. The egg was good - the yolk was perfect, not cooked all the way ... you get that runny yolk as you should with ramen.

I also got the pork bun. I highly recommend against getting this. The bun was dry and the pork was wayyy to salty.

Service was slow. Took 35-40mins from walking thru the doors to getting my food. It wasn't too busy neither... just slow service. Not worth returning  to.

From long time stalwart Ramen Yamadaya to the short lived Ramen Yamachan to the newly opened Artisan Noodle Tatsuki, this suite on Broadway in downtown has seen its share of Japanese noodle purveyors. The grand opening will be tomorrow, but they soft opened earlier this week which was when I made my visit.

The inside had seven seats at the bar while there were enough table tops to seat 20 customers. The menu was on a laminated sheet and featured tsukemen (dipping noodles) and two types of ramen, regular and red miso (spicy). I opted for a large bowl of regular ramen with char siu ($13.95).

To my surprise, the food was heaping in a small bowl with a dish underneath to catch the spillage from the overflowing broth. It certainly looked sloppy from a presentation standpoint. The noodles were on the thick side. The char siu was also sliced into fairly large pieces, but more disappointingly they were lukewarm. The broth was like a thick consomme that could have used a strain through a cheesecloth to filter out the fat particles.

Maybe their style just didn't fit my preferences so I certainly would not call it the best ramen in San Diego. I gave my dining experience an average three star rating as the price was on the high side too.