Santa Ramen – San Mateo

Santa Ramen
1944 S El Camino Real
San Mateo, CA 94403
(650) 344-5918

Rated: ♣♣♣♣

When you talk to people about ramen in the Bay Area, someone always mentions Santa Ramen.  Although this isn’t the best bowl of ramen you can get, it definitely is far from the worst.

The scene:

My coworkers wanted to give this place a try since many of them are Santa virgins.  Coming in at 11:45, we waited about 15 minutes in a line which commonly forces patrons to wait 15-45 minutes to get seated. Once you are at the front of the line, they already begin to take your orders.  This is definitely one of the bigger ramen joints in the Bay Area.  There are seats for about 50-60 people on tables and about 8 on the bar.

The food:

I ordered the Miso broth which includes toasted seaweed, chasiu, bean sprouts, and bamboo and added stewed pork and fried garlic.  The broth had a good combination of Miso and rich pork flavor. It wasn’t too thick, but felt very heavy all the same time.  The noodles were great!  Not overcooked and mushy, but firm and silky.  The Stewed Pork was awesome!  Sweet and fatty, it’s something I will only eat once a year since there’s so much fat in it.  Fried garlic was just that, fried garlic.  I’m a huge garlic fan, so this was great.  Altogether this bowl of ramen was good, however $13 is a bit steep.  I’ll hold off on that Stewed Pork until next year.

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