Mensho’s ramen are bowls I love to crush. By crushing, I mean you finish the entire bowl clean. They have some of the best shoyu and shio broth in the Bay Area. While tonkotsu has been the predominant type of broth served in the Bay Area, I have gravitated towards the lighter broths. Mensho is the first Japan import to San Francisco, and the first legit shoyu and shio versions served in San Francisco proper. There are many great reviews of Mensho Tokyo SF, but here is my own after a half dozen visits.
Mensho is part of the Menya Shono chain of restaurants in Japan. The owner is Tomoharu Shono, and he has six locations in Tokyo and the one in San Francisco. While none of his shops can be called traditional, his ramen shops are some of the top options you can find in Japan. For example, I have been to the Bunkyo, Tokyo shop and his concept there is a complete Farm to Bowl concept that is even unique in Japan. The SF shop opened on February 6th, 2016 and had immediate success with long lines. While he cannot emulate the 8-10 counter ramen you experience in Japan, they still serve the best bowls of ramen in town.
The shop seats about 25 people on very cozy communal tables and several bar counter seats for solo diners. The interior is bright and the walls line up great information about ramen. The information includes the key ingredients such as kombu and katsuo bonito used for the for umami. I love how they showcase the chemical compound structures of those ingredients. The shop I visited in Tokyo had similar chemical wall decorations. They also have a noodle machine in each of the Tokyo shops where they make their own noodles daily. It’s almost like a laboratory theme than a noodle shop. Unfortunately for the one in San Francisco, they couldn’t get the permits for the food prep area and so they use Yamachan noodles from San Jose.
My favorite is their ume shio broth. It uses a shio dare (salt-based sauce) made of sea salt. The broth is a double broth made of pork and chicken and combined with dashi. It is perfectly salty and very flavorful, with lots of depth and layers of flavors. The toppings include kale, menma, fried garlic, chives, green onions, ume, and pork chashu. The ume (pickled plums) adds a nice sour taste to the broth. The noodles are thin, flat, and wavy noodles with wheat flecks in them and are very tasty in their own right.
Their shoyu is simply the best in the Bay Area. It includes clear organic chicken and pork broth. I love the layers and depth of flavors of the broth, and it has a great umami finish. The broth is finished with shoyu dare, pork chashu, duck chashu, kale, kale sprouts, chives, menma, and nori. The noodles are the same as the ones in the shoyu broth.
Speaking of shoyu, they have a wagyu version that they have as a limited bowl. Yet, I was not impressed by the broth as you mostly taste vegetables and blandness and not the layers of flavors of their regular shoyu version. It includes a thinly sliced A5 ribeye slab across the bowl of noodles. The bowl is a showcase of the sliced piece of meat at a sacrifice to a great bowl of ramen. It’s a steep price at over $40 for this bowl, and they need more refinement to the bowl overall. While I appreciate the variety, I would skip this and go for the regular shoyu version.
The vegan tantanmen is flavorful ramen made with vegetable stock pair with konbu and mushrooms for the umami kick. It gets its creaminess from premium soy milk cream that is further combined with seven types of nuts and sesame for a nutty broth. It’s topped with cilantro, chili oil, memna, kale, sprouts, and green onions. The noodles are thicker square noodles to pair with the richer broth. This is a good example of vegan ramen done right, as it’s flavorful and even a carnivore will appreciate it.
The tori-paitan bowl is a rich and creamy chicken broth that has a consistency of almost gravy that reminds me of tsukemen broth. It’s a unique and heavy version of tori-paitan and it ranks high on my list of tori-paitan. The toppings come with pork chashu, duck chashu, menma, kale, and fried burdock. The dare is listed as a katsuobushi sauce. The noodles are slightly thicker than the shio/shoyu versions to complement the thicker broth, probably the same as the tantanmen. I use to think their version was the best tori-paitan, until I had Kagari in Tokyo, which was a golden, silky broth that’s almost like chicken essence. However, I still love this bowl and its easily the top tori-paitan option in the Bay Area.
This green hot mess is the matcha tori-paitan. It’s my least favorite bowl as I don’t feel like the matcha adds anything to the broth, except maybe a caffeinated overdose. I would recommend them taking this out of the menu. Enuff said.
There are two appetizers on the menu. One is the enoki chips and the other is the oyster in shoyu dare oil. Enoki doesn’t have too much flavor and this was basically crispy shoestring chips. The oysters are overcooked and dry as it absorbed all the sauces. I have mixed feelings on it, as it lost all it’s soft, briny goodness but it pairs great with the beer/sake.
There are several other bowls of ramen I have yet to try. This includes the clam ramen, lamb ramen, aburasoba, and mazesoba. If you have tried any of these, I welcome any feedback in the comments section or on the forums. Overall, I love Mensho’s ramen are the best in the Bay Area, even the ones that I’m not fond of are better bowls than what most shops in the Bay Area have to offer. The one negative is the locations as it’s in the Tenderlion, which is one of the most unsavory areas in the city. Parking is also difficult and I advise watching your step as the area is known for excrement of unknown origins on the sidewalks. Also if you line up after 4:45pm, be prepared for a long wait. Despite all this, I look forward to my next bowl I can crush here.
Restaurant Information:
Website : http://www.mensho.tokyo/
Hours: Closed Mondays, otherwise 5pm – 11:30pm
Address: 672 Geary St, San Francisco, CA 94102