Popular Tokyo ramen restaurant Mensho will open in San Francisco's Tenderloin in May.
Owner Tomoharu Shono told Inside Scoop SF that he is looking at a May opening for his first U.S. location called Mensho Tokyo at 676 Geary Street in San Francisco's Tenderloin, where he'll serve his full Japanese menu as well as some exclusive items.
Over the past three years, San Francisco has seen an injection of local ramen shops as well as shops from Japan and a pronounced surge in interest in the noodle soup in general. The Ramen Yokocho Fest, featuring imported Japanese ramen vendors, infamously drew multiple hour lines in Japantown last year.
But even with all the proliferation, some aficionados surmise that San Francisco has a way to go before it's considered one of California's, well, top ramen cities.
"Even with some recent imports from Japan and the South Bay and good efforts by local ramen acolytes like Kirimachi, we're still playing catchup with LA and San Jose," opined Gary "Soup" Stevens, who covers new ramen spots closely for his blog Full Noodle Frontity. "I don't think our homegrown $18 bowls of hipster hobbyist ramen are impressing many people."
