The Best Ramen Shops in San Jose

The line snaking through downtown Palo Alto at noon is the surest sign this ramen shop is doing something right. A Tokyo-based chain with a cult following, it serves rich tonkotsu broth in five varieties, each bowl customizable down to noodle firmness and salt level. The red king, centered with a blazing eye of miso pork and cayenne, is the one people queue for. No reservations, but you can order while waiting, so you sit down to a bowl almost immediately.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best ramen restaurants in the SF Bay Area
2. Eater The 17 Best Restaurants in Palo Alto
3. San Francisco Chronicle The best Palo Alto restaurants

Jiro-style ramen is the calling card here, a Tokyo-born style less famous in the Bay Area than tonkotsu but arguably more interesting, with its shoyu-pork broth running fattier and more rustic, pork fat globules and all. The thick, chewy noodles come from a local craft purveyor, and a fistful of raw chopped garlic goes in to sharpen everything up. This San Jose ramen shop is doing real work diversifying a scene that tends to default to the same few styles.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best ramen restaurants in the SF Bay Area

A ramen shop in a Santa Clara strip mall run by a chef who keeps a tight grip on his broths, making the noodles in-house and letting clean, well-built basics like a smoky shoyu do most of the talking. The real reason regulars check the calendar is the rotating specials, which have swung from crab ramen finished with pistachio oil to buckwheat noodles built around dried red snapper. The San Francisco Chronicle puts it among the Bay Area's best.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best ramen restaurants in the SF Bay Area