Two weeks ago, the FiDi lunch crowd welcomed a new ramen shop. Ramen Underground is the first venture of chef-owner Ken Matsumura, who previously worked at popular Katana-ya for 2 years, and prior to that at more than 10 Japanese restaurants in the U.S. and Japan.
Matsumura's new space shares the same cramped and narrow characteristics of his former employer, with only five two-seat tables plus a two-seat counter, so expect a long wait for one of the coveted seats during peak hours. Takeout service suffers from similar delays, but demand tapers down after one o'clock. And for now, dinner service was not as busy.
The intimate dark interior has minimal decor, with black walls and a cardboard version of a typical Japanese wooden slates menu. The incomplete menu listing is a clue that its main purpose is decor. While "MSG" appears to be available as a topping for 100 yen -- or is it $1? -- Matsumura told SFoodie, "It's a joke. Our noodles are all natural. We don't put any chemicals in our food."
Like the decor, the basic ramen bowl ($8, vegetarian is $8.50) uses a minimalist approach, noodles topped with charshu pork, chopped green onions and sliced lotus root in your choice of broth. Choose from shoyu (soy sauce), miso, shio (salt), spicy miso, veggie, coconut curry, or soy milk broth. The last 2 choices are new options for SF ramen fans, though the soy milk version has been available at some San Jose and Sacramento ramen shops for the last few years. Soy milk ramen is simply a blend of dashi and soy milk, a specialty of Kyoto.
Ramen fanatics might fuss about the absence of menma (bamboo shoots) and kikurage (wood ear mushrooms), or the scanty default bowl. But you can customize your ramen bowl with additional toppings ($1 each): hard-boiled egg, more green onions, kimchi, chicken, pork, corn, butter, gyoza, tofu, or buta kakuni (stewed and braised pork belly). And kaedama (asking for a refill of noodles for your remaining broth) is just $2 more.
Those who prefer rice can get a donburi for $8: chicken teriyaki, charshu pork, kimchi tofu, or spicy tofu. A small donburi is $5 a la carte, and $3.80 as a side dish for a ramen order.
The voracious early lunch crowd had depleted many of our favorite items, like kakuni and kimchi.
So our bowl got no sliced lotus root, and they replaced the charshu pork with chicken. We got the spicy ramen, enhanced with boiled dumplings and a hard-boiled egg. Our piping hot bowl had enough spicy heat and decent broth flavor, and the noodle portion was satisfying so we didn't need a refill.Matsumura couldn't avoid the typical Murphy's law opening hiccups. Just when we tried to pay our bill, the credit card machine died. On the other hand that allowed us the time to chat with him.
This ramen shop has the potential to be successful if it can iron out some problems. The first is underestimating the lunch rush. We later found that the hard-boiled egg was meant to be a soft boiled egg. As for the credit card machine, we swear, it wasn't our fault.
Ramen Underground
355 Kearny St. (at Pine St.)
765-9909
Hours:
Mon.-Thu. 11:30 a.m -9 p.m
Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.
Closed Sunday
