Mensho Tokyo SF.

Mensho Tokyo SF

Tomoharu Shono brought this from Tokyo in 2016 and put 28 communal seats in a plain Geary Street room. The chicken broth in the tori paitan has the consistency of gravy. Heena Patel, who owns and cooks at Besharam in the Dogpatch, brings her out-of-town guests here and orders the vegan bowl.

Why go

Patel's daughter Vishaka took her here in 2016 and it stuck. What she orders is the vegan tantanmen. The broth is deep and almost smoky, under enoki chashu, sesame tare and pickled oil. Corn wings and spicy enoki chips go beside it for the vegetarians.3

Cesar Hernandez and Soleil Ho wrote the Chronicle's ramen list. They call Shono's style less by-the-book than most. Their proof is a matcha-tinted soup and a lamb ramen laced with chile oil.2 The vegan bowls are the ones they single out, with sesame paste doing the work the fat does elsewhere.

Shono's card runs to roughly twelve bowls and the shop cuts its own noodles. A television on the wall runs videos of the cooks making chashu.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the tori paitan, with the duck chashu.
• Order: the vegan tantanmen if there is a vegetarian at the table, or if there is not.
• Order: the spicy fried enoki chips, which Hernandez and Ho say you will not find elsewhere.
• Order: the GKO, the Garlic Knock Out, if you like the smell of your own hands afterward.4
• Avoid: planning a long dinner. The house gives you an hour in the seat.

What locals & experts say

• Heena Patel, chef and owner of Besharam, to Lena Park in The San Francisco Standard, November 2025: Some of these flavors remind me of dishes from my Gujarati kitchen, which makes it extra special when my family joins me here. She was answering where she takes visitors.3
• The MICHELIN Guide California inspector: The tori paitan is one undeniably spectacular bowl, packed with springy, chewy noodles and outstanding duck chashu in a luxuriously creamy and umami-rich broth.1
• The Infatuation SF (Julia Chen, September 2024), 8.8: The creamy broth and housemade noodles are nothing short of phenomenal.4 The Infatuation is owned by JPMorgan Chase.

Good to know

• Getting in: Patel says the shop takes no reservations; the MICHELIN Guide says it handles its own bookings and asks you to call. I would join the line half an hour before the doors, which is her advice, and she says it moves.
• The other doors: Shono's group also runs rooms in Mid-Market, Oakland, San Rafael and Union City. This one is Geary Street.
• Where: 672 Geary Street, in the Tenderloin.

Verdict

should-visit — Come alone and eat fast.