Ramen Dojo
Kazunori Kobayashi opened this in 2010, in the room where his own Santa Ramen started. Whole cloves of garlic go into the bowl slow-roasted.
Why go
Sutamina means stamina. SF Weekly called this the Bay Area's first stamina-ramen shop, and traced the style to Nagoya's Taiwan Ramen, which spread through Japan in the eighties.4 The bowl arrives loaded with kikurage, garlic chives, shredded red pepper, two slices of pork belly and a soft-boiled quail egg.3 A large spoonful of minced chicken sits on top, seasoned with ginger, dried shrimp and shiitake.3 Hu watched it blend straight into the broth.1 The chalkboard is blunt about who this is not for: Our ramen is not vegetarian food.
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Order this / avoid
- Order: the garlic pork broth, mild. Janny Hu found mild had heat enough to stay interesting, and regular starting to fight the broth.1
- Order: the gyoza.
The steamed pork gyoza ($2.50) are worth ordering for the delicate wrappers alone,
Hu wrote in 2011, so read the money as history.1 - Avoid: the quail egg if they will let you. Hu found it dry and overcooked and would swap in a chicken egg.1
- Avoid: the red pepper threads and the Chinese chives. Both fought the rest of the bowl.1
What locals & experts say
- Janny Hu, in the Chronicle, on the broth:
Dojo's tonkotsu hits all the porky notes while adding a rich roasted garlic infusion.
She gave the shop two stars and closed on this:For them and their fellow rameniacs, Dojo can be worth the wait.
1 - Elaine Wu, for KQED:
It's like ramen on steroids. Everything is bolder and richer.
Then the warning:And don't come here if you don't like spicy food.
2 - The Peninsula ramen guide, run by The Six Fifty in 2018 and revisited by Palo Alto Online in 2023:
Chashu slices are generous, juicy and perfectly smoked, with a simple flavor.
The same list has said since 2018 that diners drive in from San Francisco and San Leandro for the broth.56 - Trevor Felch, in 7x7's San Mateo guide, weighing this shop against Santa Ramen:
There's no going wrong with either, so you'll just have to come back for seconds.
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Good to know
- The broths, as Palo Alto Online listed them in 2023: pork, garlic pork, pork miso and garlic miso pork. The Banbanji swaps in a sesame pork broth and drops the pork. The creamy corn bowl is the vegetarian one.5
- The line: no bookings. You write your name and party size on a clipboard. Hu averaged about twenty-five minutes, usually with at least six parties ahead of her.1
- I cannot tell you it is open. The shop runs no site of its own, and the one the Peninsula's guide linked in 2023 is gone.8
- Kobayashi's other rooms: Santa Ramen sits on South El Camino Real now, in a bigger space. Ramen Parlor came after this one.42
Verdict
could-visit — Ring the number before you get in the car. If somebody picks up, go hungry and take the garlic: SF Weekly called this the only stamina-ramen shop in the Bay Area and nothing read since has named another.