Santa Ramen

Kazunori Kobayashi built this shop, then put Ramen Dojo in the room it outgrew and Ramen Parlor after that. Foodnut, a Bay Area food blog, says he sold this one in 2020 and kept the other two, and that is the newest hard fact anybody has recorded here.

Why go

Elaine Wu wrote the menu down for KQED in 2011: three broths, miso, shoyu and pork.2 The shoyu is the one to order, and the praise for it is old: the ramen blogger edjusted ate all three here in November 2008 and put that soup among the best ramen soups I've had in the U.S., with every person at his table agreeing.8 Janny Hu measured Kobayashi's next shop against this one in the Chronicle in March 2011, and found Ramen Dojo's tonkotsu a bit lighter than the broth at Santa Ramen.1 Kobayashi had moved the shop into a strip mall on South El Camino Real when the first room could not hold the queue.1 SF Weekly was writing the legendary Santa Ramen by that November.5

Order this / avoid

Order: the shoyu. It is the bowl edjusted rated above the other two, in 2008.8
Order: the stewed pork belly ramen: fatty Kurobuta pork, a hard-boiled egg, bean shoots and nori. Lauren Sheber called it the main event in Time Out in 2015 and said it sells out within hours of opening.4 Ask for a piece of that pork on the side as well: Foodnut, visiting in 2020, says it is stewed a long time and eats better out of the broth.7
Order: the miso with tender stewed pork, which is what Trevor Felch ordered in 7x7's San Mateo guide in 2019.3
Avoid: the grilled squid and the chicken wings. Foodnut found both too far over the charcoal, and not much meat on the wings.7

What locals & experts say

Elaine Wu, for KQED in 2011, on what the move cost it: It used to be THE place for Japanese natives to get an authentic bowl of ramen, but since moving to their newer location in a strip mall, the quality has declined. She stopped short of writing it off: It's still a decent bowl of noodles, but the joint's lost some of its luster.2
Trevor Felch, 2019: If there's one thing that San Franciscans know about San Mateo, it's the city's esteemed ramen sibling duo: Ramen Dojo and Santa Ramen.3
edjusted, the ramen blogger, in 2008, on the bowl he would not order: The meek tonkotsu broth was smooth, creamy, and a bit light, but lacked any expressiveness. He faulted the noodles in all three bowls.8
Foodnut, on its last visit in 2020: The broth is probably one of the better ones around, with the noodles being solid. That is a blog, not a critic.7

Good to know

The line: no bookings. Felch found the room full on a weekday afternoon. Foodnut says the queue forms before opening, and that by 2020 it had grown shorter.3 7
Late is a gamble: broths and the stewed pork run down over the evening. A chalkboard at the front shows what has gone.7
Nothing here is vegetarian, and the house noodles are made without egg.7
I have not found a review of this kitchen written since 2020, and the shop keeps no page of its own I can reach. Every judgment above carries the year somebody made it. The doors are open. Go early.

Verdict

could-visit — Walk up, order the shoyu, and get there early enough to beat the pork off the menu. Then know what you are eating on: the praise for that bowl was written in 2008, the last critic to write the room up did it in 2011; Kobayashi sold the place in 2020.