After snagging a deeply discounted ticket for the show at the orpheum, I walked through some choice areas of SF for a coveted bowl of ramen at Katana-Ya. I had consulted yelp and it had gotten good reviews.
It’s a teeny little place with a tiny sushi bar with 4 seats and a handful of small tables. It’s definitely not made for big parties. And you will wait during lunch. They have ramen and udon and soba and tons of sushi, as well as other japanese treats. The menu was actually surprisingly large. I figured it would be ramen, ramen, and more ramen.
I went with the buttered corn ramen. Why? Because I was clueless, and the chick next to me ordered it. So I figured I’d give it a go. And plus, I love corn in just about anything. I got the soy broth, and you can order the broth is a certain strength. I did not indicate, so by default, I think they give you light. This is a big bowl with a good sized helping of noodles. And the noodles were awesome. The broth however, was a bit on a bland side for me. It definitely tasted pork-y, but there wasn’t much actual flavor. It was underwhelming. But the noodles definitely rocked it. And the corn was great. Like I said, you could put corn on just about anything and it would make me happy. I haven’t had enough authentic japanese ramen in my life to know whether this was good or not, but I was definitely a fan of the noodles and the value. Perhaps I would need to try the miso or the salt broths to know more. But it was definitely a good and hearty bowl that filled my belly plenty. But I certainly have a feeling there are much better bowls of ramen out there.

Katana-Ya
430 Geary St.
San Francisco, CA
415.771.1280

While looking for some restaurants prior to my trip, I found out that there’s a japanese style ramen bar in Basel. Ok. There isn’t even a ramen joint in Philly, but there’s one in Basel? There’s something wrong with this. We need a ramen joint in Philly! Anyways, enough of my ranting. But again, please, someone open a ramen place near home. Pretty please. I thought I’d try this place, because really, what the hell?

This place is pretty adorable. Not too big, with the kitchen and bar area in the middle, and then some tables on the outer edges. It’s modern and clean and cute. They have ramen and udon, some sushi rolls, and some japanese appetizers. That’s it. And some drinks and booze and perhaps a few desserts. I decided to pick the ramen with chicken in a miso broth. The server told me that the most popular bowls were the ramen with gyoza and the ramen with chicken. Can other Namamen eaters be wrong?
The food comes out fairly quickly. They cook the noodles and then pour it into the bowl which has miso paste in it. Then they throw the fixins on top. So, the verdict? Meh. Basically, it’s just a bowl of miso broth with some mediocre ramen noodles topped with mediocre chicken and really inexpensive and flavorless vegetables. For a bowl of ramen, there was actually not very many noodles. And they’re extremely thin. The broth itself is fairly boring. The chicken was ok, but nothing special, and without much flavor. It looked like boiled chicken. And they put shredded carrots, shredded big green onions, spinach, and some mushrooms in it. Oh, and half a boiled egg. All of these fixins were blah. The egg was the best part. But you know, it was freakin cold as soon as I got to Switzerland, so a bowl of mediocre hot broth and noodles was just fine with me. At least it was warm in my otherwise frozen body.
Ok, now let’s talk about how expensive Switzerland is. This thing cost 22CHF. That’s about $22. That’s right, I ate a $22 bowl of ramen. And no, it didn’t have gold or diamonds in it. And it wasn’t chock full of hand pulled ramen noodles made by the premier ramen noodle puller in all of japan. But this is the frightening thing about Switzerland. This type of pricing is normal. $22 for a bowl of ramen is not that big of a deal. Isn’t that CRAZY?!?!?! It actually offends me a little. For $22, I’d expect something amazing, along with maybe a song and dance number, or a foot massage. But no, for $22, you can get your own bowl of mediocre noodles in Switzerland. And dont’ get me started on the $5 sodas.