Iroha - San Francisco, CA

1728 Buchanan Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 922-0321
Japantown

My brother wasn't in the mood for ramen tonight (sometimes I wonder if he's really my bro...j/k) so we ended up compromising on a restaurant that has both ramen AND other stuff. At first glance of the name, I began to have flashbacks of Menya Iroha and their Toyama Black from last year's Tokyo trip. Q: Could this Iroha be related? A: NO!


Niku Shoyu Ramen: Since this really wasn't a true ramen-ya, I went in expecting the ramen to be bad. No surprise here. So instead of ordering the regular shoyu, I thought I'd order one with a little more protein.


Hmm...I'm trying to think of something positive to say. Oh, I know. The bowl was perfectly designed to prevent the soup from spilling over the table. Okay, so it was bad. The niku (meat) was frighteningly tough and lacking any flavor. The soup was something similar to an instant brand I've had. Out of respect, I won't say the name of that instant brand.


In one of the pics above, you'll notice that they claim to have "homemade noodles." Homemade noodles my ***!!! From which factory?


Yakitori: Amazingly, I couldn't finish off the ramen so I needed something else to fill the void. "So bro, where are we going next?"


Sigh...I guess ramen in the city really does blow.