Anna

I was trying to find a restaurant that offer boba and ramen and i found this great place. They send everything in separate containers to keep food fresh.In addition, they added instructions which I think is great and in the back they had a survey. It really seems like they are interested in giving the client a good experience. Ramen was tasty, not to spicy(in case your worried). Boba was chewy as i like. Overall I recommend this place for those times when you just want a good ramen deliver to your house.

+1

Jeff Ho

Indoor dining tonight 3/26/2021. This a Japanese owned ramen restaurant. I had their black garlic tonkotsu ramen $15, geso (squid) fry $7, red rice beer $5, yuki white peach $5. Having ate over hundreds of bowls of ramen throughout my years in Japan, I can tell their ramen is authentic. The flavors are fantastic and when I closed my eyes, it brought back memories of when I ate at ramen parlors in Tokyo. This place is better though as I was the only person dining indoors. There's no rush feeling you get when there's a line outside waiting. Here are the reasons why I absolutely love their ramen: - 味付け玉子 ramen egg soft boiled and is marinated. Perfect jelly on the inside - broth is heavy and have been cooked for hours - great garlic flavor - perfectly soft chashu - fresh noodles My bill was $42 with tax and tip. Service here was excellent. Great job everyone at Waraku, especially the chef. My dinner was perfect.

+4

Donny Pusawong

Heard about this new ramen place in SF that does what is called "direct to customer". Ordered through Doordash and it was easy to show up to the reception area of the test kitchen and pick up my food. The black garlic tonkutsu ramen was very tasty and flavorful and worth every penny of the $12.95!

+2

Christopher Shue (Chris)

Slow service but great ramen! Worth it! Tonkatsu Broth had a nice creamy texture. Be sure to add the fresh garlic. (Ask for the garlic smasher if needed) Update tried the black black ramen! (No need for additional fresh garlic in this one.) It's a winner! I would highly recommend. My cousin also tried the tsukemen. Update: wife got the roasted garlic ramen. Garlic was a little on the burnt side. She preferred the regular tonkatsu as well.

+2

Tyler Lafayette

The ramen was excellent! Wonderful service and great tonkotsu broth. The prices are reasonable (for SF) at about $13-15 for a bowl of ramen. Will definitely come back in the near future!

+1

Shingo S. Ishida

Love this place! One of my new go-to place for ramen in San Francisco. I'm always looking for good Ramen when I travel and this place has, one of the best I've eaten! Prices are reasonable for SF, and it's on a main drive not too far away from the #2 Muni bus line. Casual atmosphere and can be family-friendly. Just great, great, great!

+2

Came here cuz a nearby restaurant had a really long wait and there was no wait here. The staff was super helpful and quick. Ordered a mango nectar drink which was delicious. The ramen I had was Kinuki(?) and it was only okay. The ambiance of this place is nice and can seat a lot of people, very clean.

We had to get ramen while we were in Japantown. The ramen here was delicious. I got the Spicy Ramen with medium on the spice level. I wanted to play it safe since my friends make fun of me that I can only handle “white boy spicy.” The broth was super flavorful and complex. My friend got the Wantan Ramen since he’s a sucker for chicken-dashi broth. He loved it! It wasn’t busy since we were here on a Thursday night. They are centrally located in Japantown and I recommend coming by to satisfy your ramen cravings while you’re here. 🍜

Friendly staff, clean store and only thing I am not satisfied is rice taste not right for Japanese food, a bit dry.

Kimberly Iwamoto

Came for lunch , pretty quiet . Ordered black garlic ramen , noodle is thick one but cooking well , I love this noodle texture , very good match with creamy rich soup base . Tender chashu is so delicious ! I parked at garage under the Nijiya supermarket building , easy and safe , one hour $2.00

Alex S

Nice ramen spot. Food and service was really good! I had the Black Garlic Deluxe and my wife got the Spicy Tantan Deluxe. Huge portions. Only thing I didn't like was paying the bill. They stand there next to you with a machine and review the bill with you. Then when you go to pay the lowest tipping option is 18% AND it's calculated with the SF Mandate included. Kinda shady in that regard. Other than that, great place for a nice bowl of ramen!

Juan Ca

Nice place for tasty broth, and I was surprised by the beef over 🍚. The Ramen was 😋 and since broth flavor is 95% of Ramen, the food is worth the wait. For those that like casual experiences.

Nate Tagulao

My friends and I wanted ramen after shopping in Japantown and wanted to go somewhere I haven't gone before. We found Waruku and immediately wanted to try it. The place is small and has a clean, modern aesthetic. Staff were quick to seat us and take our order. We got a bunch of appetizers to start. The gyoza was fine, not bad but not great. The chicken karaage was very good. It was moist and freshly cooked. Dipping it in the mayo added even more flavor. We also got brussel sprouts. I normally don't like brussel sprouts but these hit different. They were fried, doused in sauce, and covered in bonito flakes. It was crisp and full of salty flavor from the sauce and flakes. Then I had my bowl of ramen: the Black Garlic Tonkatsu DX. It looked fantastic! Filled to the brim with toppings. I was a big fan of the chunk of marinated pork. It was so tender and you can tell that it has been marinated for a very long time. The egg was perfectly soft boiled and added creaminess to an already creamy tonkatsu broth. I only wish there was an option to add spice or that there was hot oil. The spice on the table added more flavor but not enough heat. The dessert was really delicious! We ordered the Black Sesame Mont Blanc. The sesame cream in top had a tasty roasted sesame flavor and inside was a cream and cake. It wasn't overly sweet and was a great end to a delicious meal. I left Waruku feeling satisfied and recommend checking it out if you haven't already. Definitely get the sesame dessert!

Lai

I got the black garlic tonkatsu deluxe. It was delicious, I just wished that they had hot chili oil. We also ordered the appetizers and they were good. I like the geso fries alot. There was 1 server only when we came in and he was bussing his tables as well. There were many customers that came in, but they would leave due to the waiting and no service right away. That wasn't a problem to us.

+1

Karen V Chin

The best Tonkotsu ramen in JTown by far. Broth is rich and creamy. Wonderful on a cold, winter day in The City. Reasonably priced for what you get. Love their warm, gooey smoked egg in the hot broth. Pressing your own fresh garlic cloves is a novel idea. Never had that experience before. You do have to ask for a garlic press though. The best deal on the menu is to order the Kakuni Don instead of the Small Bites size for your table to share - you get Waraku's heavenly tasting braised pork belly, but also rice and more gooey egg. Also enjoyed their hot black tea, different from the usual watery green tea you get a Japanese restaurant these days. Service was ok, nothing memorable or outstanding (hence the 4 stars).

The restaurant was pretty average. The small plates and dishes they gave us weren’t very clean, which was a bit off-putting. The ramen was decent—not great, but not terrible either. The staff were really friendly and attentive, which was nice. The atmosphere was okay, but I personally didn’t like the lingering old smell. There was no lid for the water they provided. The hygiene could be improved.

To be honest, the ramen here is not very special and you can make it at home. Ordered the Yamadaya ramen $18.50 , the noodles are thin, but the texture is not very good, you can even taste the raw noodles. The soup base may have fish flavor, I was thirsty 30 minutes after eating so I think the soup base should mixed from condensed soup base . For topping , here is the pork belly instead Chashu . Service is average , they did their job , that’s all !

Went here because it's my son's favorite Ramen house, but I found just ok. Located in the heart of J town, I'd imagine it gets a lot of traffic. My son ordered gluten free noodles, but they messed it up and he had to wait until it was resolved. I thought my bowl was extra tasty and sadly I was right for the wrong reason. After we finished and I was driving away, I got hit with an MSG rush starting in my lower spine up my back into my head. Leaving a headache for about an hour. Warning.... if you're sensitive to MSG, order something without the broth or just don't drink it : )

Brandon Le

It’s not a bad place - but it definitely wasn’t everything I was hoping for it to be. First off, I had my place in the waitlist (which is all by pen and paper) pushed after another party simply walked in and took our table, and the wait staff acted as if we hadn’t already been waiting 30 minutes and it didn’t just happen in front of us. It simply doesn’t feel like an inviting environment. The food is pricey, and just about what you can expect. Not a bad place to get ramen, but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth that the ramen didn’t make up for. It’s not the worst choice out there, but there’s a lot of other good places in Japantown to go to.

+1

Been visiting this joint for years for good ramen near Japantown. To be fair, I have not tried the other ramen houses within the japantown complex itself but this place compares favorably with similar eateries on the peninsula. On my most recent visit in Dec 2023 the quality of the food seemed to have gone down a little from years before. Nevertheless the ramen broth is flavorful, the chashu and stewed pork are soft and flavorful and the egg well done (firm outside and soft inside). The ramen texture is not great. Appetizers are fine - portions are big but the quality is so-so. We had the fries with cheese, geso karaage and house salad. Extensive menu beyond ramen. Sep 2025 update - not sure what happened but the food quality has plummeted since we ate here a year ago, and definitely nothing compared to what it was years ago. The tonkutsu broth is tasteless, the noodle texture was off and the tsukemen was terrible. Will not be returning.

Tourist Trap. Go somewhere that values your hard earned money. Do not get the coconut curry. They randomly tossed in a lemon and carrots in it. It wasn’t even listed in the ingredients. Broth was diluted and watery. Service is average, nothing that sticks out. Ambiance is dark and dingy. No music and smells of cheap commercial chemicals like Fabuloso.

Came at the end of the lunch rush nearing 2pm. The place felt convoluted and people didn’t receive their full orders having some people start before others. The broth in my Yamada Ramen was bland and the egg upon biting it was cold, it felt like I was eating it raw. Granted I will not be coming back.

We were out checking out the Blossom Festival and ended up in line at this spot—mostly because everything else was packed and this seemed like the best of the options. Big mistake. What followed was one of the worst dining experiences we’ve had in a long time. You know that feeling when a good meal brings people joy? Yeah, this place doesn’t deliver that. Every dish we tried was off. The gyoza tasted like it came straight out of a Costco freezer bag—bland, rubbery, and weirdly artificial. Ever had something so oddly “pipe-flavored” that you start questioning not just the plumbing, but your life choices? That was us. I ordered udon and my partner got the spicy ramen. Both were terrible—easily the worst ramen I’ve ever had. And trust me, I’ve had instant ramen that puts this to shame. Honestly, second place in the “worst food” category goes to Dumpling Time in San Jose—just to give you a sense of how low the bar is here. The shishito peppers were a whole other offense. They should be grilled—smoky, blistered, and tender. These? Crunchy like they were trying and failing to be bell peppers. And serving them with a side of mayo? That’s not just wrong—it’s a betrayal of everything good and holy about Japanese small plates. Service? Painfully slow. We waited forever to be helped, and you could just feel the awkward energy around the room—people nodding like they were all in the same boat of disappointment. The water was lukewarm, no ice, and tasted like it had been sitting in jugs all day. Not a great first impression. To top it off, the waiter basically tossed the receipt at us and clearly didn’t know how to handle our complaints. Thankfully, another staff member came by and comped our ramen and noodles, which we appreciated. Moral of the story: if you’re in San Francisco and craving ramen, do your homework . Don’t be fooled by the reviews—this place is not it. I’ve had better ramen at gas stations.

DC KY

Last time coming here was in 2015. Had great memories here. Just thought we would revisit. Seems like the restaurant has changed… in many ways. Menu has completely changed. Oh well. Give it a try anyways. Restaurant had two tables when we arrived at their opening at 11:30am. First impression, the server did not want to be there. He wasn’t rude or anything, but he was not pleasant to be around. Food was ok. By the time we were finished eating, there were no more customers around. Sadly, I do not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

This is by far the worse ramen I'd ever had. Firstly, the service I received was terrible, server had a massive attitude and was borderline throwing our food at us. But surely it's fine because the food is good right? Wrong. Out of the 4 ramens that we've order, I only would've willing eaten one. They put looks over taste. None of the broths were creamy and was served like it was heated up. On top of all of that the broth is for some reason bitter. I'm sorry but this is just one gigantic tourist spot. If you want some good ramen just go to Marufuku 2 blocks away cheaper and better.

Edited 7-6-24: hate to say it, but a lot of what I used to love about this spot in no longer present. I understand that inflation is brutal right now…. But….Portions have gotten cut in half despite the price being the same. I’m not being dramatic here…. My bowl was 50% full when dropped off at the table. Not to mention that the ramen had the chintzy’est portion of pork…. it was laughable. The chicken karrage is still awesome with its different style options…. But as a whole it’s evident they’re trying to save money downsizing. Its was so obvious that I’m stuck with ‘voting with my wallet’ and not coming back. Que Serra Serra…. Change is the only constant. This place does Ramen right. The Black Garlic is the heavy hitter on the menu. Service is good but can be a bit hectic around dinner rush. It is also quite loud in the main dinning room. I know this is a chain but the quality and service is outstanding and easily in the top 5 of ramen spots in the city worth checking out. The ‘experimental ramen’ section of the menu has some really interesting options as well

I gave it a one star because I can't put down a zero star. I am a lover of Asian cuisine and let me tell you, this place is a tourist trap. It's terrible and a waist of your $$$$$. We love ramen soup but it was watered down, no flavor or taste. There's no way it took 20 hours to make the broth. My braised pork rice bowl was 99% rice that tasted old, 5 very small thin pieces of very dried up pork and a table spoon of shredded cabbage with some mayo. There's no sauce what so ever on the meat or rice. My recommendation, don't go.

The Korean chicken karage I ordered was undercooked and gave me food poisoning. The other food was crisp but had such a weird consistency in the inside. On top of this our server forgot to give me our melon soda until I asked at the end. Would not recommend.

Everything tasted left out and reheated. Waxy and chewy karage, waxy bao buns, soggy tempura left sitting in the seafood ramen, over cooked noodles and barely warm broth and very little seafood. We specifically asked for the sea food ramen to be boiling hot, and was told that “all our broths are boiling” nothing was even close to hot. House ramen lacked flavor, bland broth and overcooked noodles with very little meat and bamboo and cold egg. We did not finish the ramen. Wanted to give them the benefit of doubt after reading the reviews and waiting a while. We asked more than once for napkins, water cups and chopsticks. There were a few groups of 4 but by no means were they slammed! $87 down the drain. Unfortunate because it’s the perfect weather for ramen. Let’s hope things improve and maybe today was just an off day.

Eric Chow

Have you ever had a room temperature ramen broth? Have you had stale, chewy corn? I am trying to understand how that's possible. I was the only person in the restaurant when they opened at 11:30 on a Saturday - did they serve me last night's leftovers?