Tanpopo

We dropped in here to get some ramen before seeing a movie at Kabuki around the corner. The waitress was extremely friendly, but the ramen was pretty mediocre. It was fine, but I expected something better from a place in Japantown. I’ve found better places for ramen in the mission.

Well, the food was pretty good. But … for some reason, we only got half an egg in our ramen. I have encountered places that only give you half an egg before, but the better places include AN egg, and I use a whole egg at home when I make an Asian-​ish soup. Oh well. The food really was pretty good, including the two rolls we got.
The thing is, they don’t have proper tea. The waitress offered us bottled tea which she could heat up for us if we wanted, but no actual tea. I consider that to be truly odd. I’ve never heard of such a thing, and it kind of started me thinking ‘what is up with this place’.
The waitress was a little odd too. She really wanted us to sit at a small table, not even one that might accommodate 3; another couple was sitting at a 3-​up when we arrived, and yet another couple sat at a 3-​up later. She was concerned about saving the bigger tables for groups, even though the place was really not busy. Could be misunderstanding on our part.
It’s kind of dingy. Not exactly dirty or anything, but the carpet is ancient, the chairs are ugly, the refrigeration units are noticeably buzzy, there’s no music, the bathrooms are… well they’re reasonably clean, but they’re the worst shade of peach you could pick for a bathroom. Also, the faucet (in the men’s) does not have an aerator so the water comes out full blast, not aimed at your hands, and splashes everywhere. And of course the fan is loud and clogged with dust. Think Tenderloin Chinese restaurant, not Japantown Japanese.
It was just a slightly off-​putting experience overall, that’s how I’d describe it. If they had no competition, or if they fixed up the stuff I mentioned and improved the menu options (and layout) slightly, I’d go back. I might even go back anyway, but mostly that would be to see if it was just as odd the second time.
My advice to them: new carpet, new chairs, fix the refrigerator, make the bathrooms just a little nicer; serve proper tea and put on some light background music (preferably traditional Japanese). And maybe offer a couple of good non-​pork broth options? No, never mind, I guess that’s ramen blasphemy.

Not very competent service. Ramen was mediocre and salty. They don’t seem to have enough cooks to manage the number of customers, so they take a long time.

After a few hours of shopping and exploring in Japantown, I hopped on Unilocal and found Tanpopo. It was dark, cold, and rainy — nothing sounded better than some Japanese comfort food. The place was packed — they do massive amounts of business. The other thing I loved about it was just how authentic it felt — I felt like I was in Japan. The menu is pretty big, so deciding on something to order was difficult. They’re known more for their ramen, but I wasn’t in a ramen kind of mood so I ordered the vegetable yakisoba. The dish came out fast, was piping hot, and was a pretty solidly done dish overall. Now I want to go back and try more of their dishes. Their sushi looked pretty good as well! For the vegetarians out there, keep in mind that they recently removed their vegetarian ramen broth so all ramens here are now meat-​based.

Service was excellent. They were able to accomodate 7 of us by re-​arranging tables in less than 5 minutes. I had that kyushu ramen and it was a nice pork broth but nothing like that of santouka in costa mesa or shinsengumi where the broth is super opaque and glistening in pork fat. I did have to use the ramen condiments because it was a tad bit bland. Gyozas were great!

Came here with a couple of friends on a cold weekday night. I haven’t had ramen in a long time and I was looking forward to a delicious bowl.
Upon arrival, we were greeted promptly and asked if we wanted to to wait for a table or get seated immediately at the bar. We didn’t mind waiting for a bit and we decided to sit at the bar to wait. They asked if we wanted anything to drink while waiting which I thought was nice.
I ordered Moyashi Ramen because I wanted something garlicky. I was quite disappointed with this because the broth literally tasted like soy sauce mixed with water and I could barely taste any garlic. Besides that, I had a lot of bean sprouts in my soup and everything else in my bowl came in super small pieces. Basically, it seemed like I was eating bean sprouts and noodles with soy sauce water.
We also ordered a Rainbow Roll to share for $ 14. It was seven small pieces. It tasted okay but I think this is overpriced for the small portion when I can get the same roll at another place as a bigger portion.
After our food came out, it was difficult to catch any of the waitress’s attention. We couldn’t even get our water refilled. The place wasn’t even too busy. The only time they came to us was at the end when we finished our food and they just straight up handed the check.
Overall, next time when i want to eat at Japantown, I will try other ramen shops since there are so many other ones near by.

Tanpopo is a solid Japanese Hot Pot restaurant, It is definitely something you should do with friends. However the Solo experience is just as rewarding on a cold evening.
Pros: Reasonable portion of food regardless of orders, However I recommend getting the ones that combo with vegetables. Nimen Ranch Beef is a solid secondary add-​on that will make your mouth melt.
Cons: Expensive for what you get overall (mostly an experience type of deal) so bring a healthy wallet.
Misc: Cold Sake will work well with this type of food!

ラーメン はおいしいです。
The lamen was good but not the same if you have eaten lamen in Japan. Mine was a bit overlooked.

Ramen has been a classic for me and Bun. Enough for us to coin ourselves experts. Since free time hasn’t been on our sides for awhile, review production have come to a near halt.
BRIEFING:
Older ramen spot in Japantown (SF), things appeared to have not changed since their opening. Look of the restaurant had a semi dated appearance which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Menu lists mainly include ramen and sushi. They also offer specials.
HIGHLIGHTS:
We had the ramen. Due to time now, key points will only be mentioned. GYOZA were excellently prepared. Ramen, on the other hand, were some what a let down. With over 1,000+ reviews, I expected something more than the ordinary bowl I received. Everything was a tad over cooked where flavor started escaping.
SUMMARY:
With more choices in the area, I might think about another place for ramen. GYOZA was awesome. The sushi rolls I saw on the other table didn’t look half bad. Too bad we didn’t try those. Also, sometimes a nice greeting like the one we received goes a long way as the service was quite pleasant.

Great place. Nice ambience, down home quality. It reminded me mom and pop places I visited in Osaka.
Service was prompt, food came out fast. Our server was informative without being overly instructive.
Food was flavorful, and authentic

Great ramen spot in Japantown. We came in for lunch around 1 on a Saturday and were seated promptly, though the restaurant quickly filled up after we came.
We ordered the gyoza, ankake ramen, and karamiso chashu ramen. The gyoza were served nice and crispy on the outside with a tender filling, and were a solid appetizer without being too filling.
My companion remarked that the ankake ramen was not quite what she expected, as it turned out to be just a small layer of the starchy, thick soup she was looking forward to, served on top of otherwise normal shoyu ramen.
The karamiso ramen I had was just what I was craving, a spicy broth without going overboard. Plenty of chashu cooked just right, as well. Noodles were solid but unremarkable.
Overall nice restaurant, but since there is such a variety of options in Jtown and I’m fairly new to the area, I’ll probably try a lot of other places before coming back.

Came here on date night with the BF before going to see a movie. The wait wasn’t too long, the place is tightly packed and not really roomy to walk around comfortable to your seat.
I ordered two sushi rolls which were not bad. My BF had some type of ramen and it was actually really decent.
My boyfriends dish came out before mine so I had to wait for 20 minutes to get my food, I was just sitting there irritated and on my phone.
I asked the waitress for a glass of water and she forgot so I had to wait 30 minutes while she was running around not making eye contact or helping us. So I asked again and she still forgot. So annoying.
Bad service. I won’t be back.

Found a new ramen place in Japantown to start going to! We were wandering around on a cold night looking for somewhere to go, and we ended up picking the place with the most people in it. I am glad we did.
The menu here is so extensive, deciding on one thing was difficult. I finally chose the kyushu ramen which has a pork broth called tonkotsu. It was just what I needed on a cold night. Added minced garlic and siracha to this and I was very happy with my ramen choice. The prices are also very reasonable, $ 10 for ramen. They charge $ 0.50 for to-​go containers which I thought was odd. But $ 4 beer, can’t beat that!

So I came here on several occasions. I had spicy salmon roll, spicy tuna roll, karamiso ramen, shoyu ramen, and miso ramen.
All ramen: ³⁄₅ Watered down broth. Not too much but, I like my ramen savory. Pretty good for $ 8.
Sushi: ⁵⁄₅ The sushi here is so good! I don’t know what they put in their sushi but, I can’t get enough of it. I usually just come here for the salmon and the tuna roll but, I like eating my sushi with some ramen so I end up getting their watery ramen with it. It’s not that bad when you eat it with the sushi.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
⁴⁄₅ stars just for the bomb ass sushi

The service is really good.
The ramen is alway on top, the best in Japan town area.
There are always busy here but never have to wait so long.
Have to try a karamiso with extra chashu here!!!

Pretty dull ramen restaurant that lacks quality and creativity. Their broths lack flavor depth and ingredients are uninspiring. Prices are pretty high for ordinary ramen. Also, don’t have leftovers or you will have to pay for your container to take home with you.

I actually like this place a lot. The service is quick and the ramen choices are plenty.
The first time I came, I ended up with a headache I thought was due to MSG (not sure if they use it or not) but the second time and afterwards I’ve eaten here I’ve been fine so maybe that was just a fluke or not even related to the food.
Great for a nice cold SF evening with warm ramen =)

I rarely give 2 stars to any places. Came after the parade of the cherry blossom was over. Its understandable to wait for more than 30 minutes if the place is busy and small but waiting more than ³⁰⁄₄₅ minutes for the food is a no-​no. I’ve been to a few ramen that are usually busy, never had to wait that long. Usually 15 – 20 minutes at most.
Anyways, Order the 7 pieces of gyoza as an appetizer. All of dumplings had burnt side. This dumpling was whatever
The ramen section of the menu, you can choose a ramen with one slice of meat or ramen with extra meat. Shoyu chashu ramen with extra meat which cost 10.75 based on the menu. When they brought out my ramen, i notice there was only 1 slice of meat. I had to tell the waitress that i suppose to get the extra meat. Almost tried to ripped me off with the meat. But when i saw the receipt, they even ripped me off with the price where they charge the ramen of 8.25 and the extra meat (give 3 extra) for 2.75. I thought it was suppose to be 10.25. The broth is good of this ramen but i taste a little of msg/​saltiness in my mouth that cause dryness, being thirsty, and weird after taste. If i didnt get the extra meat, it’ll would have been very little amount of food since the noodle wasnt that much.

Mediocre everything.
Food:
— Shoyu broth was bland, noodles tasted like they’ve been sitting in the broth for too long, no soft-​boiled egg
— Katsu curry was too sour
— Uni nigiri was the only above average thing we had here, but for $ 9 we could’ve just gone to sushi joint specializing in fresh fish for similar price
Service was average and not that attentive. Uncomfortable environment with pretty gross sticky tables.
Go to Waraku or Suzu a block away for better ramen and setting. So many other promising spots around Japantown, no need to slurp disappointment noodles at Tanpopo.

I came here several times. The quality of the ramen was not consistent. It used to be mostly hits, but recently it has been misses.
Now that there are a lot of ramen shops opened up in SF, the quality has to definitely be up there with the others for the competition. But that wasn’t the case, it became worse/​
Came here for a lunch recently and got the pork based ramen and the miso ramen… They were probably the worst ramen I have had in the city. The lukewarm and too salty broth with not so great ingredients. The half egg in there was cold and overcooked too.
I will never be returning again, I could get way better quality ramen for a cheaper price somewhere else.