Genki Ramen — Restaurant in San Francisco

Wow, what an incredible menu they have. Some ramen places just have a handful of options and that's all they specialize in. Genki Ramen not only has soupy noodles but also izakaya or Japanese tapas style plates such as deep fried items and grilled items plus okonomiyaki, rice plates, yakisoba, and house specialties. It's not your typical chicken-teriyaki-California-roll establishment. It's definitely not a sushi spot otherwise it would be Genki Sushi. (By the way, "genki" in Japanese can mean energetic, lively or healthy.)

Here are some of the items we ordered:

Pinky Sour Cocktail $5.00 "soju, famous japanese soft drink peach Caplico & lime juice"

Beef n Enoki Roll $6.75 "shredded kimchi and enoki mushroom wrapped in sliced beef, seasoned with spicy miso sauce"

Shishito $2.50 "Japanese green pepper with salt"

Chashu Ramen $8.95 "house made boiled pork, half boiled egg, bamboo shoot, green onion and red ginger in tonkatsu base"

Kimchi Ramen $8.95 "spicy pickle cabbage, mushroom and house made boiled pork in tonkatsu base"

Yasai (Vegetable) Ramen $8.75 "stir fried mushrooms, asparagus, tomato, carrot, onion, shredded cabbage, green onion and shelled edamame in tonkatsu base" -- However my friend substituted with vegetable broth instead.

Vegetable Okonomiyaki $8.75 mushroom, tomato & asparagus topped with mayonnaise and okonomi sauce and bonito flakes

I had the Chashu Ramen, a standard basic ramen to serve as a basis for comparison with other restaurants. The rest of my group had the Yasai (Vegetable) Ramen, Kimchi Ramen, and others. I found the Chashu Ramen left me wanting more. There were a lot of noodles which I didn't finish because I don't digest such noodles very well. The broth was so-so and I would have wanted more toppings. My friend who likes noodle soups such as ramen and pho thought it was good which goes to show everyone has different tastes. This one wasn't for me.

Luckily, there are so many other yummy items on the menu to explore. The okonomiyaki which is like a Japanese pizza or savory pancake was gooey and tasty. I'd go back to try the other ramen and plates. They even have takoyaki (octopus balls) on the menu!

4 stars for the menu selection. 2 stars for the ramen. I'd go back to try the other items on the menu but...

A hole-in-the-wall with ambience and moody lighting, serving tasty food behind a medieval-looking door.

This restaurant always looked closed, but I finally decided to open the door today to order the Chashu Braised Pork Belly, the first item on the menu posted on the window, to go. Inside were beautiful hanging lights and an assortment of plants that gave the place a cozy atmosphere. There was only one other customer who was about to leave at the time I entered.

After ordering and paying over $8 ($7 +taxes), I asked the cashier if it was always that empty and she said no. Apparently, there used to be lots of customers before the pandemic, but since it was a barbeque place, they needed special tables. It's a small restaurant with a small storefront, and next to a parking lot, so there isn't really room to build a parklet or put tables outside.

I got my food about nine minutes after ordering, in a medium-sized paper bag, which felt a little light. When I got home, I excitedly opened the bag to see what was inside. It was three pieces of pork belly (which, by the way, is one of the cheaper cuts of pork) inside a tiny aluminum container, with a piece of arugula on top. I was a bit underwhelmed. Each piece was about the size of two Chapstick containers side-by-side. The pork belly was very tender and basically melted in my mouth. It was some great pork belly, and because it was protein and fat, it was filling. Still, I expected more.

This is a nice hole-in-the-wall that most people walk past without thinking. The service was excellent and the food was delicious, but I expected more than three pieces of pork for the price. However, based on other reviews, the ramen is probably fantastic. I really want to give five stars, but my experience was...

There was so much hype about this place, that I really wanted to like it. Even after reading the reviews on how their service sucks, we went anyways. I'd like to report that their service still sucks... they asked everyone else if everything was ok, but never asked my husband and I anything though their turn point to circle the restaurant was right next to our table, each girl passed by at least 5 times each, and not a word was said to us.

Their ramen is SUPER oily.. there was this sheen over the broth in my bowl, that I had to scoop out to eat my ramen. If I wanted to lap up oil I would've bought a bottle of cooking oil from the market across the street.

I got the garlic tenderous ribs ramen combo with 2 gyozas (gyozas... I've had better store bought ones. ramen-was only tasty because of the added garlic chips and ribs) while my husband got the chashu ramen combo with chicken karaage (he said it was tasteless and mentioned the oiliness). We've been to plenty of other ramen places that give you a full oozy boiled egg with your ramen. This place is greedy enough to give you HALF a hard boiled egg (close to being over boiled as it was a hint greenish grey). We both got the caramel milk tea smoothie which was probably the tastiest thing we had from there, sad it's not what they specialize in.

I don't recommend coming here to be ignored, nor pay close to $10 for oily and mediocre ramen with half a...