Chonmage Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in San Rafael

7/9/22: OWNERSHIP CHANGE! STAY AWAY!

We have been coming here for years since they opened. The original owners were a nice, friendly Japanese couple. Food was authentic and delicious. Service was excellent and you always left with a smile.

Then I dunno if they left or not because I would never see them when we stopped by. So this may have changed hands a while back too but the food however was continuously good each and every time.

We wanted to come here a month or two back. I would call the restaurant and never got a live person. Thinking they had gone out of business, I called the bakery next door and they said they were remodeling and reopening soon.

So, fast forward a few weeks to today. I called them and miraculously someone answered and said they were open. We were stoked and excited at getting a good bowl of their ramen.

When we got there, there was no big remodel or anything. There was an addition of some bridge display up by the cash register. It was very tacky and took up a lot of room. Certainly did not make it more inviting at all. Menu changed with some new items. Also never seen the 3 employees before. The new owners are Thai btw. How do I know? My wife can speak it.

I decided to try a new item -- Spicy Wagyu Beef Ramen. It was priced a bit high at $18.95 but hey we haven't been here in a while so I decided to splurge.

Let me tell you the food does not taste like it once did. It is serviceable but not good or great. This was beyond disappointing. The Spicy Wagyu Beef Ramen was very mediocre and underwhelming.

The staple Spicy Miso Ramen we would get all the time did not taste like it once did. Very bland.

The Takoyaki came next and I noticed there were only 5 pieces not the 6 pieces which is stated on the wall or on the menus. The owner came over and she blamed it on inflation costs, etc. I can understand that but you've got to change the menus otherwise you are going to disappoint customers. Anyways, she kept going over and over on inflation not hearing what we were saying. Such bad service.

The Takoyaki came and it sucked... the inside was not cooked long enough so it was a bit doughy and raw. Maybe it was better we only got 5 pieces instead of 6?

They had also forgotten our two cups of Thai Iced Tea Boba. I had to get out of my seat at about the midway point of our meal to inquire. You can tell where this is going. While the Thai Iced Tea was serviceable... (how can you mess that up anyways since they are Thai), the pearls had no chew at all. The pearls in the Costco instant boba packs tasted 20x better.

We are not coming back. One of the most disappointing meals we have had in a long time. With tips it came to over $70. I also ponder if it is really Waygu beef I was getting. Looking at the bad service and meal we just had I really can't say if it was or not. Hindsight is 20/20.

Do yourself a favor and pick a different restaurant. Finding a good ramen shop has become even tougher now in Marin. The "old" Chonmage was great not this new one. I guess I will have to trek to SF or farther north to for Raku Ramen.

Bottom line: This ain't the old Chonmage where the food and service were excellent. Food and service takes a big hit and nosedive here with the new owners. If Management doesn't take care of these issues, it will not stay...

Awesome choices of ramen, donboris, appetizers, and etc. Prices too were very reasonable. There are regular and small sizes (

I was a big fan of this place, but I was there for dinner last Friday evening and it feels as if there's been a change. Not sure if they've had a change in ownership or management or chefs, but here's what I noticed:

The ramen (I ordered the spicy miso pork tonkatsu ramen) was in a much smaller bowl, so the portion was smaller. (Now I'm wishing I took a photo)

There wasn't as much stuff in the ramen bowl--no corn--just a few cut mushroom pieces. Flavor was still good, but it was missing a bunch of other ingredients from past bowls (I've visited 2-3 times in the past 12-18 months)

The temperature of the other items in the bowl was off. The eggs were on the colder side and hadn't been integrated in terms of the temperature of the other items (I've never had this experience anywhere else in any other ramen place where it was this noticeable). My recollection is the pork pieces were the same also.

Service--we sat outside, so I understand that service is going to be slower. Our main server (the manager? or owner?) was so engrossed in a conversation (in Mandarin) with a table of customers in the back that I had to pull him out of the conversation to get our check.

This used to be my favorite ramen place in San Rafael--now I'm not sure...