Does Hokkaido Ramen Santouka Live Up To The Hype?

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka – The Background

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka is a ramen chain from Japan that’s made its way over to the US. The chain originates from Japan’s northern most island, Hokkaido, and has restaurants all the way to one of it’s most southern islands, Okinawa. It’s truly a nationwide restaurant but doesn’t have a ton of restaurants in total.

The first Hokkaido Ramen Santouka opened its doors in 1988 in Asahikawa, Hokkaido with a single type of ramen: shio (salt). The base broth consists of boiled down pork bones. To produce a milder flavor the bones are boiled down over a long period of time. When the white colored broth is complete, it’s never re-boiled. This is to protect the overall flavor and smell.

The menu and selection of ramen has since expanded quite a bit. Miso, soy sauce, and spicy miso have joined the salt ramen as options on the menu.

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka has found success both domestically and abroad. Locations have expanded throughout Southeast Asia and also in the US and Canada.

I went and visited the location in Costa Mesa, CA, located in the Japanese grocery mart Mitsuwa’s food court.

The Experience

I’ve been to the Mitsuwa food court before and they’ve remodeled it. The space is much more open with a lot more seating. Seating had previoulsy been problematic at peak times here. Hokkaido Ramen Santouka has been a staple in the food court for quite a while. It had been YEARS since I’d eaten it so I was certainly looking forward to grabbing a bowl here.

There’s a lot of selections to choose from. Much like in Japan, there’s a large array of plastic food in the display case showing what they offer. It’s a lot to sort through, so choosing while waiting in line can certainly be difficult!

I opted for the Chashu Pork Soy Sauce Ramen (L) ($16.45). It doesn’t take too long for the food to come out, about 10 minutes or so. You get handed a ticket with a number and they’ll call it out over a microphone when it’s ready to pick it up.

The Ramen

The large is a pretty massive bowl. You get a lot of food with this. There were about 5 pieces of thick chashu in it along with bamboo shoots, green onion, a piece of nori, and the famous Santouka red pickled plum.

The broth offers a blend of both savory and a hint of fish, enriched with the addition of the soy sauce. It’s not an incredibly rich or deep flavored broth, which is a nice change of pace if you’ve had a lot of tonkatsu broth of late. That doesn’t mean the broth isn’t satisfying. It’s a well-balanced, almost comforting, kind of broth, which is always enjoyable.

The noodles are fairly firm. A little thick for ramen noodles but have a nice bounce to them and a good overall texture. Quite delicious!

The chashu pieces were meaty, fairly thick, and well seasoned. The chashu is very flavorful, with minimal fat. With the large bowl you get a lot of pieces which was awesome.

The Verdict

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka is an excellent choice for ramen in the Costa Mesa area (which has a TON of ramen places). What’s most enjoyable about it is that they specialize in shio and soy sauce ramen, which you can find at other ramen locations, but it’s not their specialty like it is here.

The soy sauce ramen is definitely a different tasting experience than the usual tonkatsu and I’d highly recommend giving a try if you’re a ramen lover wanting to try something newish.

Afterwards you can also walk around Mitsuwa and do some shopping and grab some Japanese snacks to boot. Not too shabby!