Ramen House Ryowa, Berkeley CA

Ryowa, serving 8 varieties of Kobe-style ramen plus a small number of other dishes, has a favorable mention by LTH-er TonyC, who doesn’t give praise lightly, and is ranked third on SF Chowhound Melanie Wong’s list of 50 or so Bay Area ramen-yas.* That’s where we headed for lunch on the first day of our recent trip to SF and Sonoma, after landing at Oakland airport.

Kara-age (fried chicken) was fabulous:



Lucantonius is ordinarily noodle boy and pot sticker boy, but on this occasion he didn’t want to know about anything but this chicken. Luckily the serving was so ample that there was plenty left for Antonius and me, too.

Pork gyoza were well made, with delicate wrappers:



Antonius had the Butabara ramen, I had the Ryowa ramen. We each happily paid a $1 upcharge for the house made “special noodles”.**

My Ryowa ramen had a sesame flavored broth that was very slightly picante, with chashu (sliced braised pork), egg, green onion and seaweed.



The Butabara ramen had a different, soy sauce-based, broth, with fattier pork, baby bok choy, green onion and seaweed.



Both broths had wonderful flavor, and the excellent noodles were cooked al dente. The only reason we didn't slurp up every last drop of our soups was to ensure we'd have some appetite again for the meal we had scheduled for the evening. That fried chicken was remarkably filling, and the bowls of ramen beyond ample.

An outstanding beginning to a great eating trip.

Ramen House Ryowa
2068 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 883-0667

Mon-Sat 11:30-11, Sun 11:30-10. “Closed early when sold out.”
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* Melanie Wong’s first and second place spots are in San Jose and San Mateo, respectively. Ryowa also has a branch in Mountain View, which is #6 on her list.

** The “special noodle” option is not listed on the menu. Thanks to Melanie Wong for including this information in her Chowhound posts.

[photos by Antonius]

As an Italian I am a prodigious and serious consumer of noodles and so I was most happy to hear Amata's suggestion of the Ryowa ramen shop in Berkeley for our lunch after arriving at Oakland in the morning. After a little sight seeing in Old Oakland (beautiful old buildings in the city centre) and in the hills of Berkeley, and a visit to an old favourite book shop of mine in that venerable university town (Black Oak), I was ready for some noodles...

But, damn, before the noodles or potstickers, there arrived the Kara-age chicken, which was absolutely wonderful. It came with an excellent cabbage salad, aioli and also a peanut sauce on the side:


My noodle dish was really outstanding, from the complex flavour of the broth to the complex texture of the dish as a whole -- toothsome chewy noodles, luscious soft meat, crisp bok choy. And in addition to all that, the waitress brought us a nice pot of kimchee; the kimchee is in the metal pot between my soup and the chicken beyond.

The potstickers were also very nice indeed; as Amata mentioned, the wrappers were very thin and the stuffing was simple and delicious.

Ryowa is a casual place with a minimum of decor but the atmosphere is very pleasant...

... and in addition to the great food and low prices on good Japanese beer, they had a television set on and tuned to an NHL game. Boy, do I wish there were a place like this near where I live...

Ramen House Ryowa... A little bit of heaven in Berkeley!

Antonius