Nerdy Noodles

October 01, 2022

My friends, girlfriend, her brother, and I ventured out to Santana Row in San Jose, CA to experience Momosan Ramen & Sake for its opening week. This renowned ramen restaurant is owned by the world-famous Iron Chef of Japan, Chef Masaharu Morimoto. When we heard that his Ramen chain was opening up in the Bay Area, we had to go because we really enjoy watching him cook and we loved his instant ramen also called Momosan.

Upon arriving at the restaurant 30 minutes early, there was a line that was about 60 people long which really hyped up our anxiety. Just moments before the restaurant opened the legend himself Chef Morimoto arrived to greet all of his guests as they entered his restaurant.

Entering the restaurant after saying hello to Chef Morimoto, we were seated at a communal table with two other parties. The menu was as expected of many other specialty ramen shops, small but mighty. We ended up ordering two appetizers to share and as many of the different ramen as we were able to taste, five different ones. Sadly, Momosan already sold out of their go-to ramen, the gyukotsu(牛骨).

The two appetizers we got were tuna pizza, and popcorn shrimp. Both appetizers were truly delicious and we would definitely get them again. The tuna pizza was reminiscent of a salad. I was vibrant, very light, and extremely fresh. This made a good contrast with the popcorn shrimp which was very heavy, crispy, and rich. The popcorn shrimp is covered in a sauce that was made of gochujang and mayonnaise.

The five flavors of ramen that we got from the menu were the All-Star, Spicy Vegan Miso, Tonkotsu(豚骨), Tokyo Chicken, and Spicy Kakuni(角煮). All were very good in their own right. The only real issues that we had were that the noodles themselves seemed a little overcooked for us and the spicy vegan miso wasn’t very flavorful.

I personally had the Spicy Kakuni which had a rich porky tonkotsu(豚骨) taste with a strong hit of spice. The components included a very tender and succulent pice of kakuni(角煮), kikurage(きくらげ), menma(メンマ), green onions, and a very well prepared ajitama(味玉)(usually my favorite part of a ramen if prepared correctly). Momosan decided to pair their ramen with the thick wavy noodles which is a fine choice for their rich broth; however, my noodles were sadly a little over done so they were a bit too soft for me.

Overall the experience at Momosan was okay and the ramen tasted great. However, since they were still in their first week of opening, they are still going through some growing pains so service was a little slow. The saving grace was how Chef Morimoto was so friendly and patient with everyone that we even got to take photos with him.

My group didn’t receive their ramen till a bit over an hour after we ordered. I will give Momosan a second chance in the future but for now, I will have to say Momosan is an okay place to go to if you are in the area but I wouldn’t go out of my way to drive such a long distance for it.