| Small Ramen House in downtown Mountain View |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 10/22/2004
Rating: 8
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Ive been bugging Terry about Ryowa for about 2 weeks and he finally gave in to lunch. We had to go there at 11:30 to beat the lunch rush...this place is always packed. If you get there past 12, you will find yourself waiting for 10-15 minutes for a seat. They have counter top service and 2 small tables. I think the maximum capacity is 30.
The lunch special runs from 11:30-2:00 with about 4 dishes to choose from. I ordered the ramen with pork, gyozas, and steamed rice for $7. The noodles were firm, broth was full of flavor and a little murky. Garnished within the soup was some sprouts and scallions. 3 gyozas were included in the special and equally appetizing.
Good food, but I have complaints about the seating arrangements. For starters, when you sit at the counter, they have high stools and a low shelf under the tabletop. So whats the problem? Your legs can help but hit the shelf...Im not even tall and its quite bothersome. I like my privacy when I eat and its not pleasing to the ears when the guy next to you is slurping his ramen noodles. If you can look past that low shelf and crowded seating, Ramen House Ryowa will satisfy your ramen cravings.
**Edit**
After being educated by my japanese friends, I sound like a moron for complaining about the authentic japanese atmosphere; from the tight seating and slurping of the noodles. Lessoned learned, I promise never to complain in a real deal ramen house.
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 739
Reviewed: 10/22/2004
Rating: 7.5
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This was my second visit to Ramen House Ryowa. It always held a 2nd place rating to its neighboring Pho to Chau with me. Admittedly, though, it is a different type of soup. I ordered the standard Lunch Special A (with meat) and fried rice since the vegetarian dish is not part of the lunch special. :( It arrived after 5 minutes (slower than say a Pho place would deliver to you). In the meantime, I drank some of the bitter tea. It really didn't appeal to me much. I sat in the uncomfortably high chair and uncomfortably low table (meaning I would be sitting about a foot away from my food).
The food arrived and the presentation was very good. It definitely looks like a good meal. The rice was full of pork (note to vegetarians, don't order the fried rice). The soup looked large. The 3 rolls looked tasty as well. I am not sure of the rolls have meat in them, at this point I didn't care. I ate them anyway, along with the fried rice. The soup was a bit tough to eat since I was sitting so far away from it and the spoon they give you is entirely too large to fit in a humans mouth. I gave the meat to Jason and ate the rest of the soup. It was pretty tasty, especially when combined with the spicy tomato pasty stuff they give you on the table. I would return for this meal as it fills you up pretty easily.
After the meal, I tasted the tea some more and was pleasantly surprised how much better it tasted after the meal. The coolness of it brought down the temperature in my mouth after the spicy soup I created. The bitterness was gone from the tea as it melded perfectly with the soup. I can now understand why this tea was chosen at Ryowa. I was quite impressed with it.
The price here was about $7.50 out the door + tax for the lunch special.
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Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 187
Reviewed: 9/13/2005
Rating: 7.5
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My friend and I decided to go to Ryowa for lunch today. Ive been here several times but only during dinner. During lunch (11:30 to 2:30) they have their lunch special which is a fairly good deal compared with the cost of their regular bowl of ramen. For lunch you get your choice of ramen (ryowa ramen, soy sauce ramen, soy bean ramen, or butter corn ramen), 3 gyozas, and a choice of white rice or 0.50 more for fried rice.
Knowing that parking is difficult to find after 12pm in down town Mountain View, my friend and I arrived at 11:15 and easily found parking in the rear. We waited until 11:30 for Ryowa to open and then seated our selves in one of the two tables available. All other seating was counter seats. Around 11:45 the place was full and anyone else walking in would need to sign up on the waiting list. We were the first ones in the restaurant to order but our food didnt arrive until 11:55 and we were the first ones served. Apparently the soup base is the only thing prepared in advance as everything else is cooked fresh when ordered. It was a bit strange watching everyone sitting there eating only the free home made kimchee while waiting for their food. My friend couldnt get enough of the kimchee as he described it to be good yet just the right amount of spiciness. He also seemed to enjoy the tea drink with this kimchee. I remember the first time I came to eat here it was hard for me to acquire a taste for the tea but being here multiple times I have grown accustomed to the flavor of the tea.
My friend and I both ordered the Ryowa ramen combo with fried rice for 7.50. Other differences between the combo and regular order or ramen are the choices of ramen available within the combo selection, the size of the ramen bowl, and not having half an egg in the ramen. You can purchase a tea egg for $1.00 more, but I firmly believe that is over priced as you can purchase a tea egg at Verde across the street for 0.75 if you really wanted one with your boba tea afterwards.
When our order finally arrived everything looked pleasing to the eyes. Heres a break down of each item:
Gyozas: Bottom was perfectly fried and crisp while the skin was thin and cooked through and the meat was perfectly flavored and held together. The three pieces were stuck together and hard to pull apart with chopsticks. I found myself wanting more. (9/10).
Fried Rice: Nothing special here although its cooked right as they use day old rice. Needed a bit more flavor as it was a lightly flavored. (7/10).
Ramen: The noodles were firm. The noodles here are a lot firmer than the other ramen places Ive been to and my friend commented that it tastes better than Do-Henkotsu. The soup base is light and flavorful, maybe a bit more salt (like the soy sauce based soup) would have made this the perfect blend, but regardless I lapped it all up when I finished the noodles. The soup base is not as fatty compared to Do-Henkotsu but still enjoyable. If you have a cold you should stay away from this type of soup base and go for the soy sauce base as the Ryowa soup base has light chili flakes that will irritate the throat. (8/10)
Pork: These were two slices of pork within the combo bowl selection. Usually there are four slices in the regular bowls. The pork is not fatty and does not melt in your mouth like the ones at Do-Henkostu so it was just average for me. It wasnt dry but it was not moist either, a little firm but good enough to eat with the ramen. (7/10)
Authenticity / Atmosphere: All the writings were either English or Japanese characters and there is a fine collection of Japanese books on their bookshelf and there is the TV in the corner playing a Japanese program, but the wait staff spoke Mandarin and Kimchee was served and you had the option to purchase tea egg.
Overall it was an enjoyable meal and final tab was 9.00 per person. If you come here only for dinner most of the ramen bowls are 6.50 and it comes with half an egg, there are no combo specials.
Tips:
-Arrive before 11:40 for seating and parking. If you arrive at 12:00 youll probably we waiting a bit longer as most people were not served until near 12:00.
-If you arrive late theres always Maru Ichi on Castro St, but its not as good as Ryowa.
-Its better to come only with yourself and a friend to grab one of the two 2 seated tables as counter seating is not very comfortable.
Pluses: Accept credit cards (Visa or Master Card), free home made kimchee while you wait, quick service, plenty of choices.
Minuses: Wait time, need to arrive early for parking so even longer wait time, not a lot of tables and uncomfortable counter seats.
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Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 148
Reviewed: 4/30/2007
Rating: 7.5
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Ryowa is actually a pretty regular dinner destination - to sum it up in a few words; it's quick, tasty, filling, dependable and cheap.
On this night we chose a table to the normal counter, she ordered a ryowa and i had my normal buttercorn w/hard noodles. the ramen/broth is nothing to rave about if one's had better/authentic ramen but it's good on its own merit.
our waiter took longer then usual, i wasn't sure if that was because they weren't busy when we ate, or we were at a table. i prefer the counter.
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Reviewer: Shannon
Total Reviews: 28
Reviewed: 9/7/2006
Rating: 7
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A while ago, my brother mentioned that there was a terrible ramen place in Berkeley so I suggested that we go to a new place I found in Mountain View. I heard from word of mouth that this place is excellent. It turned out to be the same restaurant but in a different location! How unfortunate but this way, he can help me judge if there's consistency in their ramen.
When you first enter the restaurant, there's a clipboard where you sign in to get seated. It's not conveniently located because you have to walk almost halfway into the restaurant to reach it and it's not very visible upon entrance. The restaurant was filled when we arrived but the wait was only 15 minutes. We ended up sitting on the part of the zig zag counter closest to the kitchen. It's difficult to give service a rating because there's not much to judge. We ordered, the food came out fast, we ate fast and left. There wasn't much interaction with the servers.
The food came out once we sat because we ordered while we were waiting for our seats. I got the Butter Corn Ramen which is a salt based soup base with chashu, egg, green onion, seaweed, corn and butter. When the bowl came, I saw a thick slice of BUTTER just floating around the side. I immediately took it out because the soup already looked very oil based because previously melted butter. Exactly how much butter is in this dish?? They should've completely melted it into the soup before bringing the dish out. Earlier I overheard someone order this dish without the butter and now I know why.
The chashu was tender and the soup was slightly lacking in flavor. Some ramen places let you choose how firm you want the noodles cooked and they didn't have that here which was a negative. Firmness of the noodle makes a huge difference because I personally prefer my ramen to be super soft whereas this was pretty chewy.
Sitting on the table is spicy sesame oil, spicy Japanese seasoning (usually put in rice) and kim chee that you can add in your soup. These three items proved to be very helpful considering how bland the soup was. Some positives of this place was that there was a fairly quick wait, a clean environment and the soup came out piping hot. There was a tv in the corner playing the movie, Princess Mononoke, but unfortunately I was sitting at the part of the counter with my back to it so I couldn't watch it. As for my brother who had a bad experience at the Berkeley restaurant, he said this time it was just slightly better.
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