I had a serious craving for ramen the last few weeks when the weather was cold. Of course, the day I went to satisfy my cravings, it was summer weather in San Diego.
It’s been a while since I’ve visited Ramen Yamadaya. I was curious if there were any additions to the menu and how the place was running. Despite arriving for a late dinner during off peak hours, there was still a short wait list.
Once seated, we were presented with the basic menu. From what I could remember, nothing new has been added, unlike Raki Raki which seems to be adding new menu items all the time.
Tonkotsu Yamadaya Ramen
I requested my noodles be extra firm, and was pleased to see that they were cooked just so. One look, and you could see the noodles were still quite starchy white and hadn’t yet reached the fully cooked stage.
The milky broth was as rich as I remembered. The pork bones at Yamadaya are boiled for 20 hours to develop the broth.
Seasoned Egg
Even though the soft boiled egg is included with the ramen, we ordered an additional one to share. Sometimes the yolk here is a creamy custard. On this occasion, both the ones in our soup and the extra one we ordered were overcooked so the eggs yolks had already lost that custard texture.
Tonkotsu Ramen
DH opted for the regular tonkotsu ramen. As you can see his noodles are less white because he wanted them cooked regular.
We also ordered the karaage, but somehow the order got messed up. It was given to another table. Since we had already been there a while, we asked to have them cancel the order. Our server was quite apologetic. He took the seasoned egg off our check and then offered to give us the karaage to go. So we took him up on his offer. I was too lazy to take pictures. The karaage was a little overfried. We prefer the version at Raki Raki.
Things here seemed similar to how they were on our previous visits. The menu has remained pretty simple. The place is still immensely popular. The staff still seems harried and often makes mistakes, but they are very nice about it and apologetic, so it is hard to get annoyed. The wait for the food also is unusually long for ramen. Even though we waited only about 5 minutes before being seated, our whole dinner experience ended up taking an hour and a half. Not exactly a quick meal. However, Yamadaya still serves my favorite version of tonkotsu ramen in San Diego, so we’ll be back next time we are craving it.
My previous Yamadaya posts, including the menu, can be found here and here.
Ramen Yamadaya
4706 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego,CA 92117
https://www.ramen-yamadaya.com
Wish we had some ramen houses here!
Aww =(
That looks so good! I’m hoping to try the Ramen Yamadaya in Los Angeles soon!
I’m sure the LA location is delicious!
The photos are so good, if only there were ramen shops where I live! Ah well. If I keep thinking about ramen I will have to try your recipe for Chinese beef noodle soup, or make some horrible culinary abomination trying to replicate the milk broth.
Serious East recently did a recipe for tonkotsu ramen broth. It’s a bit complicated, but maybe you want to try it out if there arent any good ramen shops near you https://www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/how-to-make-tonkotsu-ramen-broth-at-home-recipe.html?ref=search
Haha I have the exact feelings towards Yamadaya as you – favorite tonkotsu but we just can’t bring ourselves in sometimes due to the wait. Next time I go I want to try their kakuni pork belly, which looks awesome from photos.
I am curious about the other Yamadaya locations in OC and LA. But yeah, I’m surprised by the wait for seats and the wait for food. I don’t understand why it takes so long to serve out ramen.