Noodle Bar Near Me off Market Street: Ippudo on Yerba Buena Lane

Ippudo San Francisco sits at 18 Yerba Buena Lane, the brick pedestrian lane that cuts from Market Street down to Mission Street, and its Shiromaru Classic tonkotsu costs $20 on the current menu. Extra noodles, called kaedama, are $3 a serving, and happy hour runs every day from 3pm to 6pm. For anyone downtown typing noodle bar near me between museum stops or after work, this 86-seat room is the closest full Hakata ramen house to Market Street.

Ippudo began in 1985 as a 10-seat ramen house opened by Shigemi Kawahara, the chef Japanese media nicknamed the Ramen King. By the time the San Francisco branch arrived, the chain counted more than 160 restaurants worldwide, according to a January 2018 report in tablehopper. West Coast fans had long known it mainly from New York, and Berkeley got a branch before the city did. The San Francisco room held its official opening on Sunday, January 28, 2018, after a week of soft-opening lunches and dinners.

The company billed the Yerba Buena Lane location as its first full ramen fine dining experience on the West Coast. In practice that meant an expanded menu built around Hakata-style tonkotsu, with an 18-hour pork broth and handmade noodles, plus izakaya plates, Japanese cocktails and premium sake. Tablehopper described the look at opening: a sake bar, a wall lettered with the Hiragana alphabet, and a large chochin paper lantern hanging over the 86 seats. It reads more like a dinner restaurant than a quick counter.

Start with the two bowls that built the brand. The Shiromaru Classic, $20, is pork tonkotsu with thin Hakata noodles, scallions, seasoned bamboo shoots, naruto fish cake, pork belly chashu and slow-cooked pork loin chashu. The Akamaru Modern, $22, uses the same broth and noodles but adds fragrant garlic oil and a spoonful of Ippudo's original Umami paste, which turns the soup reddish and deeper. If it is your first visit, order one of each for the table and compare.

For heat, the Karaka Spicy is $24 and layers spiced niku-miso bolognese, Umami paste, furikake and sansho chili oil over the tonkotsu. The Dragon Tantan, $23, swaps in a sesame broth with Sichuan pepper oil and pickled takana. Two bowls use thicker wavy Tokyo-style noodles instead of the thin Hakata ones: the Yuzu Shoyu, $22, a bonito-dashi shoyu with yuzu skin and ginger, and the Mandala Miso, $24, a blended miso broth with corn.

Plant-based diners have real options rather than an afterthought. The Veggie Ramen Nirvana, $21, is a mushroom-infused soy milk broth with garlic oil, marinated carrots, fried enoki tempura and tofu chashu, and the Daizu no Chikara, $25, puts tofu chashu into the miso base. Toppings are $3 each across the board, from a marinated tamago egg to extra pork belly, chicken chashu, nori or the ma-la bakudan spice bomb, so it is easy to build a bigger bowl.

The one bit of Hakata etiquette worth knowing is kaedama. Instead of ordering a larger bowl, you finish your first portion of noodles and order a fresh serving, $3, to drop into the soup you have left. The menu spells out the rule: please leave enough soup in your bowl to best enjoy kaedama. Slurp too much broth early and the second round of noodles will sit dry. Thin Hakata noodles work best for this, since they cook fast and stay springy.

Ippudo also lets diners choose how firm their noodles are, on a scale that runs from yawa, soft, to bari kata, very firm. The Infatuation's San Francisco review recommends going firm, because thin noodles keep softening in hot broth while you eat. A firm first serving followed by a kaedama refill gives you two textures in one meal. Ask your server for the scale when you order; they will note it on the ticket with the bowl.

The steamed buns are the side most tables add. Each one is $6, filled with pork belly and Ippudo's spicy sauce, deep-fried chicken with mentaiko mayo, shrimp tempura, or eggplant and eringi mushroom for vegetarians. A bun medley of any three is $16. Goma Q, cucumbers dressed in the house sesame oil with mild chili flakes, is $9 and was on the menu from opening day in 2018. Takoyaki are $13 and spicy pork and chicken gyoza are $12.

Happy hour runs every day from 3pm to 6pm, which also happens to be the quietest stretch between the lunch crowd and the pre-theater dinner rush in this part of SoMa. The drinks list leans Japanese: a Toki highball is $11, Suntory Premium Malt's on draft is $12, and Onibi craft beers from the Bay Area are $10. Cocktails include a Yuzu Martini at $17 and a sake sangria at $16, and Japanese whiskies run up to Yamazaki 18.

There are a few ways to avoid standing on the lane. Ippudo runs its own pickup ordering on Square for the Yerba Buena Lane location, where the same ramen prices appear, and it is also on DoorDash and Uber Eats through links on the official site. The Infatuation flags it as a good pick for solo dining and lunch, and a single diner can usually slide in faster than a group of four. Calling (415) 348-1202 is the simplest way to ask about larger parties.

The room draws a mix that fits the block: office workers from the Market Street towers at lunch, visitors coming out of SFMOMA a few blocks away, and convention groups walking over from Moscone Center at dinner. Because the lane is car-free, the sidewalk out front stays calm even when Market Street is loud, and the big glass frontage lets you look in to judge how busy the tables are before you commit to a wait.

Yerba Buena Lane itself is a short pedestrian connector running from Market Street down to Mission Street, so the rest of the arts district is only a few minutes away. Cross Mission Street and you reach Yerba Buena Gardens, 750 Howard Street, with its open lawns and the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial waterfall, a good place to sit after a heavy bowl. SFMOMA, at 151 Third Street, is one block east of the gardens if you still have energy for an evening in the galleries.

Ippudo San Francisco is at 18 Yerba Buena Lane, San Francisco, CA 94103, just off Market Street between Third and Fourth Streets, a short walk from the Montgomery Street and Powell Street BART and Muni Metro stations. The phone is (415) 348-1202. Ramen runs from $20 for the Shiromaru Classic to $25 for the Daizu no Chikara, with $3 kaedama and toppings. Happy hour is daily from 3pm to 6pm. For other ramen and noodle counters near Union Square, ask Karpo in the Karpo APP.