Santa Japanese Restaurant, San Mateo

I use to love Santa Ramen before they made their move to the bigger space. Now their food is too salty, or noodles soggy, etc. There's always a problem with SOMETHING when i go. screw this place. but i'll take the big boobed waitresses

Meh. Not outstanding, but certainly reasonable for the price. The Japanese market across the street was a nice find.

I wish I can give them no star. Not enough taste & bad service. I will never go back again.

They should not have any star. This is an awful experience. I went with my husband last weekend. There was not place to write down your name. We had to wait in line for 30 minutes. I ordered a noodle soup and added some more veggie. When my noodle came, there was very little soup and not much taste because the soup was only filled 2/3 of the bowl. When I asked the waitress to give me some more soup, they refused. I told to the manager and explained that there was no taste because of the extra veggie that I added to the bowl. The veggie was raw since it was not enough soup to steam it. The manager won't give me the extra soup. I offered to pay for it. I couldn't believe that the manager said that I would have to buy another bowl of noodle. I total paid $15 for the bowl before tax and tips (without ordering extra soup). If I order extra soup, the bowl was going to cost almost $30 including tax & tip. Seriously, beside all these, their quality is not as good as how it used to be. Any Japanese noodle place can offer better noodle soup. I had the terrible experience. Don't go there.

ok this is a fun restaurant were else can you try cod ramen with soybean sauce. great chewy noodles. only drawback if you take noodles home in a to go bag the lard settles like a wax candle. but i love the bacon juiced soup. and the goodlooking crowd.

The reviews of this dump totally mystify me and my friends. I'm a life-long ramen eater, having lived in Japan. Nothing about the food or the service of this place remotely resembles what a good ramen place should be -- and yet the long lines and and chaotic waits are for real. If you want a perverse satisfaction of paying $12 for a bowl of greasy ramen that you can cook yourself by boiled a 25-cent package of Top Ramen together with two table spoons of lard, you would find it at this place. Oh, the service? If you want to tip for insults, you would also find it there, too. My friends and I thought our first experience was an anomaly. To honor the many reviewers who raved about this place, we went back twice more. different time of the day and different day of the week -- same result. I hear they are moving to a new location. I just hope it's going to be far away, so other friends won't ask me to go there with them.

Extreme bad service for good ramen by nor cal standards. Go in early because the kitchen never prepares enough food broth for some retarted reasons.

the ramen here is excellent!! chewy and thick, cooked to perfection. the agedeshi tofu is also light, crisp, and well-flavored. the mango pudding is a bit blah, but everything else was great. definitely worth the wait! get there early for the stewed pork, because they always run out of it and you definitely don't want to miss out on it!

good food but somewhat expensive for ramen noodles. small place, definitely not a date place, long lines since there's not a lot of seating inside.