Five of the best ramen restaurants in California are located in the Fresno area
Where’s a good place to get a steaming bowl of ramen, the Japanese noodle soup?
Several restaurants in Fresno and Tulare, according to restaurant review website Yelp.com.
The company released its ranking of the Top 100 Ramen Spots in California. Three are in Fresno, with one each in Visalia and Tulare.
And to be clear, we’re not talking about the cheapo packs of Top Ramen that sell for 30 or 40 cents and get us through when the bank account is empty.
This is the authentic Japanese ramen soup.
It’s usually served with house-made noodles, and broth that has simmered for 12 hours, all served in a giant bowl, usually with chashu pork, vegetables and a fish cake with a bright pink swirl on it.
Yelp ranked the restaurants on the list by using total volume and ratings of reviews.
One more thing to note about ramen in Fresno? If it feels like it’s just too hot for soup in the summer, ramen restaurants here are increasingly putting tsukemen on the menu.
It’s similar to ramen, but the noodles and meat are served cold, and customers dip them in cool, broth-like dipping sauce before eating each mouthful, explained chef Richard Kington of Kurotaka Ramen in Fresno.
In fact, Yelp is predicting that tsukemen (pronounced su-kem-en) will be one of the hottest food trends in 2024 based on rising searches for it on the site.
Here’s a look at which local ramen spots are on the Yelp list.
Top Fresno/Tulare ramen restaurants
No. 27 Sushi Kuu, 509 E. Main St., Visalia.
This is a sushi place in downtown Visalia first and foremost, but it has a few kinds of ramen on the menu. Its spicy pork ramen gets lots of rave reviews on the site.
No. 33 Tsuchiya Ramen, 736 W. Bullard Ave., Fresno.
At the corner of Palm Avenue, this little ramen place has a make-your-own option where you can pick all your ingredients.
No. 62 Ramen Hayashi, Fresno. Two locations: In Fresno, it’s at 6443 N. Riverside Drive in the Marketplace at El Paseo. The original is at 1755 Herndon Ave. in Clovis.
Newcomers to ramen may want to try the tonkotsu ramen. That’s traditional ramen with a rich pork broth that simmers for at least 12 hours and is served with chasu (pork) finished off with flame from a handheld torch.
No. 85 Kurotaka Ramen, 5730 N. First St., Fresno.
At the southeast corner of First and Bullard Avenue, this restaurant started as a food truck that moved here from San Francisco. The Fresno climate was too hot for a truck, so the founder opened the restaurant.
Kington, who promotes the tsukemen during the summer, makes his broth and his soy sauce from scratch.
No. 94 Krave 1299 E. Prosperity Ave., Tulare.
This Asian fusion quick-service restaurant features poke and other bowls but has four kinds of popular ramen on the menu. Its spicy ramen (with your choice of meat) is especially popular.
