Kimura Ramen Restaurant

My ramen standards are pretty darn high. That’s the only reason I’m going 4 stars instead of 5. But as far as ramen in San Antonio goes, Kimura is at the head of the class.
Back in Sacramento, ramen was my jam. I had a place that I went to constantly. Over a year later, I know my order right off of the top of my head, and a lot of the time, so did the staff. I would wait in line in the rain for that ramen, and did so on multiple occasions. So I will again reiterate, there’s nothing wrong here, it just has a lot to live up to.
Kimura is a pretty cool spot next to the River Walk, though a little on the small side. They’ve got a bar where you can watch your food being prepped, which I happily did on my first visit. The base ramen comes down to Shoyu, Tantanmen, Tonkotsu and Miso, but man, do they have options. Plenty of things to add-​in, tweak or otherwise customize your noodles. The ramen as a whole is very nice. I like their pork in all of it’s forms, and the mushrooms are outstanding. One of the chefs walked me through them, so you can ask the source if you want the specifics, but I’ll just say that they pretty much burst with sweet flavors. The non-​ramen fare is pretty solid too. I’ve tried pretty much all of the starters, and I like most all of them. None of them have become the standard go-​to, but all pretty tasty. The beverages do stand out though. They make a few in-​house, like a ginger lemon soda, as well as orange and cucumber. I don’t drink, so having variety here is pretty cool.
Again, big shoes to fill, but Kimura does a solid job. When ramen calls, Kimura is the place I’ll go in SA.

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Great atmosphere, great service and amazing ramen. Had their Tokyo special and it was delicious, definitely going back! The

I’ve had authentic ramen from the motherland (haha) and although it’s not the same, it is still super yummy! The waitress I had was absolutely adorable and somehow (table for 1) I ended up buying a whole damn sake bottle lol.
So yes. At this exact moment I am attempting to finish this thing all by myself lol (and failing miserably). The atmosphere is great and the employees are all cheerful and welcoming (or maybe that’s because it’s Friday?!).
Lol either way I’m definitley coming back

I have to say it was quite unsatisfying. I ordered tonkotsu ramen with chashu pork. Simple, no add-​ons since it was my first time there. The broth was rich and creamy like how a tonkotsu should be but it was just very very salty. Each component of the dish was overpowering each other that nothing complements. Although I did like that the egg was not flavored so that gave it a little break from the saltiness of the dish. But that’s about it. The shiitake mushrooms were very good and packs in a lot of flavor, but it was just not mingling well with the other flavors. The chashu pork seemed over cooked (it didn’t seem like it was braised well). The noodles I though were over cooked and almost soggy, there’s no bite to it. I ate my ramen quite quickly so it shouldn’t even get that soggy that quickly! It was pretty disappointing. The only thing I liked about it was the shiitake mushrooms.
/​edit: I forgot it had one fish cake. It was forgettable. I mean the dish was just too much that I can’t even taste the fish cake. /​edit
Visually it was appealing but man I had to drink tea after a few bites because it was that salty. I hope they fix the recipe soon. Otherwise I probably won’t even recommend this place.
On another note: my husband got the shoyu ramen and he said it was very salty too. So it might just be the ratios they’re putting on for their flavors. Better change it quick! We left there wanting to drink a whole gallon of water! And eat some sweets to counteract the saltiness.
I feel like 3 stars was pretty generous cuz the service was nice and we got seated pretty timely.

This was the most horrible place I’ve ever been to for a ramen noodle place. I usually don’t give out bad reviews but this was really bad. We enter the restaurant it was small so we couldn’t get a table for 6people so we agreed to sit at the bar. We ask a lady to see if we can place an order, the lady said I’m the manager I don’t take orders, instead of informing that she can get us someone to assisting us. Which we thought it was not friendly and it was not professional of her at all. The ramen noodle was not enough soup. The appetizer were all salty we tried not to complain so much cause we feel really bad by complaining. The broth flavor is not great. The meat taste old. I was very highly disappointed in this place. So for sitting at the bar we got charge 20% for gratuity. The food was over priced. Sorry but I will never come back here again after this horrible experience.

Great Spot!!! Found this little spot off the riverwalk and would mos def come back again

I ordered miso cyashu ramen and its soup was clear. I could not taste any miso at all. Most baddest miso ramen experience in my life. This ramen store does not understand the difference between cyashu and bbq also.

Welps, my boyfriend and his friends seemed to love this place…
Parking.was plentiful, but probably because we went on a Thursday
Service.great! Our server was very attentive
Food…my broth for my tantanmen came out super salty. Otherwise, the food itself was pretty good. It was difficult to enjoy when all I could taste was salt.
Because it was highly recommended and liked, going to give it another try next time.

I’ve been craving ramen, so decided to try this out based on the recommendation of a friend. I got the miso ramen and added bok choy and pork belly. This did not disappoint! The pork belly was cooked to perfection. A little charred, had a crisp to it even though it was in the broth, and was super tender. The ramen was enough to make me full, and the add ins were perfectly balanced, not too many or too few. The service was very friendly and our waitress was super helpful. Price was reasonable. This is downtown, so beware you may have to pay for parking. I did curbside parking for $ 1.85/hour. I’ll definitely be back. I was craving this ramen when I left!
Tip: They will bring you water, however, it’s not cold so if you need to ask for a glass of ice.

Get your slurp on!
Being a bit of a newbie when it comes to real ramen, I went to the expert– I watched Ivan Ramen’s video on Youtube of how to eat ramen. He used to have a ramen restaurant in Japan, and now he runs one in NYC. Fairly decent pedigree for a noodle guy. Now that I had a better idea of what to expect, I was eagerly anticipating a visit to Kimura to try something new.
Our waitress was very helpful and explained everything in detail and answered all our questions.
We order the gyoza as an appetizer while we perused the menu. The manager (Sam (antha?) was apologetic and said she didn’t like the way the first order of gyoza looked, so she was having them remake it, and she said she would take it off the bill (which she forgot to do).
She returned with a plate of pan fried gyoza that were absolutely beautiful… picture perfect with a great taste to match.
I ordered the pork bone broth ramen and it was flavorful, warm and rich. I added some pork belly to it, and the pork belly was a sinfully good, crispy piece of yummy fatty pork belly with a crispy crust almost like a brisket.
To eat the ramen properly you need to slurp it. This both cools it off and allows the flavors to come out — similar to how you taste a good glass of wine. Pick up a small amount of noodles with your chopsticks, make your lips into an «O» (like when you drink hot coffee), and slurp them in!
Loads of flavors, and a lot of fun. Don’t be shy– this is the authentic way to eat and experience real ramen. I also added extra noodle to my bowl, and the portion was so large I almost didn’t finish them all. As it was, I was so full I couldn’t finish all the broth.
Oh yeah– about the broth… spoons are for wimps. Eat your noodles and meat/​veggies and save the broth for last. Pick up the bowl and drink/​slurp the broth. (Honestly, I think the waitstaff dies a little bit inside if you even ask for a fork).
The waitstaff and kitchen seem committed to a giving you a pleasurable and authentic experience.
PROTIP: I like Sirachi sauce– but the house spice is HOT. A little goes a long way.
Cool little place, looking forward to going back.

I’m so happy to find a ramen restaurant in San Antonio! I fell in love with ramen in a recent trip to Chicago, and this place comes very close to that experience. Vegan options are available, by the way, and its’s magic! (Imagine: seaweed, shiitake, bok choy, and hearty broth.)
Customer service was not the best during this visit. But the yumminess of the ramen overshadowed anything else.
p. s. Keep in mind that my 5-​star rating is for «ramen in San Anto» not ramen in a city with lots of options.
Enjoy!

I’m not the biggest fan of any kind of asian food, there are a couple of restaurants in the city I typically go to, so I’m a picky critic when it comes to any kind.
I was impressed, I started with Gyoza (dumplings), which is filled with pork. It was a very good start and choice, the sauce it comes with is pretty divine. I strongly recommending getting some if you go to check out the place. I followed with the Tonkotsu Ramen Soup with Pork Belly, which was one of the best ramen soups I’ve ever had. It had a lot of flavor it was hard and I’m sure I made a mess of myself.
My only drawback was when adding the pork belly to the ramen soup, I felt like there was only like 2 very small pieces of it, and seriously, for the price, that’s a generous description. For the price, I would have thought they would do a better job of that. The mushrooms were a slight disappointment, as I’m actually a fan of them, so I thought they could have balanced the soup a little better.
So, not to detract anything, the soup overall was extremely impressive. The orange soda they make in house might surprise you as well, give it a shot.

Very small and quaint place, waitstaff is very attentive. And the food is good.
The reason for the 4 star and not a 5…
The broth was off, there was something that I couldnt exactly put my finger on that was standing out in the flavored that didn’t belong. BUT I did eat it, so it wasn’t all bad. I will make another trip there while in town.

The server said his favorite is the Tonkotsu, so that’s what I ordered. Waited for 20 minutes, and then the server came back out and said the broth came out all wrong and sour.
«Okay, cool — that’s fine. I’ll take the Shoyu. Pork belly with that please.»
Pork belly was smokey, in an odd way. Broth was just like hot water. Mushrooms were amazing. That’s it. Mushrooms. Off day? Perhaps. But I won’t be back to validate that.

Small place, parking is across the street $ 5 on the wknd. Neat atmosphere, the kitchen is open so it’s pretty neat to see your meal being cooked
Starters: pork dumplings (good stuff!)
Meal: Oyako Don (safe choice) Rice, chicken, sea weed. Next time I’ll try it without the seaweed, not big on the «fishy taste».
Drink: hot green tea
Good Service, our waitress was helpful. I’ll be back!

I really don’t enjoy giving negative reviews but this was arguably my worse ramen experience. I had the tonkotsu with pork belly. The broth lack any flavor and was almost as thick as tomato sauce. The pork belly was really soggy and had no texture… It tasted like it was cooked days ago, frozen and reheated for the dish.
The wait staff were very nice though and friendly. But for $ 15 (not including tip) it was way overpriced and mediocre at best.
Skip it.

I love me some ramen. This is an excellent spot for ramen in downtown San Antonio. It’s a small place with few tables so take away might be a good option. The place opened and filled up immediately. I considered myself lucky to get in as one of the first tables.
The ramen here is beautifully presented and prepared. It’s fun to slurp and eat the noodles with chopsticks, but they will bring you a fork if you ask. I devoured my bowl of ramen and loved the thinner noodles that were the perfect consistency. I chose medium spice and found it very well balanced. Others were brave and ordered more spice, and they were all sweating by the end of the meal. Choose wisely!
If I lived in SA I’d be a regular.

I’m very torn between 3 and 4 stars but I feel that this place is deserving of the 4 for a few reasons.
First off, the service was great. The server was able to answer all of my questions and even answered them in depth. This is a big deal. Who doesn’t want their server to be knowledgeable about the food they’re about to eat?
We started off with the shishito peppers and bok choy apps. They were both delicious! The sauce that comes with the bok choy is legit. A perfect blend of soy sauce and sesame oil and something else I couldn’t quite pinpoint. Very yummy!
I ordered the shoyu ramen. This is where I lean more toward 3 stars. The noodles were a good density. The black mushrooms were miniature flavor explosions. The egg was nicely cooked. But the broth. Agh. The broth was so bland. And ramen is all about the broth. I thought I was going crazy so I had my friend try it and he agreed. No flavor whatsoever. I ended up adding some soy sauce to give it a little more substance. Meh.
Hoping the next time I come that the broth game is stronger.

I was SOOO excited to see a ramen shop downtown.
I knew that this place was small, but it was a lot smaller than I anticipated. The Friday wait, for a table of 3-​around 7, was about 35 mins. There were tons of people waiting outside so I was a little discouraged.
While we were waiting, the hostess was sweet enough to offer miso soup since it was cold outside.
When we sat down, we ordered some sake, gyoza, chashu ramen, and some type of egg/​rice dish. The sake was refreshing and i would order again. The gyoza was ok but I think it’s rather pricey for only 5 gyozas. My hubby had the egg/​rice dish and he thought it was tasty. Finally, the chashu ramen was not the best in town (I think Fujiya has the best) but it was tasty. I definitely tasted better when I added the house spice to it. WARNING, WARNING-​the house spice is SPICEY. So I recommend that you taste it first and add a little at a time. If not, you’ll be regretting it.
With that being said, I would definitely be back…

I don’t know what authentic ramen is supposed to taste like. All you ramen purists can scroll on to the next review if you got a problem with that.
Anyway, I dig the ramen at Kimura and almost every other thing on the menu because it’s freakin good and hits the salty spot (yeah it’s salty sometimes). Recently I needed a tummy warming cure and the hot bowl of ramen that was made right before me hit the spot. I prefer the miso ramen because seeing the chunk of pork makes me feel like I’ve shamed my non-​pork eating family. Having eaten all of the ramen options, even the porky ones (sorry mum), I have zero complaints.
Prices are reasonable for downtown dining ranging from $ 8-​$ 17ish. I also have to give a shout out to the super informed waitstaff. I appreciate how much they know about the dishes and their cultural awareness in explaining things. Cool points!
Another positive is their use of local eggs and meats — conscious eating. I like that. I’m weird.
Drawbacks include having to pay for parking if you go any day except during downtown Tuesday. Drinks from the bar are ok, never been really impressed by them so I stopped ordering booze and choose to put my dollars into the bangin’ gyoza.