Hisago

The restaurant has posted a sign out front indicating that it will be closed by the end of the month. Figured I would check out the ramen before this happens.
Pretty decent, simple bowl of tonkatsu pork shoulder ramen. Broth is rich, opaque and white. Noodles are buttery and yummy. The pork shoulder was very chewy though but the soft boiled egg was perfectly cooked, and served with some watercress garnish and a fish cake.
Service was great though. Not only was she super attentive (bowl was taken away as soon as the chopsticks were down) but she was friendly and smiling!

Came here on a Friday night with a group of 5 people. I noticed that there was just an middle age lady serving the whole restaurant, in fact there was only like around 5 tables there to serve. Ended up waiting for 50 minutes for a table and 20+ minutes for food to come. Their ramen is great, but just the wait was horrible.

I’ve eaten here twice so far. The first time, I got the tonkotsu ramen. The second time, I got the tantanmen. I was very happy with both!
The service was OK. There was only 1 — 2 people waiting tables when I was there, which is understandable because the place wasn’t terrible busy.
This place doesn’t seem to be as busy as most ramen places when I went. Take advantage of this if you’re not in the mood to wait!

Food: Had some delicious ramen here – perfect on a cold day. I ordered the Tonkotsu Chashumen. Pork bone broth with slices of pork shoulder and half a soft-​boiled egg. The pork shoulder was tender and the noodles were cooked perfectly. My tablemate ordered udon and loved that as well.
Ambiance: Pretty decent space and seating here. Came around 12:30 on a weekday and didn’t have any trouble finding a spot. The large windows let in a lot of nice light. The overall feel was comfortable and clean.
Service: Spectacular service. There was only one waitress but she took care of everyone quickly. Upon being seated she served us a nice cup of tea. The food and check came promptly without feeling rushed. Great lunch place even on a workday.

Well, ordered a Katsudon and waited for half an hour. However, it totally worth! Not the best in the world, but definitely the best in the town.

Come here when you’re sick and need spicy comfort food to open up your sinuses! I had the spicy tuna roll and spicy miso ramen, and I felt like a new woman.
Real talk: the ambience is shabby and not good for a romantic date. However, our waitress was delightful, and we got a seat right away on a Saturday night.
Price point on point — your bill will be a fraction of the cost compared to other ramen places in the city.

Dinner review.
Karaage — ⁴⁄₅ — This was really tasty. Good sauce.
Kakiage — ³⁄₅
Sesame wings — ²⁄₅
Fried wonton cheese — ²⁄₅
Tantan ramen — ²⁄₅ — Not the tan tan I was looking for.
Sara upon — ²⁄₅
Overall, «A-​OK.» Ramen is average.

Came here with high hope due to the high rating. Turned out to be pretty mediocre. The food preparation was sloppy and it took a long time to get my food.
The only slightly positive thing during my visit was the service. My server was a polite and cheerful guy. But that’s pretty much it.
Overall verdict: will not come back.

My mom passed away years ago, but I have to admit I still look for Japanese restaurants that serve the type of homestyle food she liked to cook. Kitchen Kura out in the Sunset is a good example of what I’m talking about down to the thumbnail yarn dolls that hang in their tiny restroom (review:
). My mom used to knit toilet paper roll cozies with puffy dangle balls. Anyhow, I held out hope that Hisago would be along the same lines with their food, and while it does offer some familiar comfort foods, I wasn’t feeling the warmth of my mom’s hugs in their food. Was that too much to ask? Yeah, probably. I came on a Tuesday evening when there was only one big party in the place, a bit loud but not unruly.
They were middle-​aged sanseis so how loud could they possible get, right? I seated myself at a table toward the side perusing the tempting-​sounding menu. I decided to pace myself with a $ 3 bowl of Edamame (photo:
). Freshly salted and still hot to the touch, they satisfied my immediate munchies as I considered my next move. I decided to order the $ 7 Oroshi Karaage, which turned out to a heaping portion of steaming hot fried chicken dark meat. So far, so good, but then the shaved daikon became too overwhelming lending an unelcome spiky flavor to the whole dish (photo:
). Not even the chopped green onion and ponzu sauce had a fighting chance against that bitter flavor.
Surely the $ 8 bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen would provide salvation especially as it came with all the right ingredients including the thin slivers of bamboo shoots and the boiled egg half (photo:
). Not quite unfortunately. It didn’t have the richness I was hoping to find in the broth, and the noodles didn’t taste quite as fresh as I would have expected from a Japanese restaurant. In hindsight, I wished I took a pass on the ramen in favor of the Udon Sukiyaki or even the Wafu Hamburger which I noticed somebody else got. It has ground beef and ground pork combined in their patty, but oh wait, it’s topped in that shaved daikon. Pass. Anyhow, my search for good homestyle Japanese food nearby continues.
FOOD — 3 stars… middling home cooking has me missing my mom that much more
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… a bit spartan but that’s part of its charm
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… no complaints on the attention I received and deserved
TOTAL — 3 stars… maybe other menu items would have made my belly happy… maybe

Chicken katsudon’s flavors were really delicious and perfect for a cold blustery night out in presidio heights. Completely unassuming location but they do make a killer katsudon — if I lived in this neighborhood it would be one of my regular take out spots.

«I’d come back here.» He said. I was not so sure. Seriously, run of the mill kind of Japanese food place in Inner Richmond. Possibly get it mixed up with others and you can’t remember the name anyhow, why? That was Sunday right after. A week later, I still think about it.
In truth, it was an off day. Hot and humid, can’t even drive with the top down at 5 PM, it was still too hot. Probably not a great day to get ramen but I was dehydrated. Ordered a few small things. He got an unusual Japanese beer that I’d not seen before. Garlic sauce edamame. Some maki rolls. We shared a hot ramen on a hot day. It was quite delicious, actually. Poke was spicy and salty. A good dose of sodium for a hot sweaty day.
The place lacked A.C., and it was what got me all twisted that hot evening.
It was a very neighborly restaurant. It’s not very crowded on a Sunday evening and parking was very easy. All of which made this place attractive, and it’s far east side of Inner Richmond that the likelihood of running into people I know grows increasingly smaller, which ultimately made this 3.5 star place jumps into a 4 star territory.
As my friends would tell me, «everything to you is location location location.» That’s likely to be true. For me, this place had that «it» thing, whatever it is, it’s appealing. And a week later, I’m still thinking about it.
So I’m with him on this one. I’d go back there too. To try their other flavored ramen and their hot pots.
Preferably on a cooler evening, which is to say, the remaining 364 days would do just fine.

I’m writing this review so that the owner and the workers there take notice and improve the restaurant and better it for all of us.
I want to preface that I got takeout from this place 3 times in the past week. I support local businesses and the lunch specials are priced great! The food here is tasty and it’s convenient. I live in the building and I thought this could definitely be a contender for my «go to» place. I’ve got a great experience ordering during lunch time on the weekends.
Dinnertime, however, is a different story. Today I placed a takeout order at 7:30pm after I got back from work. I WAS STARVING. I order the Oroshi Karaage and decided to be adventurous and try something different: Butter Shoyu Beef instead of my usual Sukiyaki.
I wait til 8:00pm and head down. I’m anticipating with joy at how tasty the food will be and how convenient things are. When I get there, I let the older lady know that I’m here for take out for my order. She tells me that «Oh the restaurant is busy, I just put in your order now». No sorry, nothing.
I sit there and wait, and wait, and wait. By 8:20pm she comes out with my box of food and places it next to where I’m sitting. Not in a bag, but just boxes of food on the table.
I go and pay the bill, the long-​hair guy runs my card and then asks me, «do you want a bag?» I say «yes please», he replies «the bags are over there» and motions with his head they’re on the chair. REALLY???
So I bag my own take out, and let them know that this is the first time I’ve ever bagged my own take-​out. I was never offered a sorry for the long wait, never offered water or tea. And to top it off I had to bag my own take-​out. This is after a wait of 50 minutes!
A sorry, or an offering of tea/​water goes a long way. I’m paying a premium for your food, I could have went to another place but chose to come here. Just show a little appreciation for your customers.
Please let me know, am I asking too much?

Have been dining here for a few years now. It’s been a great destination for family-​style Japanese food. I have come here for lunch and dinner. Subsequently learned much later that it’s run by a neighborhood kid my baby brother used to skateboard with decades ago. Small world!
FOOD: I noticed they updated their menu so that the rice and soup are no longer ala carte. Dinners now come with rice, soup and salad. Yay for teishoku’s (meal sets)! House miso salad dressing is super yummy. I usually get their teriyaki salmon set. They happily oblige when I ask for extra teriyaki sauce. My kids love the teriyaki beef and katsu-​don. My mom adores their fried fish and my brother loves their tonkatsu. The karaage chicken (deep-​fried) with the grated daikon radish is to die for!
PRICE: Very reasonable. You can get dinner anytime, but for lunch there are lunch specials. For lunch I’ve paid $ 10-​$ 12 (including tax and tip) and dinner usually runs me closer to $ 20.
SERVICE: I’ve read some negative comments about slow service. Perhaps that was the case when they first opened in 2011? It’s a small family restaurant and usually I will see one waitress. However, the owner/​manager and chef multi-​task by helping to take orders, serve food, bus tables, greet customers. It’s very friendly. The hot tea is heart-​warming.
AMBIANCE: Reminds me of family-​style Japanese restaurants like Hana Restaurant (@Irving/4^th Ave in Sunset by UCSF; closed in 2004) or Tanuki (@California/6^th Ave in Inner Richmond). Dig the circa 1950~1960 Godzilla/​Kikaida/​samurai movie décor, and the skateboard art!
LOCATION: Inner RIchmond location is convenient. For lunch you can easily find street parking along the residential areas (between Geary & Euclid Blvd’s in the lower Laurel Heights area) if you don’t mind walking a few blocks. For dinner, we normally go on Sundays, when the meters are free and just park on Geary.
HISA– WHAT?: What initially intrigued me was the big green «Hisago» sign written in Japanese outside, high above the entrance. Basically: «HI», «SA», «GO» from top to bottom. However everytime I drove by, the «GO» confounded me. It looks like a weird hiragana mishmash of «SA» & «FU» & «I» –and yet it also looks like it could be a kanji. I read and write a bit of Japanese, but could not figure out how the HECK that 3^rd character was read «GO.»
Found out later that the 3^rd character is classic/​old-​timey Japanese.
Ah, well. GO figure. (insert «ba-​dum-​dum» here).

My family and I wanted to try a new place for Ramen for lunch on a Wednesday. After doing a search on Unilocal,Hisago popped right up in my search due to their great ratings.
The restaurant is located on a busy street so parking can be hard to find. The restaurant was small and a little outdated. We arrived right when it opened so it was still empty. We were greeted right away.
Now for why I rated it so low. There was only one waitress and she constantly disappeared to the back which made it hard to get any attention when we needed something. After we ordered, it took FOREVER to get our food. At most places, especially ramen places, the food comes out pretty quick. We were the first people there and it still took pretty long.
The food was eh and nothing special and was a little selfish on the toppings.
Overall, I will not return and will not recommend.

Tonkotsu ramen was delicious. What you get coming here is fast service, reasonable prices, quality ramen and complementary hot tea.

A very low-​key, unpretentious, under-​rated Japanese restaurant in the Richmond.
I love the Karaage here!!! The ramen is good too.

Two words: Garlic edamame :)
Well, okay, more than two. But those two words encapsulate how Hisago delivers an innovative twist to its dishes, over and above the expected. Our next favorite was the string beans in sesame paste — truly yummy; we sent the waitress off for a second dish of it.
I had been looking for a Japanese restaurant to bring my visiting guests, two foodies from Boston, to enjoy. This place did me proud — my guests said that this restaurant would have been successful in Japan. I will hope for an occasion to return! And edamame in other restaurants will never quite live up to the high bar that this one has set.
Garlic edamame. Who knew?

Okay so I rounded up and I have them a four instead of a 3.5.
I actually dined in this time and it was a better experience. I still don’t like the sticky floor or the tables but I had a better experience.
First the waitress seemed annoyed to take orders but I understand because she was the only server and I’m sure that was stressful. We ordered a beer to share and asked for an extra glass and instead she kindly gave us another one which we really appreciated.
The donkatsu ramen was very plain (no bamboo shoots or sprouts) but broth was really thick and good so that made up for it. Again not extraordinary but cheap and pretty good enough for me to come back since it’s close by.
The donkatsu curry was, again, plain and good enough.

A mid-​sized restaurant hindered by the bustling traffic of Geary Blvd and by the more popular and well known Men Oh or Kaiju Eats around the area, Hisago clearly showed lack of business as we entered on a Saturday during peak lunch hour. Although Hisago has excellent lunch deals (ramen, udon, and a few small bites, discounted ~$ 1 – 3 from general menu), their flavors don’t urge me to return again.
The tonkotsu ramen’s broth was bland. It wasn’t very creamy, and it lacked that signature savoriness and richness pork-​bone broths generally have. The noodles were a little too chewy, and the although the slice of pork shoulder was a generous meat portion, it was missing the smokiness flavor and was dry. The egg was more on the medium-​well side, so that was also a bit disappointing, because I much prefer a runny yolk.
Two appetizers we shared were the seaweed salad and furikake fries (Japanese sweet potato tossed in salt, chopped seaweed, and sesame seeds). The seaweed salad was good. The fries were just okay, a little mushy, but with good seasoning and yummy kewpie mayo for dipping sauce.
Service was quick and friendly. The restaurant is very spacious and bright, perfect for large groups. But then again, Hisago isn’t as popular as other ramen places in San Francisco. But if you want an inexpensive, filling meal with no long wait time, Hisago is a decent option.

Often times when I see a restaurant that’s somewhat empty, I become cautious and highly skeptical. Usually that means one thing, the place sucks. That’s not the case with Hisago and I’m glad my friends suggested having dinner here. As soon as I stepped foot in here, there was a sense of nostalgia that hit me. The walls showcase pictures and posters of vintage Japanese superhero characters, the ones that I read in the 70’s when I was a little kid (stop doing the math trying to guess my age!)
The décor is simple, spacious and rather soothing compared to the other ramen places I’ve been to. The posters on the walls do not make Hisago feel cluttered and in comparison, this was a much more relaxing atmosphere. We never felt rushed, we never felt like the tables are so close that someone at the next table might accidentally take a bite of my food.
As for the food, the menu is reasonably priced, but not so cheap (as many others have said) that you being to doubt the quality.
The gyoza was one of the better ones I’ve had. Most other places require some kind of dipping sauce. These were just right. The wrap was firm, yet a bit chewy. The dumplings themselves had just the right seasonings & didn’t require any sauces to enhance the flavor.
The Maguro Poke arrived with a nice presentation. Fresh slices of avacado wraps around the tuna w/​a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Light & satisfying.
I had one of the more popular items on the menu: Tonkotsu, which is ramen in pork bone broth w/​pork shoulders and soft boiled egg. Unlike other places where I get 2 small slices of fatty lower quality meat, Hisago generously served 4 big slices of lean & tender pork. Each slice has a nice charred, smoky flavor. The trick is, don’t devour everything in the bowl as if you’ve just been rescued from a deserted island. Slow down and enjoy the flavor of the pork. It’s probably the best pork I’ve had in a bowl of ramen. I also like their presentation (some places just don’t get it as they hide the pork underneath garnishes)
A friend ordered the ramen in spicy miso broth (Tantan-​men). Judging from how fast the bowl became empty, I’ll assume it was very good also.
Nicely located away from the crazy busy part of Geary Blvd., my friends and I were able to find parking very close.
Easy street parking, no waiting 30 min. for a table, no being rushed for a quick turnover, and spacious seating makes Hisago a must return for me. Plus, when we’re in SF, we don’t need to drive to San Mateo to the busy ramen places near 3^rd Street. 4.5 stars for my personal (unrushed) experience and the damn tasty pork, which I can eat an entire bowl of.
I suggest everyone give them a try.