Why did we dine here? – Ramen Parlor is the second location in San Mateo from the legendary original owner of Santa Ramen, Kazunori Kobayashi. It is located one block from the original Santa Ramen, which now houses the very popular spicy ramen oriented Ramen Dojo. Both are owned by Mr. Kobayashi.
Why did we dine here? – Star Noodle is a popular Asian restaurant on Maui focusing on a variety of noodle dishes that originate from Japan through other Asian countries. We have been here on all our recent Maui visits.
They moved to downtown Lahaina in November 2020, and are known as Star Noodle v2. Star Noodle also does takeout but you need to call it in early. Parking lot is part of the new location!
Why did we dine here? – Bistro Na’s is the first Michelin Starred Chinese restaurant in the Los Angeles area. It is located in the San Gabriel Valley (SGV), about 20 minutes from Downtown LA. This spot is the first outpost of a chain with several locations in China. This is a beautiful restaurant, definitely worth dining at.
Santa Ramen has a new owner in 2020.
Santa Ramen is a very popular Japanese noodle Ramen restaurant in San Mateo. Mr. Kazunori Kobayashi sold this location in 2020 but continues to be the proprietor of nearby Ramen Dojo and Parlor. Located in a small shopping mall with a Diddams Ninja Japanese supermarket, Party Supply and JoAnn’s Fabric, the restaurant has achieved a legendary cult following and has long lines at both dinner and lunch times. We have eaten here many times with our last visit in 2020.
Why did we dine here? – Shockingly Good! Xian Famous Foods was made famous when Anthony Bourdain featured it on this TV show, No Reservations. The restaurant was recommended to us, so we had to add it to our NYC hit list. They have several locations in New York and Flushing, so we decided to eat at the Chinatown location as we were touring the city. In 2019 we ate at the West Village location.
San Tung and San Tung #2 are a popular Chinese restaurant in the inner Sunset of San Francisco. They serve northern Chinese food that has some Korean influence, as the San Tung region of China is near Korea, hence the free Kim Chee. We have eaten here many, many times, back to when it was located west of here. Our latest visit occurred at the end of Summer 2017 to San Tung #2, when we noticed prices up a bit.