An Essential Ramen Restaurant Has Closed in the Inner Richmond

Two Inner Richmond restaurants that operated in tandem, Shabuway and Men Oh Tokushima Ramen, are closed. The hot pot restaurant and ramen spot were conjoined, sharing the address of 120 Geary Boulevard (between 15th and 16th Avenues). According to a reviewer on Yelp, a sign announced the closure late last month.

Update 9/6/17: A Shabuway restaurant representative calls the closure temporary. “We will [re-open] by the end of this year hopefully,” he writes, as they are “trying to improve service” and more.

Men Oh Tokushima, which was on Eater’s list of the essential San Francisco ramen restaurants, is part of a chain based in Japan’s Tokushima prefecture. That area is known for its pig farming, and Men Oh Tokushima’s restaurants are popular for their rich tonkotsu pork broth.

Shabuway, meanwhile, is owned by Eiichi Mochizuki, who started his small empire of Bay Area Shabu Shabu restaurants — a style of Japanese hot pot in which diners boil thinly sliced meat in broth — in San Mateo in 2004. As Shabuway was preparing to open its restaurant in San Francisco, the chain obtained an exclusive contract to operate Men Oh Tokushima restaurants in the US, and built the ramen restaurant into its space on Geary. The duo opened together in 2012.

• Inner Richmond Business Roundup: Linen Outlet Folds, 2 Eateries Shutter [Hoodline]
• Men Oh’s Tokushima Ramen Comes to SF [SFStation]