Tokyo’s First Michelin-Starred Ramen Restaurant Expected to Open in SF

A San Francisco location of Tsuta, Tokyo’s first ramen restaurant to earn a Michelin star, is likely to open this fall in the Metreon. That’s according to the CEO of Tsuta group North America, who says that a lease is due to be confirmed next week. Eater SF has reached out to representatives for the Metreon for confirmation and details.

Tsuta chef Onishi Yuki opened his first restaurant in a Tokyo suburb in 2012, emphasizing dashi-shoyu broths rather than thicker tonkotsu pork broths. His shoyu soba with a blend of truffle oil is billed as a signature bowl. After receiving a Michelin star in 2015, Yuki expanded to Singapore in 2016, then again with a second Singapore location in 2017.

According to the CEO of the Tsuta group North America, expansion plans for the Metreon are just the beginning of the group’s ambitions. An LA location of Tsuta in the Glendale Galleria is purportedly up next, then a Caesar’s Palace location late next year. More locations are in the works for Seattle and Portland in 2019, the CEO says, with a second SF location, in the Stonestown Galleria, also in the expansion plans for 2020.

Tsuta’s growth would fit in with the latest wave of US ramen imports. Formidable chains like Ippudo, which first opened in the US in New York in 2008 and finally made its way to the Bay Area over the last two years, have lead the way for others, like Mensho Tokyo, which arrived in SF in 2016, and more to come, like Ramen Nagi, which is opening soon in Palo Alto and San Jose.

Stay tuned for confirmation and further details on Tsuta’s San Francisco and US expansion plans.

• Michelin-Starred Ramen Shop Plans Expansion [ESF]