Here’s the official Mission Mission opening-night review, by Helen Tseng, from way back in November of 2014:
After doing the farmer’s market pop-up thing for years, Richie Nakano is finally opening his long-awaited ramen shop tomorrow. The Hapa Ramen restaurant is located at 2293 Mission Street, in the former 99¢ Depot. As a long-time noodle advocate, I headed over to report from the front lines, armed with a fellow noodle-loving lady.
The opening menu features snacky small plates (ribs, a raw fish tartare, a Korean seafood pancake), steamed buns a la David Chang, and with three types of ramen. The restaurant’s namesake bowl, pictured above, is generously topped with pork slabs, nugs of fried chicken, a poached egg, and seasonal vegetables.
There’s also a full bar and cocktail menu, which includes a gin drink involving Hi-Chew tincture and Hawaiian Punch syrup (above, right) that tastes exactly like a Pixy Stix. The bourbon drink on the left contained banana, black sea salt, and cacao.
Above, two of my favorite things I ate: a savory pile of roasted baby carrots and radishes, and an adorable fried chicken-and-pickle steamed bun that, in the most flattering way possible, reminded me of the classic sandwich from my childhood favorite now-shunned fast food establishment.
Oh, and those in-progress booths we reported on awhile back cleaned up real nice:
[Booth photo by Erin Conger]
P.S. Visit Girls Love Noodles!
Funny to think about how much has changed in the Mission since the heyday of Hapa Ramen, right? Sometimes I miss the old days.
Inside Scoop has the inside scoop on the fall of Hapa here and here and here.
I can’t believe he sold his business for only $20K. Tough life lesson.
Looks tasty
Poor business decisions. Big ego. Failure.
The comments on their yelp page basically predicted this…”I feel like this is one of the trendy places in SF where everyone goes the first month and then it disappears.” – Shannon Z.
‘[...] except, you know, nothing like that ever actually happens in real life, you know, FIRST MONTH HA HA HA, but if it dii-iid…
‘I would be that cheerleader for failure at the sidelines!’
Can’t believe $14 bowls of hot water didn’t pan out.
HAHAHA or what.