http://www.yelp.com/biz/katana-ya-san-francisco

Earlier this month was the Chinese celebration of tomb sweeping day. It usually falls the week before Easter and we visit the graves of our dearly departed family members to clean their grave sites, leave some flowers, and pay our respects. I missed the celebration last year because we were in Singapore. Today I decided I’d visit my grandparents’ grave site in Colma to leave some flowers and clean up if necessary. My father’s parents passed away before my brother and I were born. When I was in junior high school, we did autobiographies and through this I learned about my grandparents and how hard they struggled to get here and how my dad almost wasn’t able to come to the US with the rest of his family. Sometimes when I whine and complain, I just have to remind myself how easy we actually have it now compared to when my family first arrived in the 1960s. It was a beautiful day to visit, the sun was shining high in the sky while I planted some flowers in the vases and scrubbed some of the dirt off their stone. I wish I could have known them, I’m sure they were wonderful people, look how great my dad turned out!

It was a beautiful day but I spent most of it inside. I had the windows wide open and was enjoying the warmth but it also made me really sleepy. I napped for a bit before heading out to meet up with Ron and friends for dinner. We ended up at Katana-ya for ramen. The restaurant is kind of small, maybe seats 25 people max. We had a group of 5 and the wait was about 30 minutes.

We ordered ramen since our friend said it was the best. They have a selection of about 15 types of ramen then you can choose from three types of broth (soy, miso, or salt) and if you want it light or strong, and if you want it spicy, the degree of spiceness. Actually quite a lot of choices.

Ron had the Katanya Ramen which is basically the kitchen sink, includes gyoza, pork, corn, and egg… this is with soy broth.

I had the BBQ pork ramen with light miso broth. The pork was good, maybe a little bit tough, not quite as good as Tanpopo. Although I asked for light miso, it was still a bit salty for me but overall, I liked the amount of green onions and bamboo shoots.

Service was decent, everything served pretty quickly. But there was an automatic 18% service charge included for our party of 5… seemed a bit much since usually places don’t start automatically added tip unless you have 6 or more… but I guess since we took up like 1/5 of their restaurant, they’d better make it worth their while.

They open until 1:15am per their window sign, good for late night munchies.

Katana-ya
430 Geary Blvd (at Mason)