After a year of waiting, a new ramen restaurant opened over the weekend in Salt Lake City, earning long lines from food lovers and attention from Utah influencers.
It’s called Mensho, and its Salt Lake City location, at 550 S. 300 West in the Post District, joins only a handful so far in the United States, with others in California and Arizona, plus one in Houston.
Founded in Japan, the Mensho brand relies on locally sourced ingredients to elevate the comfort dish, offering different concepts by location, like matcha ramen in San Francisco.
“This is hands down some of the best ramen in Utah,” Jordan Schmidt, a presenter on SLC Scoop, posted on his Instagram account Saturday.
Schmidt included a video of Mensho’s founder, chef Tomoharu Shono, making his ramen bowl. “I will be flexing that forever,” Schmidt said in the video, which also showed Schmidt dining with another Utah food influencer, Brandon “Pho King” Luong.
The food consultant Utah Chef’s Kiss listed Mensho as one of “five new spots in Salt Lake County you need to try.” And Surae Chinn, a host on ABC4Utah’s “Good Things Utah,” spotlighted Mensho on her Instagram account.
Shono was on the premises over the weekend to help develop the restaurant’s menu before flying out Monday, a publicist said. The menu, overseen by executive chef David Vu, will ultimately offer unique-to-Utah options.
This weekend’s opening was considered a “soft opening,” since the restaurant served a limited menu of ramen dishes, sushi and appetizers — and opened the bar.
The grand opening, with a full menu, is set for Aug. 1, the publicist said.