Grab a Bib

In 2022, Buena Park's Ramen & Tsukemen TAO was one of 37 additions to the Michelin Guide California selection, while also receiving the prestigious Bib Gourmand honor.

NESTLED IN A BUENA PARK open-air mall at the corner of Valley View Street and Cerritos Avenue, Ramen & Tsukemen TAO is easy to overlook. Step inside the modest restaurant and you’ll find a small dining room with unpretentious décor—along with likely a long line of would-be patrons enviously watching others delightfully slurp from their marvelous steaming bowls.

Owner and chef Toshimasa Sano opened this buzzing ramen shop in August 2019 after spending 10 years training at Tsujita in Tokyo, a beloved institution with a popular sister restaurant in Los Angeles. Sano’s ambitions and culinary skills certainly have paid o — in December 2022, he was recognized with Michelin Guide’s prestigious distinction of Bib Gourmand for “good quality, good value cooking.”

Ramen & Tsukemen TAO has a small, reasonably priced menu with a few appetizers such as pork buns, panfried gyoza, and karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken), as well as donburi (rice bowls). Yet it’s the ramen dishes that entice foodies through the door and keep them coming back. The “spicy red miso ramen is rich and creamy, radiates flavor, and bobs with springy noodles,” says the Michelin Guide. The restaurant also boasts white miso, tsukemen (dipping noodle), and limitedtime specials like savory chicken and vegetarian ramen.

Sano proudly touts his ramen’s intense miso broth, which takes an astounding 40 hours to prepare and is paired with selected fresh noodles from Kobayashi Seimen, a noodle brand originally from the Japanese region of Hokkaido. While you might not suspect anything special is happening inside his unassuming establishment—or assume you can stop by for a quick bite to eat—consider yourself warned.

10488 Valley View St., Buena Park, (714) 699-1078, ramentao.com