Kimura is a ramen shop on South Flores, and it is not cheap for a bowl of noodles.
That is not a complaint. It is just the first thing worth saying out loud, because the sticker shock on a $17 tonkotsu is real if you walk in expecting the kind of place where the broth comes from a powder packet heated in a steam well. This is not that place. The tonkotsu here takes roughly 18 hours to build, and you can taste every hour of it.
The restaurant sits on the stretch of South Flores that runs between Southtown proper and the older residential blocks below Cesar Chavez. The building is small and spare — dark wood, low lighting, the kind of room that feels like it’s trying to do one thing correctly rather than several things impressively. There are maybe forty seats, and on a Friday night most of them are taken by nine o’clock. The noise level is comfortable. You can have a conversation.
The menu has about half a dozen ramen styles and doesn’t try to outrun itself. The tonkotsu is the anchor — creamy, pork-forward, slightly funky in the way that good bone broth gets when it’s had enough time — and it comes with chashu pork that actually falls apart instead of holding its shape like deli meat. The shoyu is lighter and cleaner, good if you want something you can finish without feeling like you swallowed a river. The karaage fried chicken starter is worth ordering. It’s not the most ambitious thing on the menu, but it’s crispy all the way through and comes with a kewpie-based dipping situation that would make a reasonable argument for itself as a condiment you bring home.
The gyoza are pan-fried, not steamed, and the sear on the bottom is consistent enough that you get the sense someone is actually paying attention back there. Order them. Split them. Order more if you’re staying awhile.
Kimura also has a solid list of Japanese whisky and beer. The Sapporo draft is $6 and correct. If you’re feeling adventurous or just want to explain yourself to your bank account later, the whisky selection includes a few bottles from Nikka and Suntory that you won’t find at every bar in town.
The staff tends to be knowledgeable without being performative about it. No one is going to lecture you on the difference between hakata-style and tokyo-style unless you ask, and if you ask, they’ll actually know. That’s a low bar to clear, but it’s cleared reliably here.
Go on a weeknight if you can manage it. Waits on weekends are real and there’s no call-ahead list. The restaurant doesn’t take reservations, which is either an honest statement about what it is or a mild act of aggression against your schedule, depending on how you feel about waiting outside on South Flores on a Saturday in July.
Budget somewhere between $25 and $40 per person with a drink and an appetizer. That’s not reckless spending for the quality of what arrives in front of you, but it’s worth knowing before you sit down. The luxury tax on a good bowl of ramen in San Antonio is real. Kimura makes a credible argument that it’s worth paying.
