Ramen sensation Menya Ultra, which recently opened a location in San Diego's Westfield UTC mall, has permanently shuttered its two year old eatery in Hillcrest.
Takashi Endo opened his first Menya Ultra location in Akita, Japan in 1994 and now has more than a dozen restaurants around the world. The ramen restaurant has received numerous awards in its home country of Japan, including 1st Prize at the Tokyo Ramen Show from 2010 through 2013.
The Kearny Mesa outpost of Menya Ultra was the first United States restaurant for Endo, and opened in February 2017 to immediate fanfare, which increased substantially after television culinary personality Andrew Zimmern sent out a viral tweet claiming Menya Ultra's tonkatsu ramen "might just be" the best in America. In late 2018, Endo opened a second San Diego branch in a 2,000 square-foot space within Mira Mesa Shopping Center. Then in 2021, the third San Diego Menya Ultra unveiled within the small retail complex in Hillcrest that also houses Oscar's Mexican Seafood and India Palace.After over a year in development, the newest Menya Ultra locations opened this past November within a 1,900 square-foot space in the new Collection at UTC, a new area located at the former Sears site in Westfield UTC mall in La Jolla. With the recent expansion, Menya Ultra has announced that it is scaling back by permanently closing its Hillcrest branch due to staffing issues and a commitment to their new Westfield UTC restaurant. The three other locations are operating under normal hours.
For more information about Menya Ultra, visit menya-ultra.com.
