Hokkaido Ramen Santouka's Fulton Market location serves the chain's specialty: a white tonkotsu broth made by simmering pork bones for about twenty hours until the liquid turns pearly white, then finishing it with vegetables, dried fish, and kelp. The broth is never boiled, and the seasoning is kept light enough that the restaurant describes the bowl as drinkable to the last drop.
The chain traces back to 1988, when founder Hitoshi Hatanaka opened a nine-seat restaurant in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, serving a single dish: shio ramen. That original shio ramen, served with a pickled plum in a distinctive round bowl, became one of Santouka's signatures alongside the tonkotsu bowl that followed.
The West Loop location sits within Fulton Market District, one of Chicago's denser restaurant corridors, bringing that specialty-bowl format to the neighborhood.
The chain traces back to 1988, when founder Hitoshi Hatanaka opened a nine-seat restaurant in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, serving a single dish: shio ramen. That original shio ramen, served with a pickled plum in a distinctive round bowl, became one of Santouka's signatures alongside the tonkotsu bowl that followed.
The West Loop location sits within Fulton Market District, one of Chicago's denser restaurant corridors, bringing that specialty-bowl format to the neighborhood.