"There’s no place like Noodle In A Haystack in the city. This pop-up-turned-restaurant in the Richmond has just 12 seats. It’s run by a ridiculously charming husband and wife duo that’ll gladly swap Tokyo recs as you dig into chawanmushi from across the counter. Throughout the night, eight Japanese-inspired courses ($210) land in front of you like they were dropped into this mortal dimension from the pearly gates. The two standout bowls of ramen rotate, but they’re always made with custom, impeccably boiled noodles and jazzed up with twists you won’t see on any other tonkotsu bowls around town. It’s damn near impossible to get a reservation here, but once you do, know that you’ll never look at another noodle soup the same way again. Reservations are released on Tock every second Sunday at 9pm for the following month. And while slurping up ramen next to someone you like is fun and all, know that it’s much easier to snag one-person reservations, so maybe a solo noodle date is in order." - julia chen 1, lani conway, patrick wong, ricky rodriguez