• Shio ("salt") ramen is probably the oldest of the four and is a pale, clear, yellowish broth made with plenty of salt and any combination of chicken, vegetables, fish, and seaweed. Noodle texture and thickness varies among shio ramen, but they are usually straight rather than curly.

• Tonkotsu (豚骨, "pork bone"; not to be confused with tonkotsu) ramen usually has a cloudy white colored broth. It is similar to the Chinese baitang (白湯) and has a thick broth made from boiling pork bones, fat, and collagen over high heat for many hours, which suffuses the broth with a hearty pork flavor and a creamy consistency that rivals milk, melted butter or gravy (depending on the shop). 

• Shōyu ("soy sauce") ramen typically has a clear brown broth, based on a chicken and vegetable (or sometimes fish or beef) stock with plenty of soy sauce added resulting in a soup that is tangy, salty, and savory yet still fairly light on the palate. Shōyu ramen usually has curly noodles rather than straight ones.

• Miso ramen broth tends to have a robust, tangy flavor, so it stands up to a variety of flavorful toppings: spicy bean paste or tōbanjan (豆辦酱), butter and corn, leeks, onions, bean sprouts, ground pork, cabbage, sesame seeds, white pepper, and chopped garlic are common. The noodles are typically thick, curly, and slightly chewy.

One day, SANTOUKA’s founder, Hitoshi Hatanaka and his family stopped at a ramen shop for a quick meal. And they was very unsatisfied with the taste of the shop’s ramen, Hatanaka declared that the next time he would be the one making ramen for his family. This simple proclamation marked the beginning of the now-legendary flavor of RAMEN SANTOUKA. Hatanaka decided to open his own ramen shop in March 1988, in Asahikawa, located on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. The shop began modestly, with only 9 seats and one item on the menu, Shio Ramen (salt flavor),initially, the shop was just another ramen shop in a town famous for its tasty ramen, but once, the legendary taste of SANTOUKA was sampled, more and more hungry patrons soon followed.