World-renowned noodle shop Ippudo Ramen opens tonight in Santa Monica. The long-awaited spot just off 2nd Street is starting up limited dinnertime service tonight, some two years after first being announced for the former Taberna Arros y Vi space.

Ippudo Ramen is one of the most recognizable ramen brands in the entire world, having done years of big business in Japan before jumping Stateside and drawing long lines in New York City. Their San Francisco outlet has also been producing prodigious queues, and much the same is expected for this Santa Monica location, just a block off the busy Third Street Promenade.

To ramp up for what is expected to be a busy winter, the Ippudo team is only doing limited dinnertime service for the first few days, starting tonight. Eventually the plan is to push into longer hours, including lunch, as a way to compete with big nearby names like HiHo Cheeseburger, Uovo, and everything happening at the Gallery Food Hall on the Promenade directly. They’ll also be competing with a lot of other great ramen houses around Los Angeles, from Tsujita to Michelin-starred stuff opening soon in Glendale.

Ippudo Ramen. 1403 2nd Street, Santa Monica, CA.