Category Archives: Ramen

Sapporo

UPDATE: THIS PLACE IS CLOSED

Sapporo is a small ramen joint I found on 49th Street nearby my office. I went one day after work for a quick slurp. It was not to my standards, but passable nonetheless if you are in a bind and need a fix. I had the Sapporo Special:

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On the plus side, they had a decent happy hour, which I took advantage of:

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On a quick lunch visit with my wife, I tried the curry ramen. It was extremely salty, and I thought maybe the broth was made by just watering down their curry sauce from the rice dishes. The other components like noodles and toppings were all pretty good, though I wasn’t blown away by the two slices of chicken.

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My wife had the winning dish, which was a cold noodle version of the tan tan men ramen. The noodles had what could best be described as a nori-infused fish sauce on them. Very tasty, and this was a big dish for $15.

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SAPPORO
152 W 49th St
New York, NY 10019

Totto

Totto and Totto II essentially have the exact same menu; chicken or miso based. I actually enjoyed the ramen more at Totto II than here at the original location, but I could deb going bonkers in thinking there is a difference in taste. Here’s a shot of the mega ramen from Totto, along with a little shot of the kitchen.

As you may have guessed from my review of Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop, I do not like the way these green onions are sliced (though these are still not as bad as Ivan). Aside from that, mega ramen might be one of the best bowls around.

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TOTTO – HELL’S KITCHEN
464 W 51st St
New York, NY 10019

TOTTO – MIDTOWN WEST
248 E 52nd St
New York, NY 10022

Terakawa (Hell’s Kitchen)

The Hell’s Kitchen version of this joint is slightly better, in my opinion, than the Flatiron spot. Admittedly, though, went to the Flatiron spot after eating Maialino’s “Roman Ramen,” so I may have to go back there another time, as my taste buds may have been spoiled by the awesomeness at Maialino.

There is seating only for 11 or 12 people. At times there is a short line, but nothing too insane.

The food here is very cost friendly, and the portions are generous. I haven’t had a bad bowl yet, though I still give the edge to Menkui-Tei in this ‘hood for personal preference.

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Shoyu ramen:

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Another bowl of Terakawa ramen:

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The Ma-Yu black garlic ramen is MUCH better here than at the flatiron location. Beautiful.

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The “whopper” bowl is amazingly huge. It comes with tons of wavy egg noodles, all the fixings from the Terakawa ramen (ginger, mushrooms, LOTS of sliced pork, scallions, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts), the black garlic oil seasonings from the Ma-Yu ramen, a full boiled egg and fresh cabbage. This is a fuckload of food to eat for only $14!!! The shit was mounded high like a mountain peak, and nearly overflowing.

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On a subsequent visit, I was happy to see that the restaurant switched from the circular pork roll style meat to legit slab pork belly. They also swapped the noodles in the massive “whopper” bowl to a larger, thicker noodle that was a nice, welcome change!

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TERAKAWA
885C 9th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Ramen-Ya

My buddy and I came here on a whim one night to give their ramen a try.  I had the miso tonkatsu. I typically don’t get miso based broth, but I felt like mixing it up a little. It was pretty good. Nice and rich.

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My buddy had the shio black tonkatsu. Definitely more earthy due to the black garlic and more pungent aroma.

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We also split an order of gyoza:

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I’d definitely head back there to try the chicken paitan ramen and maybe the shoyu tonkatsu as well.

RAMEN-YA
181 West 4th St
New York, NY 10014

Ajisen Ramen

I don’t often review any restaurants besides steak joints, so this is something special. I like this joint even though it doesn’t score high marks. I ate here twice, with my second time being yesterday. The noodle bowls are great, tasty and filling. My wife and I tried the miso ramen, the Ajisen Deluxe + spicy (with sliced pork and tender rib), and the seafood ramen (the least tasty one of the three). The tender rib was the best part of the meal – very juicy. We also had some bubble tea, squid balls (yummy!) for an app, and the crispy tofu app (not very crispy at all). The sliced soft boiled egg served with each bowl is delicious. The bills came in under $30 each time.

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AJISEN
136 W 28th St
New York, NY 10001

Menkui-Tei

Ise Menkui-Tei is one of my top ramen spots at the moment, and the reason is pretty simple: you can order very specifically: meaning you can designate the firmness or softness of your noodles, and the strength or thickness of your broth. I have been getting the Hakata ramen (pork bone broth) with firm noodles and strong broth. This seems to produce the best tasting of the pork tonkotsu varietals.

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My wife tried a seafood ramen here (Chan Pon) that sounded awesome on paper, but the cabbage ultimately made the broth too watery and bland.

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Best bet: stick to my ordering instructions above and you’ll be happy. At under $9 per bowl, this place is a keeper. Also, the add-ons are pretty cheap too, like extra noodles or egg. By the way – stick to the regular egg. The seasoned egg has a sweet pickle flavor that doesn’t match well with the ramen broth.

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Here’s a shot of the pan fried dumplings. Pretty good!

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But remember: you are here for the ramen. STAY FOCUSED!

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And FYI, you may want to try the unique black sesame ramen:

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MENKUI-TEI
58 W 56th St
New York, NY 10019

Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop

This shop is in the Gotham West Market food hall.

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My wife and I tried the Shio and Shoyu styles. They were both good, but they contained green onion cut in such a way that it became overbearing and difficult to pluck off of the noodles. I like a standard cross cut to my scallions. This “long ways” cut sucks. The soup base was good, on the other hand, and the rye noodles were delicious.

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One interesting item added recently is the 8am Breakfast Ramen. The broth is a cheese fondue. The rye noodles are topped with crispy ham, scallions and strips of cooked scrambled egg.

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The fondue is thick, and the flavor profile is definitely “American breakfast,” so it has familiarity.

IVAN RAMEN SLURP SHOP
Gotham West Market
600 11th Ave
New York, NY 10036

Bassanova Ramen

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED

Tondaku Green Curry Ramen at Bassanova in Chinatown (Mott Street). Different, but really good. More greenery than you would normally expect but it really works. $15. Egg was extra.

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Tondaku Ramen, also at Bassanova. Traditional tonkotsu pork ramen made with Berkshire pork. $13. Extremely good, one of my top spots.

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It’s small inside, with hardly ever a wait that I have seen.
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Bar seating is pretty cool: you watch them make the yum:
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From the menu:
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A short film by the founder of this joint: “RAMEN DREAMS”

BASSANOVA
76 Mott St
New York, NY 10013

Totto Ramen II

Mega Ramen at Totto II in Hell’s Kitchen (51st & 10th) – no need for ordering extras on this. It’s a chicken-based broth (REALLY good, by the way – not your average bullshit chicken stock). So hearty and fatty, and topped with tons of different kinds of pork meat. I refer to this one as the pork pool party. $15.

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Here’s a shot of the Paitan ramen that my wife had:
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Ambiance:
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On a recent visit we tried some other stuff. First was a bowl of seared uni with rice, seaweed, and scallions. This was nice and earthy, and I liked the taste of a cooked sea urchin better than raw.
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I had the paitan chicken ramen. Not even close to as good as the mega ramen with pork, but i probably worked wonders on the budding cold that I had brewing in my system.
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My wife had the veggie ramen, which was surprisingly really good. The broth was peppery and had a kick to it. In fact, I liked the veggie ramen better than my chicken paitan ramen.
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TOTTO – HELL’S KITCHEN
464 W 51st St
New York, NY 10019

TOTTO – MIDTOWN WEST
248 E 52nd St
New York, NY 10022

Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen

My wife and I have seen this place in passing for many months now, and we were always curious about it. Tonight I gave it a try. I knew right away it probably wasn’t a real-deal Japanese ramen place (Kung Fu is Chinese, not Japanese), so I was sort of expecting the worst. It turned out to be pretty freaking tasty though. It’s definitely NOT ramen. The flavor of the broth/soup I had was more like a mix between Vietnamese pho and standard Chinese noodle soup.

I ordered the house special “ramen,” which was a clear-ish broth with sliced beef, shrimp, a hard boiled egg, baby bok choy, cilantro and hazelnuts. I ordered it spicy, which meant it came with a blob of the house spicy sauce (the red stuff in the middle of the pic below), which was really tasty. A little bit of that shit goes a long way. I pulled more than half out just because I didn’t want my nose running and my upper lip sweating into my bowl. It’s also more like a hybrid between standard Chinese hot pepper (like the dry chili pepper flakes you get with oil when you order noodles) and Japanese spicy paste for ramen.

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I am definitely going back here to try the other items. This soup was really fantastic. The beef was packed with flavor and very tender; even those ripples of fatty tendon stuff were like butter. I’m actually curious as to what cut of beef it is. The shrimp were not boiled to shit either, like I expected. They were cooked relatively nicely. And the egg was the best tasting hard boiled egg I’ve ever eaten. Not even kidding. The seasonings penetrated deep into the center. Maybe they boil them in broth or soak them in broth after they’re cooked? Whatever they’re doing, it’s fucking working!

One thing to beware of: the not-so-sneaky service charge. They added 15% to my bill without asking.

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I thought that was shitty, and, in fact, I was prepared to leave them a bigger tip! I had it in my head that I was going to just leave $15. Oh well. Their loss. I handed the waiter a $20, and when he retuned my change to me I just left the $0.92 remainder. Still a pretty good tip!

UPDATE!!! I tried the fried ramen, which is essentially just like a lo mien dish with all the same components from the soup. It was tasty and not too greasy, but I like the soup version better.

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The soup dumplings were excellent – I could eat these all fuckin’ day. Give them a few minutes to cool down so you don’t burn the fuck out of your mouth. I like to plop one into a soy sauce bath before eating. It helps cool them down, and gives it some earthy flavor.

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On another visit I tried the roast duck “ramen.” It was the same tasty broth but floated with some hacked up pieces of roast duck. For the most part, the duck was not really edible. Too much bone and rubbery fat, and not enough edible meat.

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Stick with the beef “ramen” at this joint and you will be as happy as a pig in shit. This other item we tried was the cold ramen. Essentially this is lo mein style noodles that are cooked really nice to al dente (and probably hand made), then dressed with a peanut-flavored sauce and topped with cucumbers, tomato and shrimp. I’ve had better, but this was pretty tasty.

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KUNG FU LITTLE STEAMED BUNS
811 8th Ave
New York, NY 10019