noodsletter #.0032
THE BEST RAMEN IN NEW YORK CITY (JK)
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Switching things up this week because I haven’t sent out a noodsletter in a while, and the backlog of interesting links has become a little unwieldy. I’ll send out another at the end of the week with the jetsam; this installment’s all flotsam.
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Book Bit
They pulled him out like a tray of ice-cubes, and I looked at him. The wounds were frozen into placidity. I said, ‘You see, they don’t re-open in my presence.’
‘Comment?’
‘Isn’t that one of the objects? Ordeal by something or other? But you’ve frozen him stiff. They didn’t have deep freezes in the Middle Ages.’
‘You recognize him?’
‘Oh yes.’
He looked more than ever out of place: he should have stayed at home. I saw him in a family snapshot album, riding on a dude ranch, bathing on Long Island, photographed with his colleagues in some apartment on the twenty-third floor. He belonged to the skyscraper and the express elevator, the ice-cream and the dry Martinis, milk at lunch, and chicken sandwiches on the Merchant Limited.
From The Quiet American by Graham Greene, which I’m rereading for the first time since I was a child, and it’s so very good. The “milk at lunch” is funny, right?
“ThE BeSt RaMeN iN nYc”
Since I post pictures of noodle soups on my Instagram, sometimes peevishly, every so often someone will ask me to tell them what I think of as the “top ramen spots” in the city. I dislike generating these lists, if only because tastes change, and restaurants get better or worse, and the list tends to sit there, immutable, reminding everyone that you once used to think Menkui Te had decent ramen and was the best ramen in the city (it was the best, but it wasn’t ever good).
But in the interest of offering more value to readers, and after reading the Eater list of the best ramen in New York City for what felt like the 100th time—they claimed it was updated, and it was, but it still has some utterly mystifying choices and omissions—I realized this is something that I am able to provide quite easily and maybe you all will appreciate it and/or find it useful.
This is not a “best of” list, however. It’s just the places I think serve good, interesting, or otherwise notable ramen, presented in the order of ramen bowls I’d like to eat right now. My one caveat for this list is I haven’t been to a few of these places in a while, so I can’t exactly vouch for their quality at this exact moment, but the top 5 I’ve been to either very recently or in about the last several months. (I don’t post everything I eat on IG, so some of these embeds are quite old.)
Ramen Ishida. 122 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002
The best plated bowl of ramen in the city also happens to be the best. The space is about as large as a couple rows on a commuter railroad, with fewer seats, and there’s no bathroom, but what it lacks in amenities it more than makes up for with excellent broth and toppings. The noodles have changed over the years—they used to be oddly dense but delicious, then during the pandemic Ishida switched over to some pretty weak Sun Noodle product—and now they’re quite nice, if a little soft.
Used to be my go-to order was the truffle shoyu on the menu. If truffle-flavored anything sounds gross to you, same; I, too, grew up during the 1990s. However, it actually works well in the shoyu, neither too cloying or reminiscent of clubstraunt fries, in part because (I think) the shiso leaf and a bit of porcini in the mushroom paste offsets some of the more offensive truffle elements. The toppings are fantastic—sous vide chicken breast, a braised shoulder chashu that gets a boost of character and caramelization from a brief spell on a cast iron grill pan, a well-seasoned and nicely cooked egg, along with some just-okay menma.
However, I recently tried their off-menu “’80s Shoyu,” which I think is the same broth and tare with some gyofun (pulverized dried fish) added to it and no truffle, and if they have it on any given day, this will be my order going forward. It’s just everything I want out of a shoyu ramen; meaty broth, nice slick of flavored fat, good noodles, fishy/katsuobushi-inflected flavor, some menma and a nice bit of pork, and… no truffle.
The gyoza in broth are quite nice, too, although there’s better gyoza out there (specifically, at Nakamura and Danbo).
Worth mentioning that unlike all the other spots on this list, save for Shuya Cafe de Ramen, Ishida is manned by the chef himself every day they’re open (well, every time I’ve ever been he’s been standing there, doing his perfect noodle folds). That kind of dedication is worthy of support, even if the ramen isn’t stellar, but this ramen is stellar. I firmly believe there should be a never-ending line at this spot.
NoNoNo. 118 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
NoNoNo is a yakitori spot that serves a bunch of izakaya fare in addition to running a ramen program with the bones left over from cutting up chickens. While the concept suffers from the split personality problem that’s endemic to New York Japanese-ish restaurants trying to offer a range of foods instead of focusing on doing just one well, the ramen is excellent. (The yakitori and the izakaya stuff is middling.)
The quality of the ramen is a little bit of a mystery if you don’t know that the program was created by the people behind QMen Sapporo, a well-regarded shop in Japan. The folks behind QMen had a spot in the West Village five or so years ago, called MewMen (in the same space that now houses Menkoi Sato—see below), and I went there a couple of times and came away unimpressed. Whatever they were doing wrong there they apparently fixed, since the ramen selection at NoNoNo is pretty incredible, all the more so since ramen isn’t the focus.
I think the shoyu is excellent. A chicken and clam broth, beautiful noodles (not sure where they source them), and the toppings are nicely executed even if they sort of seem like an afterthought. The real star is whatever fat they use to slick the surface of the soup, which is certainly chicken, but it’s got a bunch of garlic infused into it.
They also do a paitan (emulsified, milky broth), which is fine, but the sleeper hit on the ramen menu is the kara shoyu (spicy shoyu). It’s got a couple spoonfuls of spicy chicken soboro on top and a welcome amount (a lot) of garlic chives.Nakamura. 172 Delancey St, New York, NY 10002
Shigetoshi “Jack” Nakamura is a ramen celebrity, in Japan and, consequently, here in the US as well. His celebrity status is in part attributable to a set of keychains produced in Japan decades ago: four ramen chefs were arbitrarily chosen to represent ramen “gods,” and his status as a member of the ramen empyrean was cemented forever. His brother is also the chef behind the acclaimed chain Afuri, which is excellent (at least at the locations I’ve tried in Japan—its signature ramen is a yuzu shio), so he’s about as close to ramen royalty as exists.
Nakamura was tapped by Sun Noodle as a development chef and he is, along with Sun, rightly credited with being instrumental in the ramen boom in New York City over the last two decades. He also happens to make some pitch-perfect chintan shoyu ramen, the kind of ramen that until relatively recently was uncommon here in the US. I first had his “torigara” ramen when he did a pop up at Sun’s now-defunct Ramen Lab (RIP), and it was memorable for me because until then I’d thought ramen in that style, at that level of quality, would never be produced in the US.
Located almost under the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg bridge, the space is tiny, with only enough seating for about 12 people, and to get to the tiny bathroom at the back of the restaurant you have to walk through the galley kitchen. As with Ishida, the amenities and decor shouldn’t bother you; the ramen is good. However, some of the ramen is very good, and some of it is weirdly lackluster, like the Jidori chicken ramen, which tastes fine and in fact gets better as you eat it, but it’s a far cry from his signature torigara.
Thing about Nakamura is that everything, even the middling stuff, is pretty high quality, on the same level as solid spots in Japan. His tonkotsu, for example, seems to me to be a stellar example of the style—light and balanced—and his vegan XO ramen is one of the few vegan bowls of ramen I’ve ever liked. Don’t skip the gyoza; perhaps my favorite gyoza in the city (although they’re machine-folded).Ivan Ramen. 25 Clinton St, New York, NY 10002
Ivan Orkin is a bonafide ramen celebrity. He made his name in Tokyo selling a shio ramen with a few brilliant innovations, like rye-inflected noodles and a roasted tomato topping, and his arrival in New York was heralded by every food media company.
I was slow to come around to Ivan’s ramen. I bought his cookbook and made his recipes before I tried his shop, and the first time I tried his shop it was the Slurp Shop on the West Side, and I got the shoyu. I wasn’t impressed with any of it, and wrote off his celebrity to NYC food media hype.
After going to his main shop in the Lower East Side several times and eating his shio, my opinion changed, even if I still can’t really get into the rye noodles (I’m not a fan of rye). The shio has a good amount of katsuobushi-heavy gyofun in it, so it’s got a really nice dried fish flavor profile, and it’s appropriately salty (very), and the tomato continues to amaze me; such a simple idea, but it’s got acidity and umami and juicy oomph and…it’s just bland enough to really go well with the broth.
Other than the shio, the shop itself is probably the best-looking ramen shop in the city; the mural above the window into the kitchen is always arresting, and I like the nod to Tampopo it has on the right hand side. Another thing that’s great about Ivan is the water is served ice cold (in general, Ivan seems to pay more attention to temperature control of all their stuff than other restaurants, ramen or otherwise: the cold spicy noodles come out so cold it’s amazing the sauce on them isn’t ice, for example).Menkoi Sato. 7 Cornelia St, New York, NY 10014
Menkoi Sato sits in the old MewMen space and it specializes in miso ramen. I’m not the most knowledgeable about miso ramen as a style, but their miso is very satisfying, with lots of onion and pork fat and some nicely curly and chewy and yellow noodles.
They have a ton of junkier bowls, like a curry ramen and spicy misos, as well as a shio and shoyu ramen, but any time I’ve gotten anything other than the miso I’ve been disappointed.
It’s a funky space, and a little dingy, and it’s clearly a place designed for people who are or are planning to get shit-faced. (Which is fine!)Okiboru Ramen. 117 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002
The newest ramen shop on this list, I was invited to a media preview of it before it opened, so take this recommendation with a grain of salt. I include mostly because it’s the only ramen shop dedicated to tsukemen in the city.
Tsukemen is ramen served kind of like zaru soba: Chilled noodles that have had all their surface starch washed off served with a hot broth and toppings alongside. Tsukemen can be any kind of noodles served with any kind of broth, and the noodles can be served hot in dashi or cold and drained, but the crazy popularity of Tomita in Japan (and the fact that a lot of ramen fans in the US have watched the documentary about that shop, Ramen Heads) has led a lot of people to assume that tsukemen necessarily has thick, chonky noodles and a thick, gravy-like broth.
Okiboru sticks with the thickness, and the noodles are wonderful, and the broth is nice and thick and fishy. Is it the best tsukemen in the world? No, but there aren’t many, if any, other options out there (Tabetomo I find to be…bad). Worth checking out and supporting. Skip the soup ramen, though; go somewhere else if you want a bowl of tonkotsu.Shuya Cafe de Ramen. TK
Sort of sad including this restaurant, since the owner just announced he’s going to have to vacate his current space. However, he also says he plans to open up somewhere else; here’s hoping it’s somewhere closer to me than freaking Queens!
As mentioned above, the owner, Shuya Miyawaki, is the chef, and if they’re open he’s there. The ramen is perhaps not the best, but it’s always interesting. I’ve eaten there a couple of times, and only ever gotten the Assari Shio, which is a clam shio. It’s good! His chashu is pretty great, too.
Funny thing is Miyawaki makes great sushi, too, and when he opens again, you should try it.Minca Ramen Factory. 536 E 5th St, New York, NY 10009
People in the know might shake their heads at his one, but people who are really in the know won’t: Minca is a foundational shop in NYC’s ramen history.
For a long while, Minca was the only spot that served ramen I liked eating (this long while extends to the time when the press was raving about Momofuku and extends past the breathlessly hyped arrival of Ippudo). The owner was (is?) a Japanese jazz musician who just wanted to eat ramen of the kind he used to eat at home, which was/is apparently far different than the stuff I grew up eating in Japan.
The menu is big and semi-confusing, but my go-to for years was the Minca shoyu, and it has a chicken and pork broth that’s neither a chintan nor a paitan, a syrupy shoyu tare that isn’t quite salty enough, and very soy-saucy and salty chashu that’s pressure cooked until it’s literally disintegrating. It can’t really compare it to some of the refined stuff that some shops are putting out now, but I’ve eaten at Minca more times than I can count, and its nostalgic value is what earns it a place on this list. Also? The marinated egg, hard-boiled until the yolk is ringed with a sulfurous blue, is freaking delicious.
Whenever I went, people would always order the spicy miso, which seemed ridiculous to me. It’s terrible!
It’s a very tiny and fairly grungy spot, and the art on the walls is bizarre, but if you sit at the tiny counter you can watch the cooks putting together the ramen. If you want a side, get the shrimp gyoza, each of which contains a whole shrimp surrounded by a shrimp farce with aromatics, the tails poking out of one end of each dumpling…delicious. The pork gyoza is hit or miss, more often a miss.Ramen Danbo. Multiple locations.
I have nothing against chain ramen restaurants; one of my favorite ramen spots in the world is the closest Korrakkuen location to my grandmother’s house (Korrakkuen used to be known as Aizuppo, and it’s mostly known for its extremely affordable ramen and frozen gyoza. It’s more of a “family restaurant”—the class of Japanese restaurants that are basically designed for families with young children—that serves ramen.)
That being said, I do have an issue with the fact that all the chain ramen restaurants in NYC are tonkotsu ramen spots. (Sure, Ippudo makes a shoyu, but it’s not good.) I have even more of an issue with that fact since my daughter loves ramen from these restaurants, so I have to eat at them all the time.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’m forever consigned to the specific hell of eating at the Danbo in Park Slope almost every weekend. And even though I eat there all the freaking time, I still think it’s pretty good, which is some kind of mark of quality. In part, that’s because Danbo’s gyoza are pretty great (quite sweet, but not in a bad way, with bits of crunchy water chestnut in the filling).
But it’s also because Danbo has a solid broth and solid toppings. You can customize every element of the bowl, but unlike Ichiran you can’t totally ruin the experience (if you get the saltier option at Ichiran, it’s basically inedible; get the saltier option at Danbo, and it’s good). My go-to order at Danbo is thin noodles cooked standard, rich broth, rich fat, lots of karadare, spicy, with added karashi takana (spicy pickled mustard greens) and nori.
And while I like Ichiran (and my salt-fiend kid loves Ichiran), I honestly do not understand why anyone likes Ippudo in NYC. I always leave disappointed and it’s so expensive.Yuji Ramen. 150 Ainslie St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
I’m adding Yuji here at the end because I think it’s a super interesting spot, even though I basically never go there. That has to do with its location, which is very far from where I live, and its size, which ensures that you have to wait a while no matter what time you get there. The combination is just too much for me; I’ll end up going someplace closer and far less interesting 9.9 times out of 10.
That being said, it’s mostly focused on fresh fish-based broths, and they have seasonal offerings that are always interesting, if not always successful. When I did go more frequently, their appetizers were routinely incredible. I once had a crab karaage dip there that was weirdly delicious (fried crab, blitzed into a dip in a blender!), and a small bowl of grilled summer vegetables buried in dashi gelee that I still think about from time to time.
Their mazemen are also good, so good in fact that I made a facsimile of one for my old job.
I have to say, though, the shoyu ramen Yuji served when it operated as a counter at the Whole Foods on Houston was some of the best ramen I’ve had in the city, and I think that’s primarily because it was a combo of both fish- and meat-based broth, since they were using scraps from the butcher counter there.
Of course, Yuji sits in the same space as Okonomi, which is a Japanese breakfast spot focused on grilled fish, and the products they use are all sourced from owner Yuji Haraguchi’s fish shop, Osakana. The fish is incredible; if I lived nearby, I’d patronize all three all the time.
IMO, any NYC “best” ramen list that doesn’t have Ishida on it has no credibility. One of my first bowl of Ramen in NYC was from Yuji, small space but when the wether is not too cold, you can smell the aroma broth outside while u wait. I think that adds to the experience. Will def miss Shuya.
Had always wondered about the story behind NoNoNo! Their menu formatting is so similar to Her Name is Han next door. Are they related as well? Love their shoyu as well.