Ippudo Ramen in NYC

Before heading back home, we went to Ippudo to get some Japanese style ramen for lunch. We arrived at around 12:30pm and were told there would be a 20-30 minute wait. We were surprised at the popularity of this upscale ramen place. There is a bar area at this restaurant, with many ramen bowls on the wall as decoration. Also, the bar table is stuffed with dried ramen noodles.

We ordered two different flavors of ramen. One is the白丸元味, which is the original flavor with a mild pork based soup. We ordered an additional side of pork belly in the ramen. Another is the 赤丸かさね味, which is the new style flavor with a kick of red miso. The cha siu was very tender, although not as tender as Santoka's. The noodles were fresh and chewy, cut pretty thin, and cooked just right. We saw that they make the noodles fresh in the basement of the restaurant.

In addition, as the lunch special, we added $3 to get a small bowl of eel rice. We wanted to give it a try since it is pretty cheap. As expected, the quality of the eel rice was just average.

The ramen is comparable to the ones we had in Japan. The only minus of this restaurant is the price, since each order of ramen is about $15. When we walked out, all the chefs shouted to us “Thank you for visiting” in Japanese, which made us felt welcomed.

HOKAT Rating:
88/100

Address:
65 4th Ave
New York, NY 10003
(212) 388-0088
http://www.ippudo.com/ny