Ippudo NY
“ippudo ny gifts us the ramen experience of a lifetime.”
True fans of this convenient and traditional Japanese staple know that ramen is so much more than dehydrated noodles. The savory dish originated in China in the early 1800s, the birthplace of all things ramen, with the novel idea of noodles in a soupy broth traveling with Chinese immigrants to Japan after the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The foreign concept of adding boiling water to dried, pre-cooked ramen noodles only came after World War II out of necessity by Momofuku Ando in 1958 as a means to address Japan’s shortage of food in the post-war era. His belief that “Peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat” spurred him to sell his first original chicken flavored Chikin Ramen for only 35 Japanese yen, or the equivalent of just one U.S. dime.
Since then, Japan’s post-war efforts to reinvent its image as benign and welcoming to the West included exports of technology in the form of televisions and automobiles, culture in the form of manga and anime, and food most famously in the form of raw slices of fish and ramen. So much so that despite other Southeast Asian countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam also releasing their instant noodle brands, each with their own signature flavors, the term “ramen” is one of the few borrowed Japanese words that almost every American understands that encompasses the entire category.
That very point - the fact that ramen is so now embedded into American culture - makes the feat that Ippudo NY pulls daily that much more incredible. It takes what an average diner knows about ramen and transforms that concept beautifully into a modern take of the dish while staying respectfully true to its traditional roots.
It began the moment we entered the restaurant. “IRASSHAIMASE!!” came the raucous cry from 6 grown men in the back of the shop, most of them either black or Hispanic in origin. While most places have a single server taking care of you, Ippudo as an establishment welcomes you warmly as soon as the Japanese “Come in!” is uttered by its staff. The architectural design of the East Village location emulated an open-kitchen format, with several small casual dining tables and booths off to the side, and a few larger circular tables where one might sit and face another fellow diner across the way. A modernistic red, black, and wood “tree” sprouted from the center of the dining room, giving off the sense that we had stepped foot inside a black market kitchen within NYC’s concrete jungle. While certainly not efficient in terms of space, the spaciousness seemed fitting for such a high-energy experience, and I was grinning with hungry anticipation.
Our food came out in a flash: one bowl of Potara Miso loaded with tender, braised chashu (pork belly), spinach, corn, a flash-boiled egg, nori, and a slice of butter for good measure; and one bowl of Akamaru Shinaji topped with bamboo sprouts, sesame kikurage mushrooms, miso paste, belly chashu, and shoyu broth.
Those who have eaten with me in fine dining settings have heard my commentary on the beauty of presentation. In the case of street foods or casual eating, that can go by the wayside in favor of taste, but in a sit-down restaurant we eat with our eyes first. For a dish with so many vibrantly colored ingredients, Ippudo does it right. Each section of the bowl represented a different texture and flavor, a present waiting to be unwrapped individually or combined. The islands of red chili paste, green spinach, yellow corn, brown bamboo sprouts and mushrooms, and black nori all atop a sea of shoyu broth makes it so easy for me to recall those exact tastes as I look back at the photos while I write this post to jog my memory.
The firm, exquisite dried nori was brought out on a separate plate for us to add to the bowls of soup ourselves — a considerate gesture I hadn’t considered before that prevented the sheets of seaweed from becoming soggy before it came to the table. In many restaurants, the nori is often placed overtop the soup and is usually a shredded mess by the time I get to it. In this particular case however, the blandness of the unseasoned nori complemented the savory broth - soaking it up and turning itself into its own treat within the piñata of culinary surprises.
The ingredients worked together perfectly. In-house hand-spun noodles with just the right amount of bounce and chewy bite as the savory, not-too-salty soup clung to them. Sweet corn and crunchy spinach that acted as an intermission from the tender, fatty chashu. Earthy tones of kikurage mushrooms offset by the rich broth enhanced with the delectable scent of melted butter mixed with chili oil. The meal itself, despite the literal grocery list of ingredients, felt surprisingly light for what it was. By execution, I have never had a better bowl of ramen in America. From time of entry to paying the bill, our lunch was 30 minutes, and we left the restaurant with our stomachs full and deeply satisfied.
Ippudo NY’s take on ramen in the East Village makes several distinct callbacks to the traditional way that the dish is served in Japan — in a chaotic lunch hour rush with well-groomed salarymen stopping by to enjoy a bowl, greeted by enthusiastic workers. Ippudo gives you an authentic, yet modern experience for ramen, from the food itself down to its ambience. The feeling of accessibility to this dining experience - that you could literally just walk in and ask for a spot at the counter for perhaps the most delicious bowl of ramen outside Japan for a mere $16 - is unbelievable. Ippudo restaurants can be found in 16 different countries around the world, with locations found in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and NYC’s East Village, Midtown, and 5th Avenue. If there’s a food tour to be had in any of those areas, Ippudo ramen is a quintessential must-have on your list.
Food Quality: 9.0/10
Meal Value: 8.0/10
Dining Experience: 9.0/10
Overall: 8.7/10
