GENERAL INFORMATION

Japanese, Ramen

East Village

65 4th Ave

New York, NY 10003-5220

T: 212.388-0088

Website:

www.ippudo.com/ny

Hours:

Mon - Thu: 11:00am - 3:30pm; 5:00pm - 11:30pm

Fri - Sat: 11:00am - 3:30pm; 5:00pm - 12:30am

Sun: 11:00am - 10:30pm

Ippudo’s website describes ramen as Japan’s soul food and on a rainy Monday night, we could understand why. It’s a whole meal in a bowl with meat, noodles, vegetables, and a hot broth.

On our first visit we tried the Shiromaru Hakata Classic and the special, the Wasabi Shoyu Ramen. The classic is “the original tonkotsu” soup noodles with slices of simmered Berkshire pork, kikurage, red pickled ginger, menma, 1/2 hard boiled egg, sesame & scallions. It was filling and warming in a comforting way.  The Wasabi Shoyu Ramen is soy flavored ramen noodles soup with a combination of chicken and tonkotsu soup, with slice of berkshire pork, cabbage, naruto, & scallions.  This definitely had a wasabi flavor, but when fully mixed together as recommended by the waiter, it blended well and provided a nice touch of heat.

While the restaurant is known for its ramen, the appetizers we tried were the standouts of the meal. The chicken Hirata buns (2 pieces for $8.00) were served piping hot and had a great back-end kick of heat. The Eihire Yaki (broiled dried ray fish fin) was the truly exciting portion of the meal. Served with a spicy mayonnaise dipping sauce (akin to the sauce in a spicy tuna sushi roll), it’s equal parts crispy, chewy, and fishy. You can’t help but keep on going back for another piece and dipping it in the sauce.

We are looking forward to trying out more items on Ippudo’s affordable menu. But to avoid a long wait, we’ll be dining before 6:30 pm or after 9:30 pm. They don’t take reservations and prime time dining can require extensive waits.

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