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Ippudo

July 28, 2012 by Jennifer Che 12 Comments

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This is the fourth post in the Eating the Big Apple series. Other posts include Soba Koh, Sylvia’s Restaurant (Gospel Brunch), and Torrisi Italian Specialties

There’s one ramen place in New York that I keep hearing about over and over again.

That’s right –  the Japanese export, Ippudo.

We knew friends who made it a point to eat there every single time they visited the Big City. In a New York Times article, top New York chefs listed it as a favorite go-to spot to visit during their off nights. Plus, we’d heard about the insane line and long waits.

What is it about ramen that causes such craziness to ensue?

And has it always been this way?
Untitled
Surprise surprise – ramen traces its origins back to China. In the late 19th century when Japan finally opened its doors to outsiders, Chinese immigrants gravitated to Yokohama and started opening noodles shops. Furthermore, Japanese soldiers returning after the second Sino-Japanese War brought back knowledge about Chinese noodles, many set up Chinese restaurants in Japan.
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As time went by, the Japanese incorporated their own flavors into noodle soups, such as miso, tonkotsu broth, and nori (seaweed), thus creating “ramen”, their own unique version of this noodle soup. The invention of the instant noodle in 1958 (from a Taiwanese-Japanese guy named Momofuku Ando who eventually founded Nissin) made ramen accessible to all at home. After “Top Ramen” was introduced to the US in 1970, ramen even became an American staple for fast food.
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In recent years, however, a new obsession around handmade, dare-I-say “artisanal” ramen  has been on the rise. People are keenly interested in ramen made with intensely flavored broths (cooked for 10-20 hours!), special pork of particular heritage breeds, and fresh, handmade noodles.

New York was one of the first cities to fuel this obsession, partly due to the entrance of Ippudo in 2008.  Ever since Ippudo opened in New York, it has been consistently crowded, always harboring long lines and hour-long waits. Even though there are two locations in New York now, we still had to wait 45 minutes on a random Thursday night at 10PM for a seat at the original East Village location.

Maybe there’s something about ramen that makes it more and more appealing the closer you get to midnight?
Untitled
Hirata Buns (2 pieces – Pork or Chicken $9 / Vegetable $8)

In any event, we finally scored a seat around 11PM after waiting seemingly forever in the crowded bar area of the hip, trendy restaurant.

We began with Hirata Buns, steamed buns filled with pork and cabbage served with Ippudo’s original spicy buns sauce. The buns were decently soft and the pork was flavorful. Bryan still much prefers the pork belly buns from Momofuku, but these were fine as a starter snack. For those who don’t like pork, you can also choose chicken or eggplant & eringi mushrooms.
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Akamaru Modern $15

Bryan ordered the Akamaru Modern, which consists of their thick and creamy “Tonkotsu” (pork) broth topped with their secret “Umami Dama” miso paste, pork chashu, cabbage, sesame kikurage, mushrooms, scallions, and garlic oil. The menu suggested topping the soup with nitamago (seasoned salted boiled egg) and kakuni (braised pork belly). Bryan opted for both (of course).

The broth was absolutely beautiful – full of umami and deep, creamy, intense flavors.  It was rich, but not overwhelmingly so. Just about perfect. The noodles, on the other hand, were a bit on the soft side, and we wished for something just a bit more al dente.
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I believe my ramen was a special and thus not on the normal menu (arghh – which means I can’t tell you exactly what it was because I did not write it down!!). Alas, I do remember that I got it topped with an onsen egg (poached egg), which was awesome.  Though the overall dish was quite tasty and enjoyable, I similarly thought the noodles were a bit too soft.
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Bryan was thrilled when he read about “Kae dama“, described as “a way to get extra noodles.” Bryan thinks the noodle to broth ratio is wrong in virtually every noodle dish under the sun. Yes, there’s never enough noodles and always too much sauce or broth (I’m the exact opposite, by the way).

According to the menu, when you have almost finished your first serving of noodles, order by saying, “Kae-dama, please”. In a few minutes the server will bring you another ‘ball of noodles’, and put it in the soup.

Bryan was so excited he made sure to leave plenty of broth behind so that he could order another set of noodles. Even though we were both stuffed by this point (after all, we had just snacked on all sorts of goodies at the Saveur Food Blog Awards Celebration earlier that night), he still finished all his “Kae-dama” noodles.

General Thoughts
Overall, Ippudo is a fun place and definitely worth visiting. The menu alone is full of so many different kinds of cool Izakaya-type dishes (not just ramen) that I’d love to return just to try some of the other things (think fried lotus root chips, shishito peppers, and Japanese cucumber salad). 

The ramen is also very good. True, we were a bit disappointed by the texture of the noodles. However,  I think most people won’t care as much as we do. Clearly, the place is mobbed, and many, many people are perfectly happy with the noodles. 

In any event, the broths are still excellent, and overall the noodle dishes are still very, very satisfying to slurp.

Ippudo New York 
65 4th Ave New York
NY 10003
Ippudo on Urbanspoon

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All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: New York, New York City, Restaurant, Review Tagged With: Japanese, noodles, ramen

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Comments

  1. Abraham Viktor says

    July 29, 2012 at 5:58 am

    Personally, do you prefer Ippudo or Momofuku’s? 😀

    Reply
  2. JimF says

    July 29, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    Yum – love ramen noodles and your blog! Being a fellow Bostonian, it’s been a treat following your culinary adventures. If only I were so lucky to be invited on all your dining experiences. Keep eating and writing!

    Reply
  3. Minnie Gupta says

    July 29, 2012 at 10:22 pm

    It does look like a totally satisfying slurp! So glad to have found you.
    http://thelady8home.com

    Reply
  4. Esther @ambitiousdelish says

    July 30, 2012 at 10:11 am

    I haven’t been to Japan or anything but I do think their ramen is the best in NYC.

    They make the noodles downstairs (you can see through a small window) which is so cool!

    Reply
  5. kasawonderful says

    July 30, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    jeri@kasawonderful.blogspot.com
    Thanks for sharing this. Will definitely check out the next time I’m in the city. Also thanks for the soft noodle warning. A total al dente stickler, I will be prepared!

    Reply
  6. Jennifer Che says

    July 30, 2012 at 2:21 pm

    I heard that their noodles are homemade. Wish I could tell them to cook it *just* a little less time. Maybe next time!

    Reply
  7. Jennifer Che says

    July 30, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    I’ve never had Momofuku’s noodles! I’ve only had Ko and Milk Bar, but not noodle bar.

    Reply
  8. Jennifer Che says

    July 30, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    Not sure if it was a one-time thing, though I suspect their noodles are just softer. Bryan’s cousin, who lives in New York, told us this without knowing our opinions yet. “Their broth is good but their noodles are soft.” That just about sums it up.

    Reply
  9. Jennifer Che says

    July 30, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    Thanks!

    Reply
  10. San Diego LASIK says

    July 31, 2012 at 9:19 am

    I’m craaazy about ramen, too! Oh, wow! Reading your post makes me crave for it now. LOL. Anyway, if you compare it to other Japanese restaurants, how does it fair in terms of price?

    Reply
  11. San Diego LASIK says

    August 2, 2012 at 10:18 pm

    I’m craaazy about ramen, too! Oh, wow! Reading your post makes me crave for it now. LOL. Anyway, if you compare it to other Japanese restaurants, how does it fair in terms of price?

    Reply
  12. San Diego LASIK says

    August 6, 2012 at 2:34 am

    I’m craaazy about ramen, too! Oh, wow! Reading your post makes me crave for it now. LOL. Anyway, if you compare it to other Japanese restaurants, how does it fair in terms of price?

    Reply

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Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
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