Tonkotsu Heaven @ Ippudo in New York

Ippudo was definitely one of the highlights of our weeklong stay in New York last March, yes it’s taken me a long while to finally come to this point.

Ippudo has given me the best ramen noodle soup outside of Japan, maybe not the best soup of noodles, as there have been many in China that have rocked my world in a different way, but as Ramen goes. Ippudo is number one.

Even with this current buzz (and I seriously hope it continues) in London with

Bone Daddies leading the way by a short way from the ever improving Shoryu snapping at its heels, but both are pulling away form Tonkotsu, but this isn’t about Ramen shops in London, this is about Ippudo in NYC.

As with every trendy place these days, the no reservation policy is just fuelling demand and we cannot get enough of it, although being told the other day that a nearly 2 hour wait for an above average burger was really taking the piss.

So after you have sat and waited for as little as half an hour, you are taken into dining heaven. A couple of things to point out, the music is a little on the loud side, not as loud as you cannot have a chat with the person next to you, shared long table, more bums on seats that way and an open kitchen, which has become the way these days. But I enjoy watching my food being cooked and plated up.

It’s a little too easy to compare Momofuku and Ippudo, but they are as different as calk and cheese. Well they both do similar things but very differently, Momo is modern Korean and Ippudo is doing the whole ramen thing in a totally different way.

I never really read the whole menu as all I wanted was Ramen, but we did start of with a couple of Hirata Buns (pork belly) and then one special of Kasare Black and a bowl of Akamaru Modern with extra Chashu.

The Hirata Buns were vastly superior to the ones in Momofuku, it wasn’t just one component it was everything, the buns were lighter, the pork was juicer and more tasty and the spicy sauce just brought everything together into pork bun heaven. I could have simply just eaten these all afternoon. Delish.

I opted for Ippudo’s original Tonkotsu, this I wanted to see if their stock was as deep in flavour and silky white as I had heard.

The chashu was soft, juicy and well really yummy, the stock was indeed silky white and had such depth of flavour that it got a “wow” from me as I tasted it. The secret “Umami Damo” certainly added a lot of kick to the soup. The noodles were cooked al dente just as I like them, but I think they could be improved as they lacked something.

The special of the day “Kasare Black, which I only got to try a little bit, was worthy of being on the specials as again it had such depth in that stock.

It makes my homemade stock of dried mushrooms and Dashi Konbo look a bit limp and lacking. But that’s where chicken wings, dark soy sauce and chilli oil come in.

The service at Ippudo is ok, it’s polite and swift, which is what you need at a place like this, as all you want is the ramen.

I liked Ippudo and being one of our last meals in New York we left on a high, although if we’d had this at the start, we would have definitely returned several times.

So it’s taken me a while to finish writing about New York, a bloody long time, but hey life’s life and this is how it goes.
Next time in New York, we'll be staying in the East Village as that's where we enjoyed being the most, it reminds me of a little of Dalston where we currently live, it has a slight edge to it that I like.