Ramen has always been a delicacy I enjoyed eating when I went out to the city with my friends. I have tried various restaurants such as Hokkaido Ramen Santouka and Ippudo, however, this restaurant grabs my attention. I am very tempted to try it out the next time I return to New York due to the fact that you can eat by yourself. I have never heard of a place where you can eat by yourself without worrying about being seen because there are dividers. Also, it seems fun to go eat at the booth where there is minimal interaction because it’ll be like playing charades. The server tries to figure out what you want after you do a certain action with the card or paper wrapper. However, I would probably still go with friends because it's more fun to have company. Not only that, there are numerous options to customize your own ramen unlike other restaurants where the ramen bowls are pre-determined. Typically, most ramen places let you choose the meats and broth, but all the way to how much spice and how soft or firm the noodle is some next level stuff. It is impressive how much they are willing to do to satisfy their customers. This must be the reason why the ramen is very expensive. Nonetheless, I believe one can get the same quality food at another location at a cheaper price. One should only go here if they want to experience eating ramen by themselves.
$18 is quite expensive for ramen, but maybe the experience of a bit of Japanese culture, especially if you pick to sit in a solo booth, is worth it. (It is definitely cheaper than a plane ticket to Japan.) I like how the restaurant creates an option for those that are more shy about eating alone or those that are just in the mood to be left alone with their food. I think places like this are rare in the United States. Here, society is more directed towards the extroverted. Restaurants don't set aside a separate room for those who eat alone. They just put out a few tables with a single chair while filling the rest of the room with tables meant to seat groups of people. Granted, not all restaurants have enough space to have two rooms for customers, but those that do do not utilize their space for that. I think it would be nice if more places like Ichiran "touched down" in places around the U.S. I feel like nowadays people are afraid of doing things alone because they are scared of being judged as having no friends or being anti-social by others. Although most of the time these thoughts are just irrational and untrue. It would be nice for society to move towards a future that values both places set aside for people to be alone with just themselves and their thoughts and places for hanging out with others. I enjoyed reading this review and it is definitely on my bucket list to experience a restaurant like Ichiran.
4
Ramen in Japan costs between 600 and 1,000 yen, even from Ichiran and its competitor Ippudo. I can't imagine where I would find an $18 bowl and how much better it would be.
3
Mr Wells, another delightful review. I look forward to your thoughts each week with eager anticipation. Thank you again.
6
This is almost double the price of Ichiran Hong Kong, and we don't even have sales/food tax here.
5
I wish there were more places like this! I love the idea of being able to eat somewhere alone without feeling self-conscious, without having to worry about tip, just privately slurping or sipping, perhaps reading or deep in thought.
10
What if you don't like pork?
You're porked. : - )
4
Wow, $18 ramen in Brushwick. Times have definitely changed.
5
"Anxiety flushed through me. Had I broken ramen protocol? Was this like reaching over the front seat of a car to give an Uber driver a neck rub?"
This doesn't make any sense. A mutual handshake isn't at all analogous to an unsolicited neck rub. There are several magazine and newspaper writers who seem to have decided to unfurl their anxieties and several books coming out on this theme, and I'm disappointed to see it here in the Times Food section too. The idea seems to be that anxiety is interesting and personal and a reliable way to practice self-depreciation, no matter how banal, and no matter bow little sense it makes in any particular context. I find it very untrustworthy. Anxiety is the opposite of lucidity. Let's hear from someone who can sit down in a restaurant and get throughout a handshake with the server without mistaking it for a crisis.
This doesn't make any sense. A mutual handshake isn't at all analogous to an unsolicited neck rub. There are several magazine and newspaper writers who seem to have decided to unfurl their anxieties and several books coming out on this theme, and I'm disappointed to see it here in the Times Food section too. The idea seems to be that anxiety is interesting and personal and a reliable way to practice self-depreciation, no matter how banal, and no matter bow little sense it makes in any particular context. I find it very untrustworthy. Anxiety is the opposite of lucidity. Let's hear from someone who can sit down in a restaurant and get throughout a handshake with the server without mistaking it for a crisis.
8
You could get the same affect just eating a bowl of ramen on a t.v. tray at home for less than $18.00...
9
I lived in Japan for 7 years and return often. Trust me, $20 ramen with what appear to be pretty standard ingredients is absolutely ridiculous.
10
You don't have to be in Japan to afford ramen. Here in Australia you can have a decent bowl for $12. And that is in Australian dollars, making it only $9 USD - half the price of NYC. Rents must be just crazy over there.
5
my visit to a branch of Ichiran in Tokyo found my stomach gurgling requiring a quick visit to the men's room an hour or two later - so I wouldn't be paying top dollar for that experience again.
Would the owner consider putting in seats with backs to them? I know that with my sciatica, I'd never be able to sit there long enough to finish a meal.
2
So, is it proper to shake the proffered hand? Or is it just reaching for the menu with your preferences marked?
1
For heaven's sake, how many words, words, words, does Pete Wells write before he actually gets to the food? I started reading the review and found the verbosity so tedious and tiring that I gave up about 4 paragraphs into the article. Time for a much needed change of Food Critic at The Times.
16
Email me and I'll send you the first draft of the review, which started with the food and ended with the isolation booths.
23
Please request my email from the subscription dept, - I don't have access to yours. Might I also add the whether or not the article starts or ends with the subject of the booths, I still count eleven paragraphs dedicated to that subject and is it really necessary to have more than one or two at most dealing with the booths? Eleven paragraphs about the decor of any restaurant seems like too many by at least half.
2
It's Ramen; how many paragraphs can (or should) he possibly devote to this ubiquitous noodle soup? The point of interest that the article seems to highlight, and seeks to draw a reaction from, is the individual booths. You can question whether this place should be reviewed in the first place, but I think a chapter and verse dissection of each individual ingredient in the ramen, along with a precise longitudinal location of its origin to meet proper farm to table specifications, would be a dull read--- it is soup after all.
6
Ichiran in Japan is some consistently tasty ramen. We visited several times when we were over there, glad to see it land in USA. Those cubicles are something to experience. But $18 for the basic Ramen? Wow, I believe it was more modestly priced at $10USD(¥800-1000) in Japan though.
16
Undoubtedly, they would charge a lower price if they could manage it financially. As I'm sure I don't need to tell you, rents—and especially rents on commercial property—in New York (yes, even in Bushwick), are incredibly high, plus the median pay is higher to deal with the higher cost of living, etc., so I doubt that this is simply price-gouging—though I could, of course, be wrong. It is higher than other ramen places, though, like one of my favorites, Totto Ramen (specifically the location in Hell's Kitchen on 52nd St. near 9th Avenue). Would highly recommend that place.
(And just to add, lest my Birmingham, AL, location reduce my New York street cred, I'm living here temporarily to take care of ailing parents; I consider myself a New Yorker and have lived in New York for 17 years, so I know very well what those rents are doing to people and to the price of absolutely everything. My girlfriend, who remained behind for obvious work-related reasons, and I have had our rent raised in our Washington Heights apartment for three consecutive years, and we're going to move either to Queens or the Bronx when I get back. Aaaanyway. Just a little addendum there.)
(And just to add, lest my Birmingham, AL, location reduce my New York street cred, I'm living here temporarily to take care of ailing parents; I consider myself a New Yorker and have lived in New York for 17 years, so I know very well what those rents are doing to people and to the price of absolutely everything. My girlfriend, who remained behind for obvious work-related reasons, and I have had our rent raised in our Washington Heights apartment for three consecutive years, and we're going to move either to Queens or the Bronx when I get back. Aaaanyway. Just a little addendum there.)
9
Private dinning booths are common in some of the oldest SF restaurants, I think Tadich Grill comes to mind as one.
9
And Sam's.
Ahh, yes Sam's! You go to Sam's and never feel guilty having two dry Martini's with your lunch along with those great Sand Dabs. Thanks for reminding me.
1
The booths at Tadich are anything but silent, though. Maybe "dinning booths" isn't a typo.
Ramen should never cost more than $10. What a scam...
Come on over to Tokyo, where Ivan is painfully average .
You should also learn the Japanese word "over-spec"...
Come on over to Tokyo, where Ivan is painfully average .
You should also learn the Japanese word "over-spec"...
17
Ichiran's commitment to its ramen via its private slurping booths reminded me of the private drinking closets (snugs?) in old Irish pubs that were used by serious drinkers and/or women in olden times. One is featured in the movie "Odd Man Out," and they are discussed in Heinrich Boll's "Irish Journal." I'm not sure I'm dedicated to ramen enough to ask for a flavor concentration booth -- although I can fully appreciate the utility of a private drinking booth on a cold night.
12
As soon as you mentioned the "Private drinking booth", I flashed on an image from that great film, 'Johnny' sitting closed eyed in that booth, and there it was in the next sentence. Thanks for that.
What I find interesting, in the context of food and film, is how a crowd can develop one's emotions in a theater setting, comedy especially, while it dulls the perception of taste, for me at least. My preferred group for dining is two to four, and thus, I like the idea of the booth. I think it's more than the concentration of aromas; I actually find that the sensory pleasure of dining benefits from lack of distraction while the emotional pleasures of the theatrical arts are enhanced by community.
This is the first review I've read which will get me to the restaurant on that basis alone.
What I find interesting, in the context of food and film, is how a crowd can develop one's emotions in a theater setting, comedy especially, while it dulls the perception of taste, for me at least. My preferred group for dining is two to four, and thus, I like the idea of the booth. I think it's more than the concentration of aromas; I actually find that the sensory pleasure of dining benefits from lack of distraction while the emotional pleasures of the theatrical arts are enhanced by community.
This is the first review I've read which will get me to the restaurant on that basis alone.
9
Odd Man Out will be on TCM very soon.
5
Now throw those of you who complain that Mr. Wells only reviews restaurants for the one percent (and there are always several of you in every one of those reviews), can finally hold their tongue, or pen, as it were.
22
No thanks. I prefer "conversation with my dinner companion concentration zones".
7