Ippudo

The ramen with the "special sauce" that comes in the red bowls is absolutely delicious. Hands down the best ramen I have tasted outside of Japan, and worth the waiting time. The service staff are hospitable and extremely friendly. Any dish with pork in it is a sure winner - the meat is succulent and literally melts in your mouth. They could do with offering more pork in the ramen though (you only get 1 slice) and at $3 for an extra slice, its a bit on the steep side.

I was absolutely overwhelmed by the delicacy and taste of the broth. I've eaten at Sapporo for over 10 years and recently at a few new places... but this broth! I chose (according to a review as being the best) the 'red' one (don't know the name but everyone seems to have those red bowls & my waitress knew which one I meant, 2nd one down on their menu). Take a look at their website, beautiful but you can't read the small print. Anyhow, not too much noodles so if you like them (and yes they're worth it) do the extra order thing like recommended below. The pork is to die for as the pig did, :) the fat giving you the taste of why everyone is flipping over Mario's lardo. But one slice? Hm. The price is darn high. We paid almost $50 for 2 ramen and a bowl of exquisite but overpriced marinated vegetables. NOTHING to drink. The wait, well you can take a stroll outside so that's no problem but try getting your check when they're busy, or water. That's a problem You must needs patience to dine here and it is worth it but we won't be back for awhile because of the cost. The cost is because it's H I P and that's that. What a flavor though! Really missed my gyoza though.

After growing up in Asia and living in New York my brother and I pride ourselves on finding the best ramen noodles about town. We tried their signature Shiomaru bowl and it was DELICIOUS. The broth is unbeatable by our top 3 ramen houses so far and when the group next to us ordered "extra side of noodles" I finally understood why. Just hands down great noodles, would eat here for the rest of the week if it weren't an hour wait.

Ippudo has great ramen, although it still pales in comparison to its sister branches in Japan for numerous reasons. 1. Ramen itself is fantastic. Go for Shiromaru if you like the lighter taste, and Akamaru for richer flavor but they are both great. Broth is full of flavor, ramen noodle is thin and a bit on the hard side and might not float everyone's boat but I love it. 2. Side dishes are either missing or very bland (Gyoza, which is almost a ramen staple, is missing Ippudo roll is average at best Ramen salad is good but doesn't go too well with Ramen same deal with Chicken Kara-age Bring the Itame-Moyashi, Onsen Tamago and Mentai-Gohan to NYC!!) 3. Service is stellar but queue is very long, expect at least 30 min. wait unless you go when it opens (seems to me that they leave a lot of seats empty for no apparent reason, maybe because they can't pump out ramen fast enough, or they want to a buzz at the bar, but they could definately shuffle people a lot faster seating arrangement where you sit across from strangers is same as Japan and needs to go). All in all, definitely a place that needs to be checked out at least once but unless you like to queue or Ippudo starts to move people a whole lot faster, let's just say, competitors won't be put out of business anytime soon. On the business aspect of things, I understand that Ippudo is trying to justify charging almost double the price in Japan for the same bowl of ramen by having a bar scene and considerably nicer decor but gauging from its customer base (at least 2/3 of which are parents with unbelievably cute babies), a lot of people just want to eat and get out of there. It would definitely pay to move people faster, because you know they are willing to cough up 13 bucks for a bowl.

The food was great, the service is fine, the space is fantastic, but it's a bit more than the other ramen places in the East Village. Some would argue it's worth the extra money. Note: this is a different style of ramen from the clear salt kind you get at Setagaya.

Broth was very intense liquefied essence of pork fantastic and even better with sake. I am a ramen-iac and think this place is one of the best...true Japan quality finally in US...and great service and decor. Mark my words: Ramen will be the new Chipolte.

This is probably one of the best. The noodles tasted fresh, the broth was rich and delicious. The pork was yummy too but there was only one slice which wasn't enough for me. Next time I'll get it with extra pork. The service was good too, everyone was friendly.