Hung Ry Visited 1/13/11 3.5 Forks

Hung Ry  55 Bond St, (between Lafayette St & Bowery), New York, NY 10012

 I walked into Hung Ry at 6pm on a Thursday night and it was completely empty.  The host asked if I had a reservation and I wanted to give him this look.  When I said no, he looked pained and finally said "well, it looks like I can seat you tonight."  Well, thank you.  But in all fairness he was actually really nice about it and when the clock turned 7pm, I soon realized he said what he said (it was completely packed by then). 
The menu is actually fairly limited and they specialize in hand pulled noodles with broths that come with exotic meats like ox tail, veal cheek, and tongue.  Aarti and I each got appetizers to start; she got the composed vegetables ($7) of beets, carrots, and radish, while I got the short ribs, diakon and shiso ($7).  The veggies looked beautiful and very "organic" and fresh looking.  It made me feel healthy just looking at it.  My short ribs were quite delicious.  The meat was cooked perfectly and melted in my mouth.  I could have done without the foam (I never really quite understood its function) and the diakon was actually really spicy for some reason.  For our main noodle dishes, I got the ox tail, beef brisket, turnips, and black currant ($15) and Aarti got the only veggie option of squash, tamarind, and vegetables ($12).  I was torn between the ox tail and pork belly and the waitress told me that the pork belly was super smoky tasting, and since I generally don't get ox tail at restaurants, I thought I would give it a go.  The waitress was also very adamant that we get the "thick" noodles instead of the thin ones because they don't sop up all the broth.  

While I am a sucker for a good noodle/ramen dish and to be honest, this did not blow me away.  Not sure if it's because I'm Asian and have had my fair share of excellent and cheap noodle dishes, but I walked away thinking "well, that was a good meal but..."  The ox tail was cooked very tender, so that wasn't really the issue.  The dish just reminded me of a basic Niu Rou Mian (beef noodle soup) that I used to eat when I was young...the broth was a bit salty but had that beefy taste to it.  When the waitress mentioned that the noodles were going to be thick, I envisioned more of a udon style noodle, but it was thinner than udon but thicker than ramen. 

When the bill came it was $55 (includes a $5 beer for me and a $4.50 fancy lychee soda for Aarti) which I thought was a bit much for a noodle soup.  I know the quality and the fanciness of the place does merit it to be a bit more expensive than your average Chinatown noodle joint, I don't think it should be this much.