There was been a LOT of buzz about Ichiran since it opened 2 years ago as it is a famous ramen chain in Japan. It's famous not just for it's great flavors but because of it's unique seating arrangement. This is the perfect place for introverts because you essentially eat in an isolation booth without having to see/talk to another human - yes, you heard me right. You eat alone in a booth that kind of reminded me of the testing booth used when you take the GMAT. You basically sit alone and you don't see your server or really talk to anyone. Instead, you circle what you want on the paper menu, you slip the paper under the window and the waiter comes and gets it. If you need more water, you can ring a bell and the waiter will come and give you more water - but overall, the whole experience is very low on human interaction. The good news is that if you come with someone else, they can open up one side of the booth so that you can talk to each other.
As for the menu, there's really just 1 thing on the menu: 1 kind of ramen. But you can pick how it's done from how strong you want the dashi (broth), richness of the broth, how much garlic, with or without scallions, with or without pork, level of spiciness, and then you can add additional toppings like egg, seaweed, mushroom or if you want more noodles. They actually gave us a free coupon for more noodles, which originally I didn't think I would need but trust me, take the free coupon and get the additional noodles. You'll need it to go with the abundance of broth you get. I went with the recommended traditional version - medium dashi, medium richness, medium amount of garlic, with scallion and pork, medium spicy and medium firmness to the noodles. Plus I got a hard boiled soy egg ($2.90 extra).
I will say that the presentation is definitely Instagram worthy. It's beautiful and looks picture perfect. The flavor was exactly as described - everything was medium, ha! The broth was nice and salty and the noodles were chewy and absorbed the flavors of the broth well. You are definitely left with more broth which is where the extra noodles come in handy. So why didn't I give it more forks? Well, for spending over $20 on ramen, there wasn't enough pork or other toppings. Basically it's a $25 bowl of broth, noodles and 2 slices of pork which is hard for me to swallow, especially when the same bowl costs $7 in Japan. Yes, I realize that Ippudo and other top ramen places are priced not that far off but at least that's in the city. This is in a random industrial strip in Bushwick. All in all, it's a fun experiment and now there is one in Midtown so you don't have to trek to this one. Total bill: $47 for 2 people with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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