This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ramen is one of those things I can always be in the mood for. Alfred and I were in midtown and took this opportunity to try ICHIRAN. They are known for their solo dining booths, where each seat is separated by wooden partitions. Even the wait staff are behind bamboo curtains that only get raised when the food is being served or plates taken away, and even then we don’t actually see a face, just the arms and torso of the server.
Midtown Location, NYC
Place orders at kiosk before getting seated.
Solo dining booths
Want more food?
Upon entering the restaurant, the first task at hand is to order our meal at the kiosk. There were so many options for customizing our ramen. Flavor strength, oil content, garlic level, amount of green onions, amount of red secret sauce (spice level), and noodle texture. As this was our first time and we were not sure what to expect, we selected medium for everything, except the spice level where we selected strong.
Fully Loaded Tonkotsu Ramen
The soft boiled egg was so good!
Call button for service
Matcha Pudding Dessert
The first ICHIRAN opened in 1960 in Fukuoka, Japan and is focused only on tonkotsu broth ramen. ICHIRAN truly makes a wonderful, silky textured pork broth so rich that it tastes creamy. Their spicy red sauce is actually a red powder sprinkled in the center of the bowl. I enjoy spicy, and even at the high level I selected, it wasn’t quite spicy enough. It was delicate, with sweet notes, but unexpectedly milder than I anticipated it to be. Only 4 people in the world know ICHIRAN’s secret recipe to their spicy red sauce and their dashi soup stock.
The matcha pudding dessert is sweet, milky and smooth with a strong matcha flavor without being bitter. Full disclosure, I’m a matcha fanatic. I start every day with a matcha latte and I like mine creamy and bitter strong. I thoroughly enjoyed this pudding and the wheels in my head have been turning on how I will re-create this pudding at home. Stay tuned for that.
The solo dining booths were designed to get the diner to focus on the ramen and block everything else that usually draws attention away from our food, like the servers and other customers. Perhaps for certain personalities, this might work. I came here with Alfred, my husband, and believe it or not, we enjoy having conversations with each other and it felt weird to be expected not to interact. We still leaned back and checked on each other and conversed. I noticed other diners who came in groups do the same.
To sum it up, the ramen focused booths were definitely novel, but not my preference. The ramen noodles were chewy, had a good bite to it and doesn’t have that soapy taste I find many ramen places have. The broth is in my top 3, and to put that in perspective, I’ve probably been to about 30 different ramen restaurants. The chashu pork was average at best, tender but also dry and chewy and the flavor was just good, not great. I was annoyed that the egg came on a separate plate, was cold and I needed to peel the shell off the egg myself. Not only that, but the shell was so stuck to the egg that I peeled chunks of egg whites off along with the shell. But my annoyance quickly dissipated at how perfectly not-quite-runny that yolk was. It was almost gelatinous throughout the whole yolk, from edge to edge. I dipped the egg in my broth and some scallions hung on to it and it was just divine.
7.5 out of 10 from me.
Join our newsletter to stay updated with
No spam, only good things. We promise. Unsubscribe at any time.
