When the work portion of my New York City trip was over, my first order of "fun" business was a dinner date with two of my absolute favorite girls from college. After reading my review of Yuga, they said, "If you're into ramen now, there is a place we must take you in New York!"
That place is called Ippudo.
Ippudo is located at 65 Fourth Avenue, between 9th and 10th Street (near Astor Place). It's very unassuming for the outside, but on the inside it's bursting with bright colors, loud noises and tantalizing smells.
When we first walked in I was immediately spellbound by this incredible light fixture above the bar. Also notice all of the ramen bowls mounted to the wall behind the bar.
We put our name in with the hostess and she told us it would be, "About two and a half hours. Would you like to wait?" Thankfully my friends had warned me there is always a wait (because they don't take reservations).
They don't give you a pager, but you can track your progress on a mobile app! How cool is that?
In the end we actually got called 90 minutes after we put our name in. We were two blocks away having cocktails so by the time we closed our tab and walked back over, they had given that table away. In the end, it was a solid two hours by the time we were finally seated.
When you follow the hostess out of the bar area and into the dining room, she shouts in Japanese the number of people coming in and all of the servers shout back "Welcome!" in Japanese. While this was cute when it happened to us, it was less cute the 15 times it happened while we were already seated.
Each of the servers wears an Ippudo t-shirt that has a different ramen-centric saying on it. My favorite one read, "No ramen, no life." Amen!
Ippudo has a big communal table in the center of their dining room that is perfect for couples. You saddle up, turn in toward each other and enjoy your evening without ever feeling crowded.
For larger parties there are roomy booths separated by glass panels. The walls in every booth are covered with Japanese characters. This photo really doesn't do it justice. It was very elegant.
We were seated at a big wooden table made from two rich colors of wood - one blond and one dark brown.
Sprouting out of our table was a gorgeous wooden tree! This really made the restaurant feel unique and special.
At each seat there was a menu and a set of chopsticks.
Though we came for the ramen, Ippudo is equally famous for their Hirata buns. I first had these kinds of buns at Gigi in Miami and I became obsessed! It's very hard to describe the texture of the bun. It's not quite fluffy, not quite pliable, not quite styrofoam, but somewhere in between.
I ordered the veggie Hirata buns which were eggplant and mushroom served with Ippudo's signature spicy bun sauce. My friends ordered the pork Hirata buns which came with the same fixings. Both varieties had an awesome kick from the signature sauce and great crunch from the iceberg lettuce.
For dinner we each ordered a different type of ramen. One of the ladies ordered the Akamaru Modern ramen which is, "noodles topped with Ippudo's secret 'umami dama' miso paste, pork chashu, cabbage, sesame kikurage mushrooms, scallions and fragrant garlic oil." She said, "You know, we waited those two hours and I felt very annoyed, but now that I took one bite of this, I'd wait another two hours just to finish the bowl."
Next to her, my other friend ordered the Shiromaru Hakata Classic ramen which is, "noodles topped with pork loin chashu, sesame kikurage mushrooms, memma, red pickled ginger and scallions." She asked, "How do they get this broth to taste like butter? It's outrageously delicious."
I went with the only vegetarian style of ramen on the menu which was the Wasabi Shoyu ramen. I asked our waiter, "So how much Wasabi are we actually talking about?" He assured me I would survive, so I proceeded with the order.
When my bowl arrived it was decorated with two paper thin pieces of dark green seaweed. The generous blocks of tofu were swimming right at the top. You could absolutely taste the wasabi in every twirl of noodles and if I kept my face too close to the bowl, my eyes started to water. Maybe I'm just a wimp!
Confession: I cannot eat with chopsticks. Embarrassing, but true. I have been on many a date where this sad fact has been revealed and it was on display again at Ippudo. I sheepishly had to ask for a spoon and a fork so that I could eat my ramen. I really tried, but the noodles just refused to stay on the chopsticks!
The food at Ippudo was out of this world. I have been dreaming about those veggie buns, and every night for the last two weeks while it has been freezing in Boston I have wanted that ramen again.
If you do decide to brave the line at Ippudo, plan to find a nearby bar to have drinks while you wait or least pack snacks in your purse. The hostesses are rude and roll their eyes, but by the time you get your first slurp of ramen, you will have forgotten all about them.
