Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop, Hell’s Kitchen

While my sister was in town, we visited Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop in Gotham West Market. The menu here is slightly different from the brick and mortar location, and the slurp shop is more of a food court, cafeteria setting. Gotham West Market is great for groups for who can’t decide on a single restaurant as there are ten food vendors in here.

There’s a $20 lunch special that includes any ramen, any bun, and a drink. We got one of those, and an second bowl of ramen. The ramen here is a couple dollars cheaper than the Clinton Street location, and you also get a free add-on with every ramen bowl.

The veggie buns ($9) were about as far from your traditional hirata buns as possible, but quite tasty. A nice meaty veggie patty with American cheese, kombu (kelp), pickled onions, ketchup, and mustard. For omnivores, there are pork belly, pastrami, and shrimp buns to choose from.

My sister got the Tokyo shio ramen ($13), which is supposed to be the broth that put Ivan on the ramen map. A sea salt, dashi-chicken broth with rye noodles, pork belly, and scallions. She said the broth was light, but the pork belly was rich and satisfying. My sister is a weirdo who doesn’t like scallions, so Ivan’s scallion heavy bowls were a nightmare for her.

I’ve previously tried the vegetarian shoyu ramen, so this time around, I had to go for the miso butter mazemen ($13). It had a white miso vegetable broth with shimeji mushrooms, onions, and tons of scallions. Since this was a mazemen, it was more saucy, less brothy. Look, it’s a ramen monster!

The miso mixture was very silky, almost like a delicious carbonara. The whole wheat noodles offered a nice texture. The egg was the perfect add on to this indulgent bowl. My sister said my mazemen was much richer than her shio ramen. Now, if only Ivan served this mazemen AND the Tofu Coney Island at the same location!

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