Terakawa Ramen, Flatiron

Angela and I have fallen behind on our monthly noodle dates. I blame hellwinter2014… the cold makes everyone want to hide at home and hibernate. With the arrival of spring, we finally got around to resuming our monthly tradition. We decided to try Terakawa Ramen at Lexington and 23rd St. I’ve visited the Columbus Circle location once, but never this one.

I arrived right at 12:30pm on a rainy Saturday. The restaurant was very empty when I arrived, but filled up very quickly within the next hour. This place is cash only, so make sure you come prepared. Two Sapporos and edamame for $6. A lunch special! I was looking forward to trying their vegetable ramen, but they, unfortunately, didn’t have it that day. I ended up ordering the Mayu Ramen ($10) and asked them not to include the roast pork. It is a pork broth, but I’m not too fussy about veggie vs non-veggie broths. I suppose I’m being a bad vegetarian and cheating a little, but what can you do? There’s something really appealing about a dark, stormy bowl of black garlic ramen on a rainy day. The noodles were a nice al dente. Toppings included bamboo, egg, scallions, red ginger (yum!), and kikurage mushrooms. I found the broth to be incredibly rich, probably because I haven’t had a pork broth in a long time. Two years ago, I would have been bummed about not having any char shu pork, but this bowl of ramen was delicious without it, and the black garlic flavor was amazing as always.

Angela’s Shoyu Ramen ($9) offered lovely colors. A nice way to cheer yourself up on a gloomy day. Terakawa’s shoyu broth is a chicken broth. And look at all those scallions!