Ramen-Ya, Greenwich Village

While my brother was in town, we visited Ramen-ya for a quick, casual dinner. There are two locations just a few blocks away from each other. We visited the Greenwich Village location, and I really wanted to like this place as it would be great to have a good ramen in that area. I can’t remember if another blogger recommended this place, or if I found it on Yelp (where it has 4 stars), but man, this place was such a let down.

I don’t mind simple, no fuss places for a casual meal, but this place looked like a sad, abandoned food court. On top of that, they were blasting music during our entire meal. I could barely talk to the person right next to me. Even if the food were really good, the music would distract you from it. Oh, and the volume is even louder on the speakers in the restroom. When I was in there, it felt like the Jackson 5 were screaming that “ABC, it’s easy as 1-2-3” song at me.

We ordered a pitcher of Sapporo ($15) and an order of the Spicy Tofu Vegetable Gyoza ($7) to share. The gyoza looked nice, and the wrappers were quite good. The filling was mushy and didn’t seem to have any tofu at all. I expected there to be spiciness inside the gyoza, but nope, it’s just chili powder thrown on top. Somehow that seems like cheating to me.

John ordered the dry Yaki Yasai Ramen ($12). Wavy noodles with various vegetable toppings, pickled red ginger, dried seaweed, and some kind of sweet sauce. It was a lot of food, but flavor-wise, John said it was nothing special.

My brother ordered the Abura Soba ($12) with Musashi pork, vegetables, and a soy based sauce. Despite the name, this has ramen noodles instead of soba.

I ordered the Yasai Ramen ($12), which had wavy noodles in a miso based vegetable broth. Topped with menma, bean sprouts, kikurage mushrooms, corn, and scallions. I actually liked the noodles quite a bit (yay, they got something right) as they were a firm, bouncy al dente. The broth was okay. Heavy miso flavor, very salty. I appreciate that they were generous with the toppings, but overall, nothing remarkable about this ramen. Sorry, not coming back!