Setagaya Ramen, East Village

Not too long ago, I visited Setagaya Ramen for lunch with blogger Jessica of Ambitious Eats. St. Marks is an odd part of the East Village area, and Setagaya comes across as a quickie ramen joint best suited for lunch. The food is served within minutes of placing your order, which makes it seem like they don’t want you to linger.

The last time and only other time I visited Setagaya for my ramen fix was almost four years ago when there was a three hour wait at Ippudo. I haven’t ventured back since then, partly because it didn’t wow me first time around, and partly because there are so many other ramen spots in NYC. Nevertheless, I was up for round two and giving their veggie ramen a try since I’m doing this whole veggie ramen tour of NYC thing.

I had the vegetable gyoza ($5.50) as an appetizer. Filling was a little soggy and bland, but the skin was nice and light. There’s a bit of color from the pan frying, but I would have preferred a longer fry for more crispiness and color. To be honest, you’re better off picking up a bag of frozen gyoza from Trader Joe’s and frying up your own at home.

Jessica got some kind of crispy octopus appetizer that she seemed to enjoy quite a bit. Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen octopus pop up on the menu at a ramen joint, but then again, it’s not like I’m paying attention to sea creatures on menus either.

By the way, Setagaya’s ramen is a wee bit cheaper at lunch time. Jessica got the shoyu ramen ($8.95 lunch), which is topped with bamboo, scallions, onion, seaweed, egg, and pork. When I visited years ago, they only had one miserable slice of pork. This definitely looks like an improvement for the most part, although they did scale back to half an egg. One thing I remember Jessica noting about the shoyu ramen was that it’s tasty, but not too salty.

I got the vegetable ramen ($8.95), which might be the only veggie ramen I’ve had in NYC that’s under $10. The thick noodles were nicely chewy and slippery thanks to the richness from the vegetable broth. The broth was quite greasy (in a good way) for a veggie broth, but could use a flavor boost to make this bowl more exciting.

I considered asking them not to include an egg (since I’m cutting back), but after overhearing another customer say the eggs here are some of the best, I decided to try it. Perfectly soft boiled, nicely done. The rest of the toppings were less impressive… a bit odd to have almost raw onion, but zero scallion. The tomatoes were cold, and the broccoli seemed random.

Meh, I feel like Setagaya might be a place that does a decent meat-based ramen on the cheap, but they still have yet to get the hang of the vegetarian game.

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