{"id":18247,"date":"2016-06-15T10:30:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T10:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/letsnomnomblog.com\/?p=18247"},"modified":"2019-06-13T15:44:59","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T22:44:59","slug":"ippudo-west-midtown-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/15\/ippudo-west-midtown-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Ippudo West, Midtown West"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ippudo<\/p>\n

I recently reduced my “to eat” and “to revisit” ramen lists down to a short list as I’m running out of time here in NYC. Since I loved the wasabi shoyu ramen at Ippudo East<\/a>, Ippudo West<\/a> has earned a spot on my “must eat” list, but has always been a little out of the way for me.<\/p>\n

Finally visited Ippudo West with fellow bloggers The Dishelin Guide and Johnny Prime. I feel like some joke about a vegan, an omnivore, and a carnivore walking into a ramen bar would be fitting, but I’m not feeling very witty right now so I’ll pass. You’re welcome to submit your jokes below. Here’s a behind the scenes shot<\/a> from our lunch.<\/p>\n

\"Ippudo<\/p>\n

In typical Ippudo fashion, the westside location was packed. There was a wait for a table for three during peak lunch hours on a weekday, but it was reasonable. The bright interior of Ippudo West is quite a contrast to the cave-like feel of Ippudo East, but the energy and the noise level is the same.<\/p>\n

\"Eggplant<\/p>\n

Loved the vegetable hirata buns ($8) last time around, and I was happy to inhale an order of these by myself. As good as I remembered… actually, no, maybe better since I didn’t have breakfast that morning and was starving. The crunchy batter and the spicy sauce are what makes these so good.<\/p>\n

\"Eggplant<\/p>\n

When I was almost done with the buns, our waitress brought out a shot of seltzer water and explained that was meant to be my palate cleanser before diving into the shojin ramen. At $18, Ippudo’s shojin ramen is the most expensive bowl of ramen I’ve had. It’s vegan and gluten-free. This is Ippudo doing Zen Buddhist cuisine, which is known for its delicate flavors. (Think Kajitsu<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"Vegan<\/p>\n

The broth is made of dried vegetables, beans, and seaweed. Standard toppings include sansai mountain veggies, six-grain rice, and goji berries. It may be a light broth, but it’s flavorful and the goji berries add a nice sweetness. The seasonal topping in my bowl was thick slices of (braised?) bamboo which were tender and juicy. The rice noodles were slippery and softer than I would have liked. They also top it with rice noodle crackers for some crunch and texture.<\/p>\n

Overall, elegant, refined, and balanced. If you’re looking for the typical ramen experience (read: rich, satisfying comfort food), this isn’t for you. If you’re open to trying something different and you’re down for a lighter bowl of noodles with clean, bright flavors, give it a go.<\/p>\n

\"Vegan<\/p>\n

Here are the other bowls of ramen at our table. The karaka-men ($14) has a tonkotsu pork broth with a spicy kick. Comes topped with pork chashu, cabbage, sesame kikurage mushrooms, scallions, and garlic oil. This one has extra spicy paste (+$2), but that probably isn’t necessary unless you like your ramen hot, hot, hot.<\/p>\n

\"Karaka-Men<\/p>\n

The tori-shio ($15) is a lighter option with a “chintan” chicken and pork broth with pork loin chashu, minced sweet plum onion, shiso leaf, and a little dash of chili flakes. Johnny Prime’s got a nice noodle lift going on here!<\/p>\n

\"Tori-Shio<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently reduced my “to eat” and “to revisit” ramen lists down to a short list as I’m running out of time here in NYC. Since I loved the wasabi shoyu ramen at Ippudo East, Ippudo West has earned a spot on my “must eat” list, but has always been a little out of the way for me. Finally visited Ippudo West with fellow bloggers The Dishelin Guide and Johnny Prime. I feel like some joke about a vegan, an omnivore, and a carnivore walking into a ramen bar would be fitting, but I’m not feeling very witty right now so I’ll pass. You’re welcome to submit your jokes below. Here’s a behind the scenes shot from our lunch. In typical Ippudo fashion, the westside location was packed. There was a wait for a table for three during peak lunch hours on a weekday, but it was reasonable. The bright interior of Ippudo West is quite a contrast to the cave-like feel of Ippudo East, but the energy and the noise level is the same. Loved the vegetable hirata buns ($8) last time around, and I was happy to inhale an order of these by myself. As good as I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3355,3359,3358,3639],"tags":[647,1091,1377,1475,1477,1534,1783,2310,2382,2559,2978,2990,3069,3092,3132,3313],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/img_5724.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}