That’s great and all, but doesn’t change what you said that almost no one knows about the Canadian farm that’s described on the menu itself…?
1 Like
Since this thread has meandered a bit, which the best threads often do on this wonderful site, I’m going to give a shout out for another old-school Japanese place in midtown that has vanished, Sapporo Ramen. Man, I remember going there as a poor young adult and feasting on a huge steaming bowl of Ramen after a day of wandering around Manhattan, killing time until my brother got off from work. That place sustained me on several trips to New York. I miss places like that.
OK, I will stop being nostalgic about ramen now. And dream about soba instead.
Sapporo! Yeah, miss that for sure… Sushiden too if we’re talking old school midtown Japanese. My mainstay for ramen back then was Rai Rai ken since I was much closer to EV…
1 Like
I was a big Dosanko fan.
1 Like
Ok i was wrong on that. But no one has ever discussed this online AFAIK. I do have photos of Andy Warhol eating there.
1 Like
Nigiri? I think you have put your food cred in jeopardy. Nigiri is sushi. What does rice polishing have to do with sushi? Did you mean junmai versus ginjo versus daiginjo?
Sapporo was great and I miss it too. Was a curious little stretch of 49th with Sapporo, Sushiden and Sake Bar Hagi. A lot of Japanese banks in the area.
If you want ramen Ippudo is nearby. There are also a number of less well known places.
bcc, I wrote the original post. Yes it’s worth going to but if you remember Honmura An or Matsugen, I don’t think it is as good. Cocoran is a good soba spot further downtown. Not as fancy or expensive.
Dosanko! I remember that chain from my poor college student days. Don’t recall them having ramen. More something like yakisoba and gyoza.
Digga there are still plenty of cheap places for noodles. Sapporo lost its lease when the building it’s in went through a huge reconstruction of the ground floor. The sake bar next door also got the boot. I can’t recall the name of the other Japanese restaurant that was to the left of Sapporo. I first tried hiyashi chuka at Sapporo. What a great lunch on a sticky august.
3 Likes
Ah I meant Nigori obviously sorry dude late night ramblings on some sake of my own.
Soba in Japan isn’t a fancy thing you just down it standing up outside the train station on a food stall counter. Ofc you can get fancy Soba if you want. Anything can be upscaled in Japan, I’ve seen $500 shrimp tempura, just one shrimp!
The hot place for Ramen is Cha Menya in Little Neck, as far east as the city gets! I have some pics on IG. This place will blow your mind!
1 Like
Visited Cocoron on our last visit to New York. Loved it.
1 Like
Despite the loss of Sapporo (and I had a soft spot for menkuitei), there is a ton! Ippudo has ridiculous lines but with two totto spots and also hide chan, there’s plenty of places to cover.
1 Like
And yet they did!
Ah Menkui Tei, classic first gen nyc ramen. Ippudo I can’t understand, I preferred Setagaya at university place at the time Ippudo opened up the wave of second gen ramen places in the city. Kubo did some innovative stuff at the time too, he was next door to one of the Minca’s. He once served me a tomato basil ramen that was really tasty actually.
Minca and Kubo were friends, Shigeto, Minca’s owner used to play drums in the basement after hours and they were close. They played jazz together. In fact, Shigeto helped Kubo get his ramen business started, right next door to him. One night I roll in, and Shigeto is at the bar, and Kubo isn’t there. He’s clearly drunk and bullshitting to one of the female servers. “Kubo, ah, he’s not a real ramen guy you know? He’s just like pretending, you know? It’s just like his music!” drunk japenese-style dismissive hand waving ensues. Me and my friend managed to contain our composure somehow!
Always preferred Paitan over Chintan broths, but their shio wasn’t bad. I don’t have a delicate palate, I would usually walk farther east to minca for a bowl that’d punch me in the face.
If you like Paiten you gotta try the matcha one at Cha Menya! That will sock it to you
Using the way back time machine, I see the other Japanese resto I couldn’t remember was Iroha. In an incredibly ironic way, the space that Sapporo and Iroha occupied is now an Ichiran.
The original Totto Ramen that was on 52nd is gone. Replaced by some other ramen joint. Have not tried it. Totto was great. The larger spot near 10th is still there.
1 Like
Ah, that’s too bad…fond memories of waiting to take the couple steps down at totto. Love yakitori totto too, of course
The original Totto was great. A guy I used to work with worked in Tokyo for a while and spoke almost fluent Japanese. Was great to go with him. We would sit at the bar and he would start talking in Japanese with the cooks and that always got us better service. He said it was just like the ramen places he went to in Tokyo.
On the other side of town, another buddy of mine who got stuck in Tokyo for so many years he married a Japanese woman said Sakagura was just like the izakayas he would go to in Tokyo.
Eating with Andy in the 80’s at Nippon. I like that table.
1 Like
I am un-hijacking this thread!
Since I wanted to try this place regardless of what I read online (the OP’s is not the only mediocre review I’ve read), we went there for Valentine’s Day dinner. I had no trouble getting a reservation, although it was full that night (and the tables are a lot closer together than they look in pictures). The service was excellent, with the exception of the hostess. I called to say we were running a few minutes late, and she noted that they would need the table back in two hours. Fine! And then she told me again when I arrived. And again when she seated us. So let’s just say we were very aware of the two hour limit.
The soba - as noted - was definitely the weakest link in an otherwise very satisfactory meal. We both had the sarashina type, which is indeed quite bland, although it did have a nice, slightly chewy texture. I had mine with sashimi, which was of good quality (as one would hope), but also the lowest common denominator of sashimi. This made me resentful of its cost. I don’t think snow crab and cooked shrimp should even count as sashimi.
The mushroom salad was a lot better. Delicate sesame dressing, judiciously applied, delicious marinated mushrooms, and fried soba chips for crunch.
I got a smoke drink. I will always get the smoke drink. I think that fruit is a cherry, unless plums come in that size. The woman at the next table was so interested in the drink - everyone loves a smoke drink! - that I thought she might want a sip or something.
And the dessert, a matcha panna cotta, was excellent. The matcha powder is just a tad bitter, offsetting the custard. Do not breathe it in, because you will get green lung. I was so careful not to breathe in the smoke from my drink (I’ve made this mistake before), but I’d let me guard down by the time dessert came.
And here’s how the hostess drama wrapped up:
Server: Would you like to see a dessert menu?
Me: Yes, but should we move to the bar? We were told we’d have to give up the table at 9, and it’s almost 9.
Server: What? No. You can stay as long as you like. Who told you that?
Me: The hostess.
Server: I’ll kill her.
6 Likes
Glad to have you pull the thread back on track. You included nice pictures with your review unlike me. I wish the soba was better. Everything else was so nice. Haven’t had a chance to get back yet. But your review doesn’t give me much hope in that the soba will be better.
Right? But I have no reason to go back, because I can get better sashimi elsewhere, and probably an at-least-as-good salad and dessert, also. If the soba isn’t the main draw, there’s really no point.
