Ivan Ramen

Summary

I don’t know much about this ramen spot other than it was on Chef’s Table, and how it really touched a lot of people’s hearts. So my review will be almost based solely on the food itself.

The pork musubi bites were surprisingly good. Each bite is packed full of flavor, although I am rather doubtful that it’s worth $5 a piece.

The Japanese fried chicken were an interesting spin on karaage. The crust was nicely crisp, and the sauce was very tangy. There was a little kick to it too. They served this with a sauce on the side that I don’t quite remember how it tasted like. I do remember that my first thought was that this was oversauced similar to how PF Chang’s would do orange chicken, but nonetheless it was decent.

The shoyu tonkatsu tsukemen was OK. So far, I find Tsujita in Los Angeles as my favorite tsukemen place. The broth here wasn’t as rich, as thick, nor as salty as other tsukemen places. I do love the side vegetables. It was super vinegary and spicy. On its own, it’d go well with just about anything. The pork that was served though was a thick slab, but extremely salty. That coupled with the already semi-salty broth made this combination pretty salty overall.

The chicken paitan was surprisingly pretty flavorful. I was not a fan of the noodles as they were even thinner than typical Shinsengumi style noodles. My friend was unable to finish the side of pork though also complaining about how salty it was.

Final Verdict

I think this place was just OK. It’s not as bad as reviews say it is as long as you go in with an open mind that this is a slight deviation from standard ramen places. I do think that the food was a little oversalted in general, and the flavor profile tends to lean on over emphasis on this too.

Yelp Jabs

I thought Ivan’s was tasty. It was different, and I do believe I’ve had better. I know, but it’s my opinion. There are better ramen spots around NY, but this place wasn’t bad at all. I do think it’s catered to a certain group of people, so it’s not somewhere you would find me going back to.

Props to this person. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. The Chef’s Table episode provides a great narrative to get people to come, but sometimes the effort and storytelling don’t always translate into the end.

If you’re a vegetarian… I would NEVER suggest this place. The Vegetarian Ramen literally tastes like soy sauce broth with noodles, oh and 3 random cubes of soft tofu.

As much as restaurants try to cater to vegetarians, what do you expect where the main staple of the broth is supposed to be meat based? I love some of the Elite comments. They are probably better off reviewing vegetarian restaurants or at least demonstrating they have reasonable expectations.