Ramen Spot
My partner on a late Saturday evening was planning to get some food with their friend, so that means I can venture out on my own. As people know from reading this site, I’m a ramen fiend. I love to try all sorts of ramen, and I never mind eating it by myself. This ramen location recently opened only a few weeks ago, and I definitely prefer early dinners. It’s located very close to the 7 train Court Sq stop, and is just around the corner from the Long Island City Trader Joe’s.
Ambiance & Service
When I arrived at 4:30 PM, there was only 1 table with 3 diners. The restaurant itself is pretty big with plenty of spacious zen as well as actual seating. It felt like your normal modern, hip, and trendy Japanese spot.
The service was pretty fast, and the wait staff was super attentive on keeping my water filled.
Food
The ika geso ($10) came with battered deep fried squid on top of a light salad with a Japanese mayo like dip. The light salad had some sort of yuzu vinaigrette drizzled on top. The squid tasted fresh and had the right kind of crisp and texture.
The Toroniku Ramen ($18) came with a pork based soup, tontoro, kikurage, scallion, and half seasoned egg. The tontoro was super fatty pork, with some smoke to it, and was quite delicious. It was literally melt in your mouth as if it was braised for a very long time. The broth was very flavorful and not too oily. The ramen was similar to the Shinsengumi-style where it was very thin ramen noodles. I usually prefer thicker (or curvy/wavy) noodles. Nonetheless, it was cooked perfectly, and it tasted good with the broth. The egg yolk wasn’t quite how I would’ve imagined. It was slightly on the overcooked side, and it didn’t have the strong soy injection compared to most other ramen places.
Added July 8, 2023
The Yuzu White Peach Sparkling Soda ($5 - left) came in a bottle from Moshi. This was non-alcoholic, very delicious, and pleasant at a good price point compared to other ramen places. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes yuzu and white peach flavors because it definitely was pronounced and satiated my tongue.
The Nippon Coco ($10 - right) came with soju, mint leaves, lime with coco, and pineapple. My partner ordered this, and this was an excellent and delicious concoction especially at the price point. It was very smooth, and the flavors were all very good and not too sweet.
The Takoyaki ($9) came with 6 pieces and was crispy octopus dumplings with mayo, sweet sauce, and bonito flakes on top. This is not much different than other Japanese snack places, and it was good. The batter was not as crispy as I would have liked, but that is partly due to the sauce that is layered on top. Be careful when biting into this because the inside can be scalding hot.
The Chicken Paitan ($15) came with a duck based soup, wood ear mushroom, poached chicken, and half seasoned egg. The broth was surprisingly flavorful, albeit much less salty than the pork based soups. If you go back and forth between soup types, you will find the broth a bit bland. By itself though, it’s good. The chicken tasted like it was sous vide, so it will have that very tender texture. The noodles are the thick kind, which is what I typically prefer.
The Spicy Miso ($16) came with pork based soup, red miso, roasted corn, ground pork, naruto, scallion, and a half seasoned egg. The red miso here was surprisingly very good and pretty flavorful. It reminded me of some of that Korean ssamjang, but of course with more miso flavorings. The soup was not too oily and just right. Combined, it was quite delicious and one of the better pork soups I’ve had in the city. The surprise of the bowl was the roasted corn. They take a long piece of corn and slice off a side of kernels that are still in tact. Some might find it odd that they didn’t break the corn kernels into pieces, but I much prefer this because you can choose to eat it however you want. The noodles were similar to the Chicken Paitan above, and they were very tasty.
Added September 21, 2024
The Tonkotsu Classic ($16) came with a pork based soup, bamboo shoot, wood ear mushroom, naruto, pork belly, half egg, and scallions. The noodles in this were the thin type, which I wasn’t a fan of. The broth was flavorful, but wasn’t as good as the spicy miso previously.
The Shoyu ($16) came with a duck based soup, bamboo shoot, Chinese broccoli, pork belly, naruto, half seasoned egg, and scallions. This one had better noodles, but the broth was a little one-dimensional for me since it was just soy sauce with some duck seasoning in it.
Final Verdict
This is a very no frills and pretty good ramen restaurant that I imagine I would return when an opportunity presents itself. By no means does it warrant a special trip, but it’s by far one of the best ones I’ve been close to my apartment near Queensboro.
After trying this a few more times, this ramen restaurant is quite consistent in their offerings. Their price point doesn’t break the bank, and the soups/noodles can give many ramen places a run for their money. The unfortunate part is that it’s a little hidden, so hopefully that doesn’t affect its tenure here.
Yelp Jabs
However, I do wish that they offered some combo options on their menu to make it easier to order a complete meal.
The combo options would likely be not much different than ordering the appetizers by themselves. This Elitist says this is a “small issue”, but their menu is pretty small already. It should be pretty straight forward to assemble your meal. The menu has a snacks and ramen category, so you can literally select 1 snack and 1 ramen. I suppose, for this Elitist if they are that lazy, the restaurant can offer a combo option where you select 1 snack and 1 ramen.
Jumbo Shumai- Steamed shrimp dumpling. I didn’t like this app. It did not have a homemade feel and it was over steamed. I started to turn mushy just from the chopstick.
I have never really had any “homemade” shumai at any Japanese ramen restaurant. This is probably something that classifies as a “do not order if you have high expectations” category. The shumai in Japanese restaurants is very different than the ones served in Cantonese dim sum restaurants.
Revisions
- Sep 21, 2024 - Added shoyu ramen and tonkotsu classic.
- Jul 8, 2023 - Added some drinks, takoyaki, chicken paitan, and spicy miso.
- May 7, 2022 - Initial revision.