TabeTomo
I remember a few years ago before the pandemic, TabeTomo was a very new tsukemen centric restaurant, and it was always on my try list. However, I never was able to make it to the restaurant due to how sparse tsukemen was in general in Manhattan, as well as, the restaurant was closed at random times when I tried to visit. Finally tonight, I got a chance to try this out and to compare against other tsukemen places.
From their site:
Named after its founder Chef Tomo, tabeTomo (pronounced ‘ta-beh-to-mo’) translates directly from Japanese to “eating buddy.” The restaurant serves a signature tonkotsu pork broth that prepared over 60 hours and specializes in jiro-style. Located in the heart of Manhattan’s East Village, on the busy cross streets of St. Marks and Avenue A, TabeTomo caters to an eclectic crowd, ranging from native connoisseurs of noodles to the first-time customer of tsukemen.
Ambiance & Service
When I walked in, the vibe was definitely very bustling, and luckily as a party of 1, I was able to sit at the counter pretty easily. The servers are very attentive, and they knew I was just there to eat and not waste much time.
Food
The Tonkotsu Chashu Tsukemen ($23) came with traditional tsukemen with a seasoned soft-boiled egg, chashu slices, and vegetables. This is slightly different than the $18 regular tonkotsu tsukemen because it includes more slices of chashu and the boiled egg. The soup wasn’t as thick as other places, but it was quite tasty once you mix it with the soy-like and vinegar-like base at the bottom of the bowl. I found the base to be not as eclectic as I would have preferred, but it was still pretty good. The vinegar had a nice bite to it, and the soy flavors gave it some interesting umami.
They also give you a lot of garlic as you can tell in the picture, so if you’re sensitive to garlic, this is just a heads up. There are a ton of vegetables under the broth, including plenty of seasoned bean sprouts and spinach. The thick noodles were cold and chewy. I found that dipping the noodles in the broth wasn’t as salty as I was expecting, and it was borderline really easy to scoop everything together into a single bite.
As always, you can ask the servers to top your bowl off with broth when you are close to the end, so that you can finish the rest of the soup.
Final Verdict
TabeTomo was a pretty good bowl of tsukemen, and it’s highly recommended if you are able to get in without much wait. I would like to come back and try some of the ramen dishes as well. For me, this tsukemen place ranks below my favorite in the city, Okiboru, because the flavors are not as tasty.
Yelp Jabs
While the flavor of my tsukemen was very good, the broth was quite salty, even as a tsukemen … My tsukemen was just too salty for me to really enjoy it.
Everyone’s salt palette is different, so I expect this Elitist to have more sensitivity. However for anyone eating tsukemen for the first time, you should expect this to be very salty. Focus on coating your noodles, and if it does get salty, you can ask them to pour broth (or even hot water) to dilute it.
The ramen noodles were served just a bit undercooked, which is normally good, but the dipping broth didn’t really “finish the cooking” process for me.
In tsukemen, the noodles are supposed to be cold and “al dente”, and the dipping broth isn’t supposed to be super hot. The focus on the dipping broth is that it’s very rich to give flavors, not to “finish” cooking the noodles.
Revisions
- Jan 22, 2025 - Initial revision.