Best Ramen in Brooklyn (2026)

The ramen masters Karazishi Botan, Fumehiro Kanegae, studied bread making in France and also worked for a bit at Ippudo. The menu is an eclectic mix of Japanese izakaya items with Western influences. Order of the day was their flagship, The Iron Men IV, featuring a soup made from Iberico pork, chicken and oxtail. It arrives as just a bowl of soup and noodles, with the chashu and a soft boiled egg on the side. It also came with an eyedropper filled with rosemary infused olive oil. I was a bit surprised at the lack of other toppings, but the server explained this offering is all about the soup. The soup was indeed very complex - the pork was the most prominent, with a little brininess and a bit of collagen. A couple of dabs from the eye dropper transformed the soup, a bit piney and a hint of sweetness. The noodles were yeasty and a bit doughy. This was quite a unique bowl. While the rosemary was interesting, I did prefer the soup without where I could really taste the pork.

Karazishi Botan is one of my favorites in NYC, but unfortunately I don’t get out to Brooklyn very often. A post-Brooklyn half-marathon replenishment (I didn’t run, but expended some calories cheering 😉) was the perfect occasion to continue working my way through their ever-changing menu. Order of the day was a special, the Paint It Black, a Kyushu style black garlic tonkotsu. As with their flagship Iron Men IV, the soup is refined and achieves incredible balance and depth of flavor. Despite the ample pork oil floating on the top of the very cloudy broth, it is a very clean flavor with no funkiness. The black garlic complements instead of overpowering. Unlike the Iron Men IV, which featured pure-white flat noodles that were very wheaty in taste, the noodles in the Paint It Black were a deep yellow and very springy, with a more traditional flavor. The chashu was thin cut and menma were interestingly julienne cut which I had never had before. A great bowl. Another person at the table went with the Showa classic, and as I stole a few slurps I was impressed with the nostalgic bonito-forward taste, like a much higher end version of the cafeteria ramen served in my office in Tokyo 30 years ago. (30? Yikes! 😳) I also sampled the Zangi chicken, naively ordering each person at the table a piece, unaware one piece is basically a whole chicken thigh. Zangi is Hokkaido’s version of Karaage (fried chicken) and if you ever see it on a menu, get it. This was delicious, though maybe ranked a hair below the offering at Menkoi Sato (will see if the new Menkoi Sao keeps the crown). Wish this place was closer - I absolutely love it.

At a whopping $36 a bowl, the Wagyu Black Truffle Ramen bowl comes with high expectations, but it delivers. The Wagyu is sliced thinly and served rare. As it bathes in the broth it becomes medium rare, which itself was pretty cool to taste how the meat changes as it cooks. The bowl comes with a side of onsen tamago (literally hot springs eggs, a consistency between raw and poached), and the idea is to dip the beef in the egg, just as one would do with Sukiyaki. Delicious! Like two meals in one. The soup has intense truffle and mushroom umami, but was nicely balanced with some acidity so it never felt too rich. The noodles are chewy complex multigrain made in-house and for me are the star of a pretty great bowl. Mrs Enthusiast, a fan of the bowl the refined clean style that Shuya uses for its broth, went with the Assari Yuzu Shio ramen, in which the clam and salt broth is accented with the popular Japanese citrus fruit. We yet to try Afuri here in the US, but for us this was the best yuzu ramen we’ve had here. The yuzu played backing vocals to the briny clam frontman. The noodles in this bowl were thicker and less complex than the Wagyu Truffle bowl, soaking up the soup remarkably well and providing a yeastiness to the palette. We began the meal with Tebasaki chicken wings, perfectly crunchy on the outside and moist and well marinated on the inside. Everything I try on the Shuya menu is excellent.

I ordered the Miso Pork Chashu Ramen to-go. It had “grilled miso-glazed pork hashu, spicy ground pork, kimchi, kikurage mushroom, menma, and scallions.” The broth was pork bone with spicy miso. The broth was savory and the toppings were delicious. I really enjoyed the flavor the ground pork and kimchi added to the experience. The pork slices weren’t especially flavorful, but the broth was strong enough that I wasn’t too disappointed. I wasn’t expecting the restaurant to only accept cash, Venmo, Zelle or CashApp, but they had an ATM where I was able to extract funds since I don’t use those apps. Just something to be aware of.

This is the Classic Ramen with “signature tonkotsu pork broth topped with 2 slices of Chashu pork and Green Onions.” This is an example of classic thin noodles, standard noodle firmness, and standard thickness and richness of the broth. I like to add karadare and rekkarise (medium) for some spice.

The spicy miso salmon ramen was tasty and unorthodox in a cool way - a handsome slice of salmon with a palatable broth (anyone can handle that level of spice), chewy yellow noodles, and out-of-the-box toppings like black sesame and seaweed were neatly plated, giving a great balance of taste and a sense of healthiness without tradeoffs. All items on the menu hinted a similar curation of quality and sensibleness (e.g. their veggie mazemen), unless you’re a stoic ramen snob with strict rules you’d enjoy the “fusion” between Japan and Williamsburg vibes Suzume has to offer. Great for a date.

great space to gather with friends and enjoy some good vibes. Their ramen is good but I can tell it was not as authentic as Japanese ramen should be but I still appreciated the food flavors. I was not a big fan of the dumplings. they weren’t memorable at all. The star of the show was the Yuzu Limeade beverage. I would go back just for that drink!

AFURI was good overall, with a very clear identity centered around yuzu. The yuzu tsukemen had a lot of bright, citrus-forward flavor, but the portion of dipping broth felt a bit small for the noodles. Flavor-wise, it was clean and refreshing, though the yuzu sometimes bordered on overpowering rather than balanced. The ramen itself was well executed, but it felt like it was missing depth or backbone—everything was clean and precise, yet it didn’t quite deliver that lingering, satisfying richness I usually look for. Hard to put a finger on, but it lacked that final “wow” or emotional warmth. On the plus side, the gummy candies were great, and the cocktails really stood out—especially the yuzu and ginger drinks, which were excellent. AFURI really shines for yuzu-focused dishes and gluten-free options, which is a big win. The space is also impressive: huge, airy, and probably one of the largest ramen venues in Brooklyn (if not NYC), with plenty of room and strong potential for events.