Late-Night Ramen in NYC (Open after 10pm)

my favorite here is the shoyu. chiken broth is surprisingly rich. Tare makes me confused tho but I think thats what makes me keep drinking the soup. yuzu and greenonions good combo

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Community review

Heavy broth unqiue base mixed with tonkotsu and shio. karage was excellent

Community review

Community review

Community review

Kushi Kushi Yaki was a hit. We came with a group of 8 from Laura’s ramen meetup—easy seating, friendly staff, fun vibe. I got the basic tonkotsu: rich, savory broth with firm noodles, and they bring free hot seasonings on the side to tweak the heat. Yakitori was excellent and the cocktails were legit. Lots of ramen choices (around eight). Great spot for groups—would definitely come back.

Community review

Ramen Danbo’s name roughly translates to “warm night”, and the ramen will certainly warm up your night. This chain specializes in Kyushu Hakata style ramen and has other locations in Brooklyn, Seattle and Vancouver. I went with the Classic Tonkotsu and it really hit the spot. The soup is nostalgic creamy pork bone that many places in the US try to emulate but few do it as well as Danbo. A couple of dollops of pureed fresh garlic transform the soup into an absolute elixir. The noodles are the traditional thin and firm, and they had good wheaty taste and bite. And so many of them! The chashu was thin and melted away with a few flavorful chews. Hakata is not my favorite style but when the mood strikes this place is very good.

Community review

Tonight we had a Sapporo, Genmaicha, Classic tonkatsu, miso tonkatsu and gyoza. The classic tonkatsu was by far my favorite, reasonable priced and served quickly. The broth was rich but not too heavy, the chashu was thinly sliced and noodles were chewy. The miso tonkatsu broth was less memorable but the noodles and chashu were consistent. Ramen Danbo is a chill low key spot to catch up with friends or eat alone. It’s nothing fancy. You know you’ll get a quick, consistent and delicious meal!

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.

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