Vegetarian & Vegan Ramen in NYC

Staple shop for me to recommend to friends visiting. Despite being known for it and being the namesake of the restaurant, I don't recommend the tsukemen. Highly recommend the TonTori ramen and nori fries instead. Very good Tonkotsu where they use a mix of chicken and pork, hence TonTori. Very good broth and solid noodles. Chashu, however, has gotten worse and worse over the years. Regardless still a top bowl.

Solid albeit pricey. Flavor on the tsukemen broth very reminiscent of Chinese black beans. Tonkotsu wasn't anything too special imo. Miso was their most advertised, with the char being a highlight, thought it was solid as well.

Gogyo Ramen, which is part of the Ippudo ramen group, brings fine dining to the NYC ramen scene. Spacious seating at big wooden tables, oshibori wet napkins before the meal, and attentive service that refills your water glass basically after every sip. I tried the Prix Fixe featuring their signature Kogashi Miso ramen, in which five miso blends are charred at 572 degrees F. The soup comes out scalding hot thanks to a generous helping of pork fat, which momentarily masks the miso. As it cools, the complex umami flavors from the miso begin to shine. The first note was smoky, but quickly turned to what I can best describe as a salty toast-like flavor. And toward the bottom of the bowl as the heat subsided it became more sweet and caramel-like. The noodles were thin and flat with some wheaty substance to them. They grabbed the pork fat and soup well and are just hearty enough to match the rich soup. The chashu is the size of a pork steak in both diameter and thickness, offering both tender and chewy bites as one works their way through the savory tasty topping. Hiding underneath was some bean sprouts and minced pork that had a nice little kick to it. The prix fix also comes with sides of edamame and spicy bean sprouts, which were crisp and tasty. It also comes with gelato which on this occasion I did not try. I will definitely return to try the other bowls and the interesting looking cocktails.

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.

Menkoi Sato closed its doors a little while back and recently re-opened as Menkoi SAO, after its new owner, Saori-san. Everything appears to be the same with two exceptions. First, there is no alcohol on the menu yet as they are still working through obtaining their liquor license. And there is a new menu item, Fiber ramen, which I decided to give a try. The ramen still comes out piping hot as it always did before. The soup is a vegetable broth with shio koji, miso and a “hint” of spice. It packs a punch. Addictively delicious, the shio koji, which is fermented rice use to tenderize meats and develop depth of flavor, combines with the miso to deliver a rich, deep taste one would not associated with vegetable broths. The noodles are still imported from Nishiyama in Hokkaido and are the star of the bowl. The toppings, which give it the fiber moniker, are cabbage, moyashi bean sprouts, chives, mushrooms, garlic, ginger and minced pork. Delicious and healthy?! This was crazy good, and so unique for the area ramen scene. Phew! Very relieved Menkoi is still a great spot for a great bowl.

While the rest of the Big Apple was crowded into Irish bars, I finally scored a very difficult to get reservation for Tonchin New York on 36th street in Manhattan, just down the street from my favorite steakhouse, Keen’s. While Keen’s is as old school as you can get, Tonchin is on the other end of the spectrum - a modern, culinary school approach to ramen. I went with their signature Tonchin Classic Tokyo Tonkotsu. The soup is rich yet “clean”, with no pork funk and perfectly balanced with a umami-rich shoyu tare. The noodles were medium thick Tokyo wavy made in-house. The chashu was the sous vide roast beef style, but was well seasoned and perfectly sliced. And yes, the egg was a perfect pudding consistency. This is flawless-execution-of-everything-ramen, and while I usually lean toward the more OG style, I very much appreciate a bowl like this. Also tried the fried fish buns, covered in sauces that exploded with flavor, which paired so nicely with crunchy fried fish. And a Tokyo martini that tiptoed down the middle of olive brine and sake sweetness. Worth the hype. And definitely worth a trip back to try the rest of the menu.

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.