raji

I'm a really big fan of the Atomic Wings on 9th and 41st! ← All the locations are pretty much on par with eachother, and they have a bunch by now, all stemming from their original notoriety serving wings out of the back of Down the Hatch. The flavor really varies on the level of heat you go with.

Yeah it's funny, Candlelight is still the best. It's really the only thing I can name that's BETTER in westhchester than in the city, although you can still find Italian delis up there and pizza on the average is better Scruffy Duffy wings are pretty good. So are Atomic wings. I used to see them make the candlelight wings - they use pretty plump wings, I'm not sure if ever frozen, and shake it in prodigious amounts of hot sauce and either margarine or butter.

Ah, do you mean toppings like sheets of nori, half-boiled eggs, naruto, cabbage, etc.? Or toppings like roasted sesame, roasted minced garlic, pickled ginger (their shops in Japan offer these and perhaps if we make enough noise collectively, they will too here). I'm not a big toppings fanatic; if you are, go to Minca, but I do like to change the characteristic of the broth by slowly adding in the aforementioned seasonings, maybe some chili oil or vinegar or shichimitogarashi

We did have the obligatory photo op, but it was certainly less than 5 minutes. Still, I'll keep that in mind for the next time I'm there. ← Ah see you must go at a bowl of ramen with gusto. Every second counts. I think Donbert wanted to take a photo of mine; if he did, I wasn't having it..

You mean Japan! Well, I didn't say they weren't friendly. They were exceedingly friendly to me. Larry, did you count? But wasn't that one note wonderful? If it were $8 a bowl run by a ticket machine up front, and if Ippudo weren't self-proclaimed ramen artisans, I'd be wanting some topping options. And gyoza. However, in this case I'm happy to put myself in their hands. How quickly did you consume the ramen? After 5 minutes the noodles will start to get soggy and chewy, especially skinny hakata-men. If it were Japan, usually anything like that would be spelled out on the menu or on a sign somewhere. But, being that it's NY, you could try to ask. However, the noodles should normally come al dente, and the stock not so salty, unless it's a shio or shoyu ramen of course. Usually there's some base stock that is used to form the tare for the varieties, which they seem like they'll open with a half a dozen or so.

Was back at Kamui Den last Friday night. Can't express how much of a deal this place is being BYOB. It really casts the wrong image of the place - their chef is easily better than the staffs of a lot of the big name places. Had a Tonkatsu their that's the best in the city. Their jidori platter was delicious. Anything they do with beef, delicious...

Hope you do - En is definitely a good recommendation, and if you want to go more authentic, Aburiya or Totto is a great adventure. If you wanted a "sushi" place I would make different recommendations along the lines of Nathan's, but that's not really what you first said

I'm similarly impressed that they have managed to stay open - they must have a very patient owner. They opened in 1995, was always a quiet neighborhood "adult" japanese place with Jazz, only recently reinvigorated themselves with a new chef and expanded menu. That said, for a much better value with a similar, albeit more limited menu, BYOB with an even more expert chef, definitely check out Kamui Den - I was back there just a few days ago, I've been back like 6 times since discovering it.

ohhhhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that was the good stuff. Today I still bear the mark of a truly great ramen; a slightly burnt tongue. Many Japanese claim to possess what they call a "cat's tongue" so that this does not happen to them; I am, however, not one of them. To answer Kathryn, The Akamaru modern, of course. I believe this is the recipe that won them some national competitions. But I tried the other shiromaru and the shoyuramen as well. Myself and 4 friends hooked up with Donbert Thursday night... had to wait for about half an hour to sit down. The staff on the whole is very green (I gave our waitress, jokingly, a hard time after she dumped chopsticks and menus on our table, as well as bringing the ramen before the apps) but it's the soft opening, so, whatever. I read Andrea Strong's articles and one if it's mistakes (for instance, you would NEVER, EVER get a ramen to-go) is that the staff relocated from Japan to NYC - maybe a few of the managers, and maybe some of the other staff them came over here as English students or for other reasons, but when the restaurant is advertising for staff in the local Japanese newspapers, then obviously it's not like they all got on a boat and shipped over. It wasn't the menu linked here -in fact, only 5 ramen were offered, a handful of apps, a dozen or so sake and a few shochu. This isn't any ordinary ramen-ya - big booths and an extremely long open/glass-ed in kitchen surround the large room. If you go downstairs to the bathroom, you can view some of the noodle-making hardware and materials brought over from Japan. Basically, they followed the Gyu-kaku (just a few blocks away) formula, taking a large chain of modest-sized eateries in Japan, classing and sizing it up for NY. Gyu-Kaku doing this was always strange to me; they are basically the Red Lobster of yakiniku in Japan, and they managed to offer a lower quality for much higher prices in NY. As long as Ippudo keeps up this level of cooking, you won't hear complaints from me. I've been predicting, on this board, others and to most of my friends, that Ippudo would seriously raise the bar for ramen in NYC, and as soon as my huge bowl was set down in front of me I knew I was in for a treat. I asked Donbert for permission, said my "itadakimasu!", and downed that first spoonful of broth and ohhhhhhhhhh man was it rich. Rich, soothing, yes, you know you're ingesting liquified porkfat, but it wasn't pooling up into bubbles of oil like you might see with a tonkotsu broth, it was all part of a grander scheme of things - additionally, there were seas of soy and garlic oil and a red ball of goodness, red miso, garlic paste, that you break into and release into the mix. And the noodles - well, I love me some Kyuushu-style ramen; it was always my favorite so I'm afraid you are getting a biased review here. But, here's your skinny, straight, bitey hatakamen in all their glory. I downed the entire bowl of goodness in 10 minutes flat, but the extra order of noodles was uncalled for. I tried Donberts shiromaru - not such an intense pork flavor, a distinct ginger flavor to it, and trust me, you don't want the FULL-ON heavy pork broth always. The surprise of the bunch was the shoyuramen - it was GREAT. Between those 3, I don't really need to go anywhere else, but why bother, nowhere else is really executing on that level except maybe Santouka, and based on one tasting, Ippudo is even better than them, as well. This will unequivocally be the type of place downtown where I'll have to either try to go at off-hours or deal with a very painful waiting dance. This is where I hope they instill the Yasuda-style "eat and please now leave" policy; the ramen is too damn good, the focus must be serving as much of it to as many people as possible. Anyway, king of ramen indeed!

Wonder how many people are reading this.... well by officially you mean Monday, right? I'm sure we'll be alright for tonight...

Between the lines... and grrr...my friends planned to go today for lunch but I informed them how the soft opening was apparently only for the press...based on egullet info. ← i went for lunch yesterday...the soft open hours for thurs-saturday are 5 pm till 12 am. they are closed sunday and then officially open for both lunch and dinner on monday. ← Well thanks to you, I'm going tonight at 8:30. If anyone wants to join, look for the guy slurping his noodles! Anywhere to find their menu? what do you remember of it?

Thanks for the info. That's what I figured based on our experiences. It's funny that you can go across the street to Craftsteak and have an exponentially better meal and environment. ← Or you could skip all the "chains" and go to a really good original restaurant. While you're at it, you could go to a better 'hood for food. One note about Morimoto, though: While its main dining room food has been largely and universally panned since its opening, it was possible (at least a couple of years ago) to have a truly spectacular meal there, albeit at a price. If you sit at the omakase bar (separate from the sushi bar), you'll be served by either Morimoto himself (if he's there) or his assistant (who is very talented). They will serve you dishes not on the menu, and usually items that change daily. It's a true omakase, unlike the one on the menu. You can only do this at the omakase bar, and it starts around $200 a person, but it can be well worth it. The one time I did this, I had one of the best Japanese meals I've ever had anywhere...and I've had a LOT. It's a completely separate experience from dining in the main restaurant. Different ingredients, different dishes and different level entirely. I can't vouch that it's still as good, but it may be. ← Most, if not all good Japanese food is very much incumbent on execution, and that is where you see the real Japanese pursuit of perfection, even in your lowliest ramen cook... which is why I've found Japanese food doesn't really scale UP well at all and the big box Japanese places fail... the exceptions being places Yasuda or perhaps Nobu where all the chefs are universally held up to a very high standard and have to apprentice extensively. This of course always the case in Japan, but it seems outside of Japan that ridiculous amount of training, apprenticeship and mentoring doesn't happen as much, because it's not Japan. It doesn't surprise me that the general dining room at Morimoto sucks because that place is more marketing than anything. I'd stick to Sugiyama for the teishoku experience, because it doesn't matter where you sit

Uh yeah it's really easy, just hide your cash and let the alpha stripper know that it's off limits, or all you've ot is traveler's checks or something like that... Honestly tho, this is not so much of a service foul ; it's not like they're trying to bus your table or anything

Yeah. How about Striphouse?

Did I just coin a phrase?

Dim sum, you're going to Jing Fong. Nothing wrong with that as long as you go early enough. I guess you didn't know - Robert's Steakhouse is a great steakhouse located inside and on the 2nd floor of the Penthouse Executive Club which is a big strip club on the west side. You can see the stage from up there, but it's pretty self-contained. If you are not going to strip clubs then no reason to go to Robert's, although I would still suggest it as a great steak. It's a frickin' bachelor party you pansies. The Blue Ribbons are all great, I'd suggest you give Shaffer City a try. PM me about clubs/lounges.

I thought it was only open for the press conference. Had no idea it's soft opened all week. What hours is it open? I'll go there tomorrow for lunch or dinner...

Yeah, wait a second... You can get no-pantie lapdances in Montreal for like, $5, even AFTER the shitty exchange rate, and you wanna come here??? Dude, I'll fedex you some bagels and a frozen lombardi's...

What else is opening up?? I don't know enough to comment. Ippudo is the one I'm most excited about, and Santouka too if what Spoony Bard says goes. I only know the Jap places cuz I hear about those...

The Bo Ssam is essentially the same thing as Daisy Mae's whole Pork Butt (which Adam won national contest with) plus wraps. Some masochist/gourmand should attempt both in one day, stopping at the big apple BBQ on the way because it is precisely in between

Definitely Robert's, because you can go directly to getting pretty depraved there without a limo ride in between. in Lieu of the bo ssam at Ssam bar, and if you want your Adam Perry Lang, do the big pig gig at Daisy Mae's, which is on the same block as Penthouse/Robert's, and THEN go to Penthouse

Where did you say that?

Wow, I have a ramen boner. Nice photos!!

How is the quality of the meat there? I'm always looking for something that approaches Japanese yakiniku, i.e. several varieties of Kalbi, intestines, tongue, raw liver sashimi... anything like that? Tough to find in Korea too...

Well the problem is you're going to all the fauxpanese that have great rooms and/or scenes but formerly fashionable food or food that was never all that good in the first place. Megu is impressive to go to once, and then you go back and you realize the place is all sizzle. In your situation, I'd take her to Matsuri, it's food is good enough and very fashionable, certainly better than Ono, Geisha, all those type places