New York · a Restaurant Pro list
The NYC ramen crawl
Twelve bowls, four boroughs' worth of Tokyo.
New York's ramen boom started in the East Village in 2008 and never stopped. Tonkotsu from Hakata, tsukemen from Tokyo, a chicken paitan in Midtown and a solo booth in Bushwick. One bowl a day is the pace; two is a crawl.
- 1
- 2
Noodles · New York · ★ 4.8 (149)
Chicken instead of pork, blowtorched pork belly, a basement counter on 52nd Street. The line is real.
Order: Chicken paitan, spicy, with the char siu torched at the counter
- 3
Japanese · New York · ★ 4.7 (10,032)
A New Yorker who opened a ramen shop in Tokyo and then came home to Clinton Street. Rye noodles, and it works.
Order: The Tokyo shio with rye noodles
- 4
Noodles · New York · ★ 4.5 (5,377)
Where a lot of Americans ate their first serious bowl. The pork bun on the side is mandatory.
Order: Momofuku ramen, poached egg on top
- 5
- 6
Japanese · New York · ★ 4.6 (970)
A twelve-seat counter on Ludlow Street from a chef trained in Tokyo. Clean broths, the noodles cut thin.
Order: The shio, and the wagyu tsukemen if it's on
- 7
Japanese · New York · ★ 4.4 (3,432)
The Fukuoka chain's first American shop, in Bushwick. You eat alone, on purpose, facing a curtain.
Order: Tonkotsu in the solo booth, order sheet filled in
- 8M
- 9
- 10

Pan asian · New York
The Midtown counter that does Hakata properly, including the noodle refill.
Order: Hakata tonkotsu, kaedama when you run out of noodles
- 11
Japanese · New York · ★ 4.6 (4,048)
The Ikebukuro shop's Midtown branch, noodles made in-house in the window.
Order: The classic Tokyo tonkotsu
- 12
Japanese · New York · ★ 4.5 (862)
The Lower East Side shop devoted to tsukemen, cold thick noodles into a hot concentrated broth.
Order: Tsukemen — the dipping ramen