Ippudo PREVIEW

Ippudo’s COMING SOON sign on 4th Avenue has been the talk of the foodie world for a few months now.  “When will it open?” asked frantic foodies looking for a ramen fix on Chow’s boards.  Yelpers jumping the gun reviewed the place based on its forebears in Japan. 

Highly anticipated.

Officially, Ippudo will open on March 31, 2008.  I was lucky enough to be invited to a preview of the restaurant last night, however, and of course accepted to see what all the fuss is about.  So I snagged StB, a fellow ramen lover (and what great ramen weather we had last night: totally nippy, where you walk inside and you’re still shivering because it was just warm the day before, and you just want a big bowl of soup noodles to slurp down and warm you up), and off we went.

Ippudo

The space itself is well laid out; as you walk in, there is a bar area with ramen bowls decorating the wall, and a staircase leading down to the kitchen (where giant pots- large enough to fit a person within- gently simmer away, somewhere in the 14 hour process of making the wonderful broth) and the restrooms.  We were greeted immediately and told that we should take a look around; the bar was fully stocked and ready to go, with sake choices and a list of many specialty cocktails, but we were definitely more interested in the food.

Walking further in, through a narrow hallway, as we entered the main dining room, there was a “ramen bar” along the right.

But the main event: the food.  First, the yummy spread laid out on various nearby tables:

First there was the saikyo-style pork, with renkon (lotus root) chips.

Salad.

Kara-age (deep fried chicken) with more lotus root chips.

Toast points with shrimp, avocado, tomato & radish; toast points with pork, scallion, pepper, balsamic vinegar drizzle.

House pickles (vegetables pickled in a dashi vinegar).

Kakuni, pork belly and daikon radish braised in soy sauce.

Grilled salmon with grapefruit dressing.

I decided to try a little bit of everything.

My first mini-plate- from top, clockwise:
kara-age: Really juicy and tasty, even without lemon squirted on top, yummy.
pork belly: Melt in your mouth goodness, easily my favorite of the night, though these went very quickly so this was my only piece.
daikon radish: It was daikon, there isn’t much to say about that.
saikyo-style pork: Good, but not mind blowing; texturally close to roast pork, Chinese style.
toast point with pork: The texture of the pork (“hard”) over the crispy toast point didn’t really work for me.  It was hard to eat because the toast point crumbled in my hand when I tried to take a bite.

toast point with shrimp: Perfect bite size shrimp, and the avocado spread was creamy goodness against the shrimp’s sweetness.
lotus chip: Looks like a potato chip, but tastes… sweet.  I liked it.

My 2nd mini-plate was a bit more of a jumbled mess than the first, but here we go:

House pickles: I had a cherry tomato (pretty good) and what I thought was zucchini but when I bit into it, it reminded me more of a Fuji apple in its crunchy and crisp sweetness.  We decided it was actually jicama, and I really liked it.  I want to try to make dashi pickles now actually.
Salad: It was salad, not much to say about that, either.

Tamago: (egg with IPPUDO ‘branded’ on it) I was surprised to taste how, well, this was on the same platter as the fried chicken, and it tasted just like the chicken.  I’m used to tamago that tastes sweet, sometimes sickeningly so, but this was quite delicious in its chicken-y goodness.
Salmon: The outside was perfectly cooked and you’d expect it was going to be cooked through, but it was completely raw in the center and obviously had just kissed a flame before being plated.  The grapefruit complemented nicely but was more subtle than I’d have liked.

But you don’t want to see more pictures of the decor and interior, do you?  You want to see the ramen.

Two kinds of ramen were being served that night; their classic and their red style, both signature dishes of Ippudo across the world.

StB‘s red style.  I’m sure a review on her site is forthcoming; I didn’t try it, though I recall she said the broth had a lot of intense flavors going on.

my blurry one handed shot

I stuck to the classic because that’s how I roll: I like to try the “normal” kind before I go on and try the improved upon version.  Better for comparison, right?  I hadn’t realized they’d be serving full servings, however, so I was way too stuffed to try the red version after finishing this bowl.

The menus we briefly glanced at told us that this is going to cost a person $13 a bowl, making it one of the most expensive bowls of ramen in the area (if not the most expensive).  Is it worth it? 

I found myself fishing out every last strand of toothsome noodle (each with a good bite, not overcooked and yet not undercooked), and finishing nearly all of the broth at the end tipping my bowl so my spoon could more easily access the broth.  Easily, this broth was complex, full of deep flavors; we detected rice wine, among all the other usual suspects, and the cabbage in the soup lent a sweetness to it as well.  I really enjoyed my bowl despite finding the pork a bit dry/overcooked, and am already planning on going back a second time to try the red version.  I haven’t yet decided if this place ranks higher than my current fave ramen place (Ramen Setagaya), but it definitely has a different feel, from the gorgeous, spacious decor (instead of a cramped bar setting), to the many different items available on the menu… I guarantee this place will be packed with lines out the door in the months to come. 

This was hanging over the table at which we sat.

StB always says that “free food is always good food,” but in this case, I genuinely feel that it was actually good.  I definitely want to go back and am willing to pay to eat here again, which I think is indicative on its own of how much I liked my food (I’ve been to places for free, thought the food was good, but wouldn’t bother going back for whatever reason).  And how much I like ramen, of course. 

Yvo says: You heard it here first: definitely make a point to get over here if you’re into ramen.  Which, of course, who isn’t?  The space is gorgeous, the staff is super friendly and courteous, and the food is undeniably good, with some real standouts (that pork belly, yum!) and good food otherwise.  I can’t wait to try more stuff.
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