IchiranCHAIN

5.1/10JapaneseChinese

AI-generated summary

People go for the solo booth as much as the food. The gets real praise and the is the order, but the thin go soft fast, so ask for them firm and eat quickly. The repeated complaint is price, around $30 a bowl, and plenty of people say you can do better for less. Fans keep going back because it's consistent and open late.

132 W 31st St, New YorkChelsea, Manhattan3 NYC locations mappedGoogle Maps

What Reddit says376

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  • replying to u/KingTutKickFlip: Yeah Ichiran is squarely at the bottom of my rankings

    price vs. quality ratio is abysmal too... how does a bowl with an egg cost me $30 and is half the quality of Tonchin or Minca, which are both cheaper?

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  • replying to u/panzerxiii: DTF is horrendous and overpriced lmao. I will never understand why people go so crazy over mediocre international chains like them or Ichiran. Nan Xiang used to be one of the best but the expansion has made them super inconsistent. The OG (ish, down the block) spot is probably still the best, quality wise. Joe's Home of Soup Dumplings is pretty good, but nothing that crazy to me compared to XLB of past decades in NY. The Bao is solid. Same people who used to run Kung Fu XLB out in Flushing near Horace Harding. RIP that location but the XLB lives on. Not as good as before but solid. There's a new-ish spot called Yeh's Bao in FiDi that's really good, and they have a solid Taiwanese beef noodle soup as well. They do the DTF-style XLB but better, imo. Three Times also has decent XLB.

    to me it’s on the high end of mediocre but it’s CONSISTENT. I haven’t found another ramen place in nyc, particularly a 5 minute walk from me, where I can always walk in and have delicious enough ramen within a pretty short period of time.

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  • replying to u/ShimanoRN: Is Ichiran still good?

    All the locations in nyc have severely been cutting corners. 3 years ago very good. Now everyone knows about it and they switched to cheap napkins, disposable chopsticks, those horrible rectangular bowls where the bottom third is empty space to trick you into thinking the portions are bigger.

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  • replying to u/tpc0121: how has no one mentioned ichiran yet? also, nakamura anyone?

    I thought Ichiran was definitely better than average, but for how much they charge (and how long I waited in line) I was expecting to be blown away... and I was not. The private booth is a fun gimmick, though. And even though the ramen wasn't mind-blowing, it was good enough that I'd go back if I was in the area and there was no line.

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  • replying to u/AnalogTwo: Yes. Figured if anything it would be better than their Manhattan offerings.

    It was how you wanted it to be. Almost zeeo interaction. You wrote down what you wanted, slid it under the little gate on front of you. A little while later the gate went up and you got your food. At some point a bill was pushed through and you paid it. That was it. And no one was talking in the entire place. I only went twice because i felt it was overpriced but I did enjoy the experience.

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  • Ichiran - not my favorite, but the broth is really good (the noodles are not great, they go soft fast), and they default to just noodles and soup.

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  • replying to u/neverknowswhattosay: I would recommend Ichiran. The menu is limited enough to not scare anyone and their ramen is excellent.

    The flavor was spot on, but the price in NY was almost double then that of the rest of the shops in Japan.

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  • Ichiran should be skipped probably, thin straight noodles that go soft really quick (I have to order them as firm as they come and then slurp them down as quickly as possible).

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  • replying to u/bahnsigh: I support Ichiran / Xian FF

    Ichiran experience sucks. They make people wait in a fake line outside to make it seem popular. Eggs are cold and you have to shell them yourself. Ramen is too thin and weak.

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  • I think it's worth checking out Ichiran, it's certainly not the best, but the broth is pretty unique. The noodles fucking suck, go soggy really fast, the vinegar addition is great.

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