Went to Ramen Co. while they're still having their soft opening to avoid the inevitable hordes of Yelp Warriors.
The inside is sparse, almost clinical. There's 3-4 tables to the left side of the door, in front of a long bench, with small chairs on the opposing side. The tables are followed by a long countertop with a bunch of elevated stools, enough to seat maybe 10-15 diners. Strangely, the countertop is built into the wall, not in front of the cooking area as is usual for these kinds of places.
The kitchen itself looks like something out of a upscale grocer-deli, like Whole Foods, with bottles of sauces, aluminum ppans full of toppings, and sunken pots of broth heated from underneath the counter. An open refridgerator stands next to the counter stock with the usual suspects, water, sparkling water, some fruit juices, Ito En for the purists and Tea's Tea for the less than pure.
Ramen Burger - $8
The first thing I noted was how damn small it was, coming out to hardly larger than a Big Mac.
My own hand for comparison.
The other disappointment was how fast I received my order, as if all the ingredients were already precooked and waiting for a customer. Now, this may just be a symptom of a soft release because they need to cook
some ingredients ahead of time, and can't be expected to sell all of it, but I would much rather have had my burger made to order considering the price I'm paying for it.
After taking a few bites, I decided that this was pretty much just another burger, and not a particularly notable one at that. The ramen bun is novel, but doesn't add much to the overall appeal of the burger. The toppings and sauce are fresh, but I'd take a Shackburger over this any day of the week. The patty was also cooked medium-well to well, I don't think they give you an option here, but I didn't ask so maybe they do it differently on request. It was kind of bland and flat tasting overall.
The most surprising thing was that, after finishing it, I was still pretty damn hungry. I'm not a big eater so this was a bit of a shock, and immediately after finishing it I went and ordered a bowl of ramen for something properly filling.
Wakayama Shoyu Ramen - $11
There's not much to say here. You have the standard toppings, standard Hakata style tonkotsu broth that is so popular in NYC, standard Suntory noodles cooked al dente. The pork was pretty good, and I got a lot of it. A bit oversalted, and there is a lot of fat on that pork. I also noted that the pork was taken out of one of those sunken containers on the countertop. When I go to, like, Ippudo (or during my recent trip to Jin), I can see the chefs carefully roasting and browning the pork by handtorch pretty much all the time. The pork you get there is always fresh and hot. Here, it was almost cool. I had to sink it into the broth to let it warm up a bit. There's nothing special about the broth either. None like the ma-yu used in Hide-chan, the Yuzu pepper that's flavors Jin's shio ramen, Bassanova's thai curry, or Totto's light-but-rich chicken broth. I couldn't really taste the other toppings, particularly the sliced wood ear mushrooms, which were really bland.
The biggest difference, between the ramen served here and the ramen served elsewhere in the city, is that the bowl is not brought to you. You pick it up at the counter, where it's placed on a metal dish and you're given a thin plastic spoon (wat) and disposable chopsticks, just a tad sturdier than the ubiquitous chinese takeout chopsticks you can find everywhere. I felt like I was back in China, at breakfast, eating wonton soup priced and presented for the working class (except the food wasn't as good, and maybe 10 times more expensive). Which leads me to my next point.
What is the audience of this restaurant? In presentation and speed, it feels like a fast food place. In fact, I usually wait longer at many chain fast food places than I waited for my food today. It was almost as fast as getting food from a Halal stand. Again, the distinct lack of customers might be the issue here but considering how many prefabbed ingredients they had ready to assemble into menu items, I wouldn't be surprised if the speed was intentional.
But if it designed to be a "fast food" experience, why the hell is it in the Financial District? And why the exorbitant prices, especially for the signature ramen burger? $11 for a bowl of Ramen is standard, I guess, but even at that price point most other ramen places have some special gimmick to set their bowl apart. Meanwhile, $8 for a burger that is not really great or filling just feels like daylight robbery.
Writing all this, however, I am reminded of the rows and rows of trendy food cart/trucks that decorate the streets of the Financial District, and I realized the answer to my questions: Ramen Co. is supposed to be fast food-style ramen for the yuppies that dominate the Financial District area.
Anyway I think it's worth a single trip to at least try out the ramen burger, but if I'm ever craving ramen, I'd rather make the trek to Midtown/Uptown (and I live in Staten Island) rather than settle for this place.
