Awesome!  Will look for it.
By the way, I DID get to CHANTO finally, for the ramen.  It was not anything special.  Plus the fancy schmancy atmosphere totally turned me off.  That’s the last time I listen to my hairstylist.  (-_-) I have been frequenting Setagaya and it’s still holding up.  Consistently good.

I’m actually going to chanto for dinner tonite, did you order the regular dishes?

any word on ippudo or ichiran out there for you guys? thinking i need to make a trip, but waiting for them to open still XD

both are arent open yet, but close to it.  I heard a 3rd chain trying to open up, and its going to be another tonkotsu place.  A shoyu, wonton men, or chicken based shio would be nice.

whoa, no fair! lol… do you know what third place is gonna be?

I haven’t ranked them all, but here are some quick findings from my quest to eat at every ramen shop in and around NYC:

For the corner alley ramen shop feel and overall atmosphere, Rai Rai Ken.
For a good garlic broth, Santoka.
For a spicy pepper broth, and generally good offereings, Menkui Tei.
For spaghetti like ramen and Chinese twists, Ajisen.
For a complex, more stylized ramen, Setagaya.
For an extensive menu, setting ramen next to sushi, Sapporo East.
To read manga while you eat, Batten ramen.
For a light, refreshing shio ramen, Sapporo.

Will hopefully be stopping by Mechanko Tei tonight. For anyone interested, Ive started up a blog to post reviews of all these places, at http://ramenblog.org. It feels like I’m rapidly approaching the limits of NYCs ramen offerings, so am very much looking forward to Ippudo and seeing if anyone on here finds anything else new !

PS - rameniac, also look forward to hearing your take on these places !

rameniac - 29 September 2007 05:22 AM

whoa, no fair! lol… do you know what third place is gonna be?

Not sure, all I know is Sushi of Gari is involved as investor

checked out your blog… good work ninniku! one thing, though. i don’t think garlic features very prominently in santouka ramen. the soup gets its sweetness from seafood and pork bones, and i think the little pieces of stuff floating around are actually bits of lard. which is why i don’t eat there nearly as much as i’d like to haha.

hey, thanks rameniac ! Ill post a correction on the santouka page, we really had no idea what the floating white stuff was lard. lucky for me the place is far enough away that Im not tempted to have it for breakfast.

think it’s already on your list, but you definitely need to check out menchanko, the tonkotsu ended up being pretty decent. its a few streets away from sapporo, menkui tei, wander over with an empty stomach, maybe you could make the rounds in one go

you know, i just went back to santouka recently and tried to figure out exactly what those floating bits of whiteness are. they may not be lard after all, as they have are very solid, almost like ground sesame. yet they don’t taste like sesame. as for your initial theory of garlic, i’m thinking that if they were garlic, they’d be softened in the hot soup. after doing a bit of research on santouka’s japanese web site, i’m inclined to think that they may be ground cartilage or pork bone. the mystery continues!