めんちゃんこ亭 menchanko-tei: where sumo wrestlers slurp
I first stumbled across Menchanko-tei about four years ago; doubtless it had been established in New York City for several years before that. An offshoot of an actual Hakata noodle shop, one might have expected it to be good. “Noodle” shop is perhaps the best way to describe this nano-chain, a low-key, semi-stylish pair of restaurants in Manhattan’s midtown, for what Menchanko-tei specializes in is not actually ramen. The chanko in its name is derived from chanko-nabe, the hearty stew of meat and vegetables that sumo wrestlers consume as part of their daily diet regimen in order to pack on pounds. But lest you think that a few meals at Menchanko-tei will fatten you up like a mini-Konishiki or Akebono, chanko nabe is actually a relatively healthy dish - with a chicken or fish-based broth, generous portions of vegetables, and chunks of chicken or ground chicken meatball. Evidently, the weight gain comes from simply eating lots of it and then lying around all day. In New York City, you’d at least have to walk a block or two after your meal.
“Menchanko ramen” then, is a relatively no-brow concept of serving ramen noodles in a sumo-style chanko soup. The dish is served in a metal pot - the “nabe” - and the light but flavorful shoyu and citron-infused broth comes loaded with tofu, chicken, napa cabbage, and even a pair of shell-on shrimp. Paired with thick, chewy noodles befitting the bowl, the overall concept is hardly recognizable as ramen and more akin to the Japanese custom of adding noodles to a communal hot pot at the very end of a meal. Here, it all comes in a single-serving size as your actual entree, and frankly it’s the best thing going on a moderately-priced menu of Japanese pub fare and drinks.
Sadly, that includes the actual Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen - a rather boring, faint-flavored concoction of all the right parts (chashu, green onion, red ginger) and none of the attention to detail required to pull off such a feat some 10,000 miles from southern Japan. The rich, funky pork bone of the soup should overwhelm, and yet in this midtown incarnation, a thin, flat broth is masked by the scent of overcompensating pepper. The noodles are limp and soft where they should be skinny and firm. Menchanko-tei does cut some fine chasu, soft and well-marinated, and the kikurage wood-ear mushroom are indeed crunchy and fresh; yet these are small consolations in a bowl of ramen that underperforms by a mile and exists largely as an afterthought to the namesake noodle concept.
Walking down Fukuoka’s Watanabe-dori one recent afternoon, I came across the actual Hakata Tenjin-branch of Menchanko-tei, with all the same signage and evidently the same basic concept. It was comforting to think that one could eat the same dish in both New York and Hakata, and yet I wondered how popular this restaurant was, just a stone’s throw from some of the finest tonkotsu ramen yatai in all of Japan. Truth be told, I couldn’t at all be bothered to find out.
| the hakata ramen boasts a thin, flat tonkotsu soup eerily reminiscent of so many half-baked attempts at creating "kyushu" style ramen in north america, overloaded with pepper to ostensibly mask the lack of flavor. the shoyu and citron-infused soup of the menchanko ramen fares considerably better, with a solid shrimpy essence and a hot-pot-style flair. 4 for the tonkotsu and 5 for the menchanko. | 4.5 |
| the hakata ramen noodles are limp and unworthy. the menchanko ramen has thick, chewy yellow strands that befit the context. 3 for the former, and 5 for the latter. | 4 |
| with tender, flavorful chasu, fresh kikurage, and sweet shrimp and healthy vegetables, menchanko's topppings are the saving grace in a pair of otherwise middling bowls of noodles, one only slightly better than the other. | 6 |
| decent gyoza with a crisp outer layer fried to a competent level of delicacy, and a rather routine filling of ground meat and vegetable. perhaps the rest of the menu is more winning than the noodles at bat? | 5.5 |
| menchanko-tei has a nice mellow izakaya-style vibe. it's a typical pub in new york, abeit one with a japanese flair. | 5.5 |
| it's true i take my japanese restaurants for granted. still, that's no excuse for menchanko-tei to continue serving a thoroughly mediocre hakata-style ramen in the middle of new york city, not when places like ippudo and ichiran have begun to spring further down the subway lines. | 4 |
131 East 45th St. tel: (212)986-6805 11:30a - 11:30p m-th, su, holidays | 14.5 |
bummer on the ramem but the photos look great ^_^