• Restaurants & Bars
    • All
    • Best Food
    • Best Brunch
    • Best Bars
    • Recent Openings
    • Food & Drink News
    • By Hood
      • Williamsburg
      • Greenpoint
      • Bushwick
      • All
    • Guides
  • News
    • Williamsburg
    • Greenpoint
    • Bushwick
    • All
  • Music
  • Arts & Culture
  • Calendar
    • Music Calendar
    • Editor’s Picks
  • Apartments
  • About
    • About Us
    • Advertise
    • Write for Us

Free Williamsburg

The Williamsburg Brooklyn-based culture guide to New York and beyond.

Search


Food & Drink All

Ichiran

February 27, 2017 By Free Williamsburg

  • Tweet
  • Share 0
Icharon; credit: Rebecca Fondren / Ichiran
Icharon; credit: NY Times
Icharon; credit: Rebecca Fondren / Ichiran

click image for slideshow

Our Rating: smile

Address

Phone number

Read on

The popular Japanese ramen chain makes its debut in Brooklyn. Ichiran encourages “low-interaction dining” in its 30, single-seat booths so patrons can concentrate on the flavor of the ramen dishes without too much chit-chat. A few tables are available as well, if you are not dining alone. The ramen is great but prepare to wait, since the lines are typically huge.

  • map
  • menu
  • website
  • yelp
  • foursquare
  • facebook
  • instagram

Featured Reviews

  • Ichiran’s signature tonktotsu ramen bowl costs $18.90. This may seem steep, but keep in mind that this is a no-tip establishment. There are seven different customizable categories, such as spiciness, richness, and noodle texture.

    The only other dishes available on the menu are a pork belly appetizer, a matcha tofu dessert, and a small selection of Japanese beers. If you find yourself with too much broth at the end of your noodles you can opt for the “Kae-Dama,” or noodle refill, at a half ($2.90) or full ($3.90) portion.

  • After nine years of plans and rumors, popular Japanese ramen chain Ichiran has finally opened its first US location in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and in addition to its specialty tonkotsu (pork) broth and handmade noodles, it’s also known for “low-interaction dining” — i.e. eating a meal without interacting with a single other person, not even your waiter.

  • In its “flavor concentration booths,” you can eat without the tedium of chatting to a companion, being welcomed by a host or even thanking a waiter. Arrivals are greeted by a lighted panel indicating which booths are available. Each diner is enclosed in a narrow space like a library carrel, in perfect solitude. Orders are taken and delivered by unseen servers. This sensory and social deprivation, the theory goes, allows for full savoring of the broth (pork bone only), the noodles (thin, not curly) and the toppings. It also encourages eating ramen in the Japanese manner — quickly, so the noodles do not overcook, and loudly, with slurping — without the worry of splashing or distracting a neighbor.

  • The restaurant, which has 61 worldwide locations, prides itself on serving just one type of soup: pork-bone-broth tonkotsu, which you have the option to order and eat without saying a word… Although the restaurant only serves one type of soup, Ichiran’s ramen is as customizable as it gets: you can adjust the strength of the dashi, the richness of the broth, the amount of garlic in the soup, whether or not it’s served with pork, the level of spiciness, the texture of the noodles, and add any extra toppings. All of this is done without speaking to a single person.

Getting There

Get Directions

  show options hide options


Fetching directions......
Reset directions
Print directions

Filed Under: Bushwick Biz, East Williamsburg, Japanese, Ramen, Restaurants, Smile

Free Williamsburg

About Free Williamsburg

FREEwilliamsburg is the trendsetting home of New York’s most creative neighborhood. The website has been mentioned in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, The New York Observer, among others, and was called an "essential New York blog" by New York magazine. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Do it now, dammit!



Popular Guides

The Best Bars In Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick

The Best Bars In Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick

Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick Visitor’s Guide – 48 Hours in North Brooklyn

Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick Visitor’s Guide – 48 Hours in North Brooklyn

The 22 Best Restaurants in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick

The 22 Best Restaurants in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick

Search

Food & Drink All

About | Contribute | Advertise

FREEwilliamsburg © 2021 | 163 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222 | [email protected]
Reproduction of material found on FREEwilliamsburg without written permission is prohibited.