Ajisen Ramen — Restaurant in New York

We were visiting NY on a vacation and this place was was right across the street from our hotel. My son is into trying new foods and had never been to a ramen place (neither had we). He begged to go so we stepped out for dinner on a Thursday night. We walked in and were almost immediately greeted with a smile and seated near a window. We were pleasantly surprised at the inside since the outside makes it look so much smaller. It was not terribly busy when we went. Alice was our waitress and she was very friendly and helpful as we had a few questions before ordering. We had the chicken teriyaki ramen, pork buns, gyoza and a pork ramen bowl. No complaints at all about the food. My husband literally has been dreaming about pork buns since he last visited NYC a few years back. Ajisen makes theirs a little different as they use pork belly. He was in love with their recipe! He even ordered more to go to have as a late night snack at the hotel. I love gyoza and theirs was so very tasty! My son tried both and loved them. He almost ate 2 whole orders of the gyoza himself! As for the ramen.....It arrived piping hot to us and the smell of the food was killing us as we stirred it around to cool it down. It was amazing! Our mouths were watering waiting to get a bite into our mouth! Everything about the ramen was delicious! The meat was tender and the broth was flavorful. We added some of the "ramen pepper" which is a blend of black pepper, onion powder and something else. It really did add a pop of extra flavor. We also ordered bubble teas. We tried the passion fruit and the coconut. HOLY BUBBLE TEA! We love bubble tea and order it every chance we get. The passion fruit was good, but the coconut was like a refreshing oasis that we didn't know we needed. We ordered an extra one of these too! Steven came over to bring our teas. Our son was wearing a Dragon Ball shirt and Steven took the time to talk to our son about Gorky and the likes. He actually gave my son time to talk and he listened. It made his night. Kiddo asked for extra chop sticks because, well, he's 9 and chopsticks are cool. We were given plenty extra with a smile. Between the food, bubble teas, Alice and Steven, this was pretty much our favorite dining experience during our 6 days in New York. We plan to go back and may stay in a different area, but Ajisen in Chelsea is already on our go...

I was pleasantly surprised with this ramen place. Don't misunderstand the 4 STAR. I think too many people just gives four or five stars and it doesn't really differentiate one restaurant compared to another. I am trying to a give a objective review with less fluff...

Location: 28th st between 7th and 6th ave. Kinda outta the way for tourists, which means this is for locals.

Service: Very pleasant. Good old fashion "customer is king" mentality.

Food taste: i asked the waiter what he recommended. He suggested the TOM YUM RAMEN, he didn't disappoint. (Photos look sorta messy because i dived for the food before i could get my camera out)

Interior/exterior: the interior design looked sorta "dated"... meaning i felt kinda like i was eating in an attic. (To be fair the corona virus has really hurt restaurants so i can understand) The exterior has a lot construction going on (which goes for a lot of newyork) the construction ledges and platforms make the outside.... not that impressive. (Again not their fault)

I think this place is a definite "must come routinely" for a Tuesday or Wednesday lunch and perhaps the occasional Thursday night out.

I don't think i would go through the hassle of walking or ubering here if my lodgings were far away.

This place reminds me of those home town restaurants that have been around for a longtime; locals know of it and are fond of it, But tourists are busy waiting in line for MAZE a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.

Yes i likes this place, and i do plan on coming again.

The SCORE: Not perfect, WAY better than average, good basics (GOOD FOOD / GOOD SERVICE) a place I wouldn't bring a first date but a place i would definitely bring a...

VERY DISAPPOINTED! I saw that this place had good reviews and figured I'd add it to my ramen tour list of NYC. The first indicator that this place might not be very good was the "B" sanitation rating it has but I threw caution to the wind and tried it anyway. First, the contaminants - the Rayuu (Spicy Sesame oil) on the table was COMPLETELY covered with oil so I had to basically wipe it down to even use it and the same was with a few other ones. The ramen came and I was impressed by the dish. The egg was hard boiled, NOT soft boiled like it should. The broth lacked much complexity and depth to it besides the fact that is was a tonkotsu (pork broth). The only good thing was the 'brontosaurus rib' meat? It was very good, but the charshu (pork belly sliced topping) was not fatty or flavorful and VERY thin.

The WORST thing of all, was the noodles... I could tell 100% that they were simply spaghetti noodles boiled in alkaline water (boiling any noodles in water that you add baking soda to makes them more chewy and springy like ramen noodles should be). I am EXTREMELY disappointed that I was served ramen spaghetti. This is one of my worst ramens I've had out of 10+ NYC ramen places. Only reason its getting 2 stars was because I only spent $9 here for the ramen, which I feel was slightly overpriced if not for...