My husband and I loved coming here when I was in college about 2-3 years ago and the food and service was OUTSTANDING. I really don’t know how something so good could go so bad. The food is decent, standard ramen but the sides are served COLD. They could be warmed just a little but no it’s served very cold like it was just pulled from the fridge. We did go during lunch period so they had the lunch menu only. The noodles were not as soft and chewy like before, it was more stale? Like as if the noodles were not FULLY cooked all the way yet.

THE MUSIC IS NOT GOOD. I liked the authentic feel Ippudo once had and the music was calmer, softer, and traditional. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy the pop music they were playing but I felt like it wasn’t the time or the place for that type of music especially since it wasn’t traditional. And it was EXTREMELY loud. Very hard to hear the person you came to eat with.

Lastly, the service… I thought my servers were great in the aspect of taking food orders, and engaging with us. However, in Asian restaurants, it is customary to serve either hot tea or water complimentary with your food or while you’re browsing the menu… the server asked what I would prefer and I said hot tea as it was cold outside in NYC. He brings back a tea pot and two cups for us to enjoy. We really enjoyed the tea, and we didn’t think twice about it. We asked for the check and saw we were charged $8 for the hot tea. Now, I am NOT saying this was bad pricing for good tea, but I think it’s surprising to charge us for the tea when it was never specified to us it would be an additional cost. I probably would still have gotten the tea but I would like to know if it was going costs something before ordering it. The server asked us like as if it was complimentary. He asked “Can I start you guys off with some water or tea?” And we said tea. To see the charge was surprising, and we told another server right away. They didn’t apologize but said “Oh, that’s weird, the server should have told you guys it’s a $8 charge. We can take it out of your check if you want.” We appreciated the offer but still paid the $8 tea because since we drank it, it felt right but I feel like a “sorry” could have made the situation better.

I’d like to end this on a bittersweet note by saying that again, this place used to be amazing. Really truly was one of the BEST ramen spots in NYC, and it’s a shame that post COVID and everything else wrong with the world might have affected this place. Now that is NOT to say that they can never be amazing again! I HOPE the staff at Ippudo sees this and I can only hope that instead of seeing this review as a complaint, they see it as a critique and advice to help them better their reputation and hopefully become better, better than they ever were. 2024 is all about growth and prosperity and I hope they can find it in themselves to start changing stuff around so we can go back to enjoying it and loving it. Thanks for taking the time out to read this. :)