Jin Ramen West Harlem — Restaurant in New York

Never judge a location by the authencitity of staff or the dimly lit decor, otherwise you'll walk right past the best ramen and Japanese food spot in West Harlem.

Their offer of 1/2 price apps for dine in guests only, prompted me to walk in and give the location a try. This was my first time at a Jin Ramen and if all the franchise taste the same, I will gladly add this brand to my list of go to Japanese restaurants.

Their menu selection is fairly standard and includes the classics like fried chicken bites (karaage) and pork bao. My decided to test the location by ordering my go to items which are the pork buns and the tonkatsu ramen. Both items utilize the pork belly and because its 1/2 priced, I threw in the chashu don to try it 3 ways.

The chashu don is mildly flavored, open for guests to customize with more soy sauce or spice if preferred. The pork buns was a winner as I gobbled the two buns down wanting three more. A little messy to eat as it soaks up the house sauce, but definitely worth using your hands for the full experience. Finally the tonkatsu ramen which utilize a 6 hour broth had body without the heavy oil taste. It was a lighter take but conveys the message that it is tonkatsu soup. What really wowed me ontop of the pork bao was the consistency of the ramen. As they make it in house, these noodles picked up the flavor but doesnt bloat or become soggy as I enjoyed my meal.

It was truly an eye opening experience and a reminder that you cannot judge a book by its cover, much like a restaurant by its chef.

*bonus- this place does delivery which means delicious food is only...

The ramen is very good with a lot of chicken and vegetable broth options where most ramen places only have pork. I ordered the volcano shio chicken ramen that was really spicy and flavorful as described on the menu. My partner really enjoyed his spicy pork tonkatsu. The gyoza chicken dumplings were good too. The place was really packed and cramped with people standing at the door. There isn’t even standing room to wait for a table. I did not like the way I was greeted by being brush off and told to use a machine to be placed in line. After the machine told me the wait would be 15-30 minutes I received a text on my phone saying I had to download a yelp app to check my place in line which was annoying. 30 minutes later when the app said to return I had to ask the person who greeted me if the table was ready which I was then told would be a few. We waited another 15 minutes for the table. It seemed the place had only two servers so it took a while for ordering and for the food to be brought out. The waiter was kind enough and I can see he was hustling but I feel the staff are not able to handle the volume of people coming here. There was a constant line of people waiting at the door as it is very popular because of the food. I just hope the restaurant can acquire more space and employees to keep up with the demand. I don’t know if it’s less of a wait on other days but I went on a Friday night at 7:45 pm. My rating would of been really high if not for the...

11.10.17 - It's clearly a popular spot among [I assume], among Columbia University's Undergrad and Grad students and the locals. I think the food is generally good, but it's not worthy of traveling out of the way for ramen.

While waiting to be seated I was watched the full video twice and if everything is true, it's a hardcore operation in preparing the soba noodles and the broth; essentially it's a 24 hours operation.

Nevertheless, is the food so good that it demands a strong following from across the City? I can't argue against it's nutritional value as the video claims of Soba Noodles, but aside from that, is the food that good compared to other touted ramen shops like Jun-Men, Mu, Ippudo, Nakamura, Ivan Ramen, Totto, Ganso, Rai Rai Ken, Ramen Lab, etc (we've repeatedly been to many more), no it's as good.

If I cared solely on nutrition then I'd want Jin Ramen next door to me, but I'm capable of eating extremely clean and ramen isn't exactly the cleanest food considering the required ingredient of meat.

Bottom line is, Jin is a good ramen shop, and just like Japan where there are thousands of ramen shops with their unique followings, if that's your preference then you're good to go. However, if you want really good ramen that's distinguished from each other, then find the one from the list above.

Service was fast and friendly. The food came hot and well made. The cost per bowl was generally in line with other...