Kajiken Ramen — Restaurant in New York

This was my fourth visit to Kajiken and that already speaks to its quality and my love for their abura soba. We’ve tried many mazesoba in NYC, and both my bf and I ranked Kajiken the BEST mazesoba in NYC.

The prices are very affordable compared to other ramen spots (esp in Midtown)—any bowl with meat for under $20!!

In my most recent visit, I found that Kajiken just launched some new items, including Baked Sweet Potato with Ice Cream. My fellow sweet potato lovers, run don’t walk!!

As a frequent and loyal customer of Kajiken, let me introduce you all my favorites:

＊Niku Miso $19 * I reordered Niku Miso multiple times as the flavors are rich and it comes with various toppings: slow cooked pork, minced miso pork, bamboo shoot, onsen egg, chives, scallion and shredded nori. Highly recommend if it’s your first time here.

How to enjoy your abura soba: First, mix the toppings. Then, add sesame seeds, ground garlic, vinegar and chili oil to customize your bowl.

＊Roasted Beef $19 The roasted beef was delectable with black pepper. It came with quite many slices, but you can add a few dollars for extra beef. The runny yolk of the poached egg was a great addition to the saucy noodles.

＊Sukiyaki Don $10 ** Their sukiyaki don/abura soba was our must order! The marinated sliced beef got a sweet and umami flavor. Tender and not overly fatty.

＊The Original $16 The Original comes with two pieces of pork chashu, bamboo shoot, shredded nori and scallion. The chashu is meltingly tender with a sweetened soy sauce glaze.

＊Baked Sweet Potato with Vanilla Ice Cream $9.5 * To be very honest, their desserts are overpriced…BUT the baked sweet potato tasted exactly like Donki’s sweet potato iykyk. It was sweet with a charcoal aroma, perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

＊Taiyaki with Matcha Ice Cream $9.5 Taiyaki was served hot and crispy, filled with red bean paste. You can never go wrong with red bean paste & matcha ice cream combo. However, I did find the taiyaki a little bit too oily as I guessed they deep-fried it.

Tbh the service was a bit slow and lacking when we visited, but it was understandable given how busy the restaurant was. Make sure to run there before it gets too viral...

The concept of a dry ramen is something you actually do not see very often in NYC (given all the diverse food options you can find). I only know of one other place in Flushing that I had reviewed a while back. So, when someone told me that Kajiken in Manhattan was offering up something unique, I knew I had to go try.

Kajiken specializes in a ramen style called "abura soba" which literally translates to "oil noodles" and consist of dry noodles with sauces and oil on the bottom of the bowl. For those who do not want or care for abura soba, they offer traditional ramen with soup base.

The place is decorated very nicely with some very catchy Japanese artwork include murals and calligraphy. The open kitchen area is surrounded by a good amount of seating.

In addition to ramen, they offer a plethora of appetizers and I may have ordered a little too much but it all sounded delicious when I looked over the menu. Since I was with a guest we were able to share the food. We ordered salad, edamame, kara-age, fried squid tentacles, age tofu, takoyaki and debasaki wings.

For the mains we went with the

Roast Beef (raw egg yolk, fried onion, scallion, yogurt and chaliapin). The presentation on this dish was spot on as well as the taste. Definitely take a few moments to spread around the egg yolk.

Chicken Curry (onion, scallion and cabbage). This had delicious pieces of chicken on top of the ramen and we were glad we chose this one as well.

On top of everything we also wanted to try one of the rice bowls. Homura don (spicy minced pork, soft boiled egg and scallion over rice).

Overall a great dining experience here at Kajiken was had by me and my guest. i wanted to say thanks to our server Yusuke for his attentive service...

Geez, would not come back and would not recommend if that server was not FIRED OR WELL TRAINED!!!! What was that nonsense about me scanning the QR code on the table to place the order upset that server so much she had to say” fxxk forgot to take that off “ then LEFT me there not even responding to when I asked “ what happened?” without saying a thing like so did the order went through or anything? She didn’t even say “ let me know when you’re ready “ or “ don’t use the QR code “ or offer me a cup of water first! It’s a gloomy rainy day out and I just want to enjoy a nice warm lunch on a not so good working day and she just made my day even worse, I didn’t even have the energy to start a fight or anything like arguing with them of she might even deny what happened, so I didn’t say anything, then another lady came in speaks Japanese too and I’m sorry server treated her the same way and I’m glad she spoke up to the manager in Japanese. I was so upset and storming out of the restaurant and can only support her statement by saying “ same happened to me 🙂!!!” And plus need better management, who are the managers there but no one caught her serving customers like that? She’s not exactly in a low volume when saying Fxxk! Please bring this to your attention and get a better server! Everyone might not having the best day every day but fxxking other people’s day up is not the way to live or work! Bye now! - a very...