Karakatta — Restaurant in New York

A small but cozy ramen shop, Karakatta has a great ambience but for the price and amount of food I am unsure if this ramen place is worth it. The noodles are bland, the broth is a bit forgettable, and the toppings of some of the ramen bowls are a bit odd (avocado in ramen?). The bar where the chefs cook the ramen almost seem like a traditional ramen house you might find in Japan so this fusion style is a little misleading since the flavors aren’t spot on or complimentary. (The egg is perfectly poached though.)

I understand this place can be very busy, especially due to the small size of the restaurant, but it’s a bit inexcusable for the wait staff to forget to bring my sister’s ramen for 10 minutes when my friend and I had gotten our dishes and had eaten in fear of it going cold. The reason for this inappropriateness is not the amount of time it took, but rather the fact that the wait staff gave her ramen away to two different customers that had ordered after we did. As in, they mixed up the orders not once but TWICE. I myself have worked in food and bev, and understand things may happen but I have never been to a place where the restaurant has not made it right by not offering either a dessert, complimentary meal, or a discount for the mistake especially since we could see that she was neglected twice.

The food isn’t good enough for the price to come back to see if the service is better a second time around but the proximity to NYU...

One of my favorite ramen shops recently closed in the neighborhood but after going to Karakatta today I’m pretty sure that I have a new favorite. This place specializes in spicy ramen, and I think that they have mastered the ability to add spice to a ramen without compromising flavor. I got the ginger stamina ramen and asked for extra spicy, the ramen came with a large ball of chili and pepper on top of the lettuce. I tried the broth before and after adding the spice and I loved both. The broth of the ginger stamina ramen had flavors of intense ginger, black pepper and cilantro I had never experienced in a ramen before. I would not recommend extra spicy for the faint of heart but I loved it. The great thing is that they allow you to decide how much spice you want. The staff was also very welcoming and kind. I only had one bowl of ramen today but I can’t wait to go back, based on the menu I really want to try their teriyaki rice bowls and the shoyu ramen as well as the Karaage. I’m also excited to visit their connected restaurant Mr. Taka in the lower east side which along with Karakatta is connected to a very popular ramen...

The restaurant is one of those places that if you walk by and pass by, you will want to enter. The atmosphere is very enveloping and the lights are dim and since it is a small space, it makes it cozy.

The food was delicious, we ordered takoyaki and tonkotsu ramen. They were exquisite and the portions were big, we ordered one plate of each (there were two of us) and it was more than enough. Although for me, the ramen had a lot of scallion and was somewhat saturated, but for everything else it was very delicious. To drink, we ordered Ramune (a very smooth and delicious Japanese soda) and we also ordered a Japanese cocktail that I don't remember the name of but it had something similar to jelly, it was very sweet and mild but we enjoyed it quite a bit.

The girl from the staff who served us was very friendly, she gave us very good suggestions regarding food and drinks and was attentive to everything.

Something important, we went with our cat and she was allowed as long as she was obedient (we had her inside the briefcase), there was no problem for our baby.

So if you want a cozy experience and to enjoy japanese food, this...