Zutto Japanese American Pub — Restaurant in New York

Made reservations for 4 and when we got here, the place was fairly empty, so we didn't have to wait regardless. However, by the time we finished out meal, the place had filled up a bit, but not full capacity.

For appetizers, we ordered the zutto pork belly. I thought it was very good. It was over caramelized so it made it really sweet but the spiciness almost balanced it out. Usually you would assume that it wouldn't be that spicy but they definitely made this spicy. The cilantro really helped to cut the fat from the pork belly, the sweetness, and the spiciness. Overall, I would recommend this dish.

For the main course, we ordered: Tonkotsu Ramen, Spicy Miso Ramen, Kimchi Ramen, Duck Ramen, and Foie Gras sushi roll. I was able to try the Tonkotsu, Spicy Miso, Duck Ramen and Foie Gras sushi roll.

I thought the Tonkotsu was pretty good. The noodles were alright, not as al dente as I would have liked them to be. The soup base was decent. Not too fatty but still had lots of flavor, but not "deep flavors". The base wasn't salty at all. In my opinion, the pork was very fatty and flavorful. As one of the other reviewers pointed out, I took out some of the ginger before starting to eat and it created a better balance within the dish. I do believe that they give you too much ginger but that can easily be rectified. The dish also had mushrooms and they were very sweet. Probably the sweetest mushrooms I've ever encountered. I highly recommend not eating it those alone and balance it out with the other ingredients of the dish.

As for the Spicy Miso ramen. I thought the dish was okay. The spiciness was very mild. The ground pork by itself wasn't well seasoned but when eaten with the rest, it's actually alright.

Coming to the duck ramen. I only tried the duck meat as I assumed everything else would be similar to the Tonkotsu ramen. The duck meat itself was good but I don't like duck being boiled. It takes away from the flavors and makes the meat more chewy.

The foie gras sushi roll was okay. Didn't hit the mark with this roll. Not much flavor with the foie gras. The snow crab seemed to have too much water content in it so it made the roll a little soggy when biting into. The cucumber was much needed to add some crunch to the roll. Despite that, this is not a roll I could recommend.

The service was excellent and staff were friendly. We didn't have to wait long for our food, only our beers. A little annoying but I guess it's okay. At least our water came before our food came out.

I wasn't thoroughly impressed with this place. I would prefer the ramen at Bassanova or Okidoki. Cheaper and better ramen depending on which one you get. For the buns, I would recommend this place over Okidoki and probably even over Bassanova only because I like the sweetness.

Overall I would rate this place 3 to 3.5 stars. I could see myself recommending this place, but it wouldn't be at the...

Thank you for your reply. I have actually called you and reported this incident on the day your delivery guy treated me badly. I am not sure why it took so long for your management team to realize this.

Since that rude person is your in-house delivery guy, I’m afraid I have to give him a one star.

Now let me recount the things he did, for everyone’s better understanding:

I ordered 3-4 times from you in a row since I really love your food. Each time I have him a 10% tip on top of his delivery fee. There was never a greeting, never a thank you, never a have a good one. The first time, he even got angry since I went to the other side of the building. Pointing to the floor he said “this is lunch!”, meaning it’s my fault going to the wrong door and made him wait (yes, he called me 3 times when I actually went to the elevators as soon as I got his call). What’s more hilarious is that except for him, every delivery person arrives at the other door. He is the only person that went to the wrong side, and he even tried to educate me that his spot is the right spot. Anyway, the last time I ordered from you, I did not give a tip, since I really didn’t like his attitude too much. He literally asked me for his tip, and when rejected, he yelled “this is America!”, “no tip no order!”, “Cheap!”. Yes, he called me cheap on the top of his voice in my company lobby.

And I honestly don’t understand why you haven’t replaced him yet? Your delivery person, threatened your customer “no tip no order”, when he actually received more than 10% tip every time for the last 3-4 times?

And I wish I could use Uber but this is company order. I guess I may need to reach out to Grubhub on this issue if you just want to keep him at your restaurant.

Apologies but looks like if I don’t give you a one star, this review cannot be seen by you. I will revert to 5 stars once you have replied to me here.

When you have replaced your current horribly rude delivery guy for Grubhub (mid aged Asian guy), could you kindly let me know? Until then, I’m afraid I cannot order from you anymore since I don’t feel safe or comfortable about my food being delivered by this extremely rude person. But I absolutely...

Why is ramen in NYC so damn pricey? I really don't understand it. I feel like I can buy my own fresh ramen and make my own bowl for a third of the price. But I guess that's just the cost of dining out nowadays.

My coworkers and I headed to Zutto for a team lunch. To start, we ordered a couple of rolls. We had the Crazy Sake (seared salmon, cucumber spicy salmon on top) and the Spicy Crab (Blue Crab, Spicy Mayo, Avocado, Shiso, Masago). They weren't anything amazing. Just very average, for lack of better words to describe it. The blue crab tasted more like imitation crab meat.

For my main, I ordered the chorizo ramen because I thought it was an interesting idea and figured it would be a unique mix of flavors. Overall, I enjoyed the ramen and the broth. The broth looks extremely spicy, but it isn't. Make sure you drink it quick though because once it cools, all the fat gets layered on top and it won't look very appetizing at all. I liked the variety of toppings it came with: corn, mushrooms, raw onions, bamboo shoots. I love raw onions as a topping but it was a little too much so it was overpowering at times. The bamboo had a weird old taste to it. Could have also used a bit more chorizo in there.

I was a little disappointed mainly because the menu looked really awesome, and I had been wanting to try this place out for quite some time now. I don't know if I'll be back since there are so many better sushi and ramen places around.

Tip - Their ramen lunch specials aren't really lunch special prices. It's basically regular menu price, but they throw in an iceberg wedge salad...