Ichiddo Ramen — Restaurant in Town of Poughkeepsie

Take this review with a grain of salt - and sorry, it's gonna be a long one. Tldr; go check the place out, it's worth it - 3.75/5 for ramen shop, 5/5 for Poughkeepsie.

Backstory on my journey to find good ramen...

Being an NYC (Queens, to be exact) transplant, the hardest thing for me to learn to cope with in the HV area was finding decent Asian food. I've learned to curb my enthusiasm whenever I discover a new Asian establishment. Businesses need to cater to the neighborhood in order to survive and around here, the very limited Asian population wouldn't be looking for hard-to-find-super-authentic dishes.

My partner and I have been trying to find a decent ramen spot for years. We have basically tried every place within an hour drive that even breathes the word 'ramen' from Kingston to Carmel, with every single place being more disappointing than the last. *Disclaimer, I just discovered a Pok fusion spot that has ramen on their menu and I have yet to try them. I'll be checking them out soon!

Our first impressions...

Ichiddo is a chain of ramen restaurants that was started in the US - they have several locations, mostly in the mid-west, I think. This is cool for areas like ours that don't have a heavy Asian population, but let's be real, I didn't have high hopes.

In our experience, dining etiquette is very important in Japan. The staff here is firstly, not Japanese**, and secondly, all-business-all-the-time. They didn't greet us, or explain the menu at all, and you can't see the chefs anywhere as there is no open kitchen. The waitress came, took our order, and rushed off. **I understood the language they spoke, and it wasnt't Japanese.

I'm not even going to go into details on what we ordered, because here's the surprise - the food was so much better than we expected that we ended up coming back here five more times in the following month. I wish I were exaggerating.

What surprised us the most was the quality of the noodles itself. They cooked the noodles really well, still firm and chewy, and they even used the correct type of noodles for the dishes we ordered. We're not really ramen/noodles snobs by any means, but I worked at a well-known ramen shop and my partner has eaten all over Japan. We expected them to use one (wrong) type of noodle for every dish just to keep their costs low and inventory simple.

The menu isn't extensive, which is fine by me, so they can focus on what they offer. I was a little disappointed by the calamari, but that's probably the item I cared the least about on the menu. All the ramen broths were really good, very flavorful without being too salty. My personal favorites are the kimchi ramen (not traditional at all, but I love kimchi), the kara age chicken app (perfectly crispy), char siu bao, and takoyaki (mediocre but definitely hits to spot without having to drive down to Edgewater, NJ). I'll add that I'm definitely a tea and bubble tea snob, and I liked the teas I've tried here. I always ask for less sugar, so that might contribute to it, but as much as I love the tea shops nearby (*very nearby), I do often end up ordering tea with my meal here.

The prices are fair in my opinion. I've heard people complain about the serving size, but these serving sizes seem normal to me. I can barely finish a bowl of the ramen by myself. If you want a larger serving, they offer additional noodles for a small price (which is the standard procedure at ramen shops). I usually end up getting a couple of dishes and appetizers to share, and always leave full. I think my average spent is $25-35 per person depending on the night, which is more than fair for a non-NYC ramen dinner (NYC would be almost double that).

All this to say, at this point, we've tried everything on the menu and we're fans. I'd give the food 3.75/5 as it is good for a ramen shop, but not nearly the best I've had. Service is a 3/5 - standard for an authentic Asian shop in my opinion. For location, this place gets a 5/5 - definitely the best ramen I've had within an hours...

So Ive been here before in August and it was phenomenal. I have no idea what happened in the oncoming months but I decided to come here for my birthday because it was so good the first time. But for some reason it was awful this time?? The amount of dimsum you were offered per basket decreased. For example I was given in August 3 fried sesame balls, now it was 2 per basket for the same price. The ramen was okay, but I loved the dimsum in august. Even the roast pork steamed buns had a completely different recipe and the bun to meat ratio was awful. It was still good but it was disappointing coming from an incredible time in August to this. Additionally the fried calamari, both my grandparents ordered, was completely inedible. It was far too chewy and weird and tasted off to them. This happened with both plates. They only managed to nibble some stuff but were put off by the calamari there after. They could not even chew it or swallow it, and could not even take a bite out of it, it was that tough. Next our service was quite awful. We asked for dessert menus and or the check 3 times and it took us at least 20 minutes to ask another time to finally get the check. Food wasnt all coordinated and came out at all different times for our meals. The shredded char siu ramen felt like it was missing a lot of things? It was mostly noodle and had very little other substance. There wasnt much flavor either. Lastly I was brought out what I am assuming is a matcha cheesecake for my birthday. I appreciate it! I thought it looked really good! But it was as hard as a rock and tasted like it has been sitting in a freezer or open case for showing desserts for at least a few weeks. It actually upset my stomach.

Again, I have no idea what happened to Ichaiddo over the few months. I was so excited to eat here again but I ended up disapointing my...

WAS NOT GOOD First time trying this place today and traveled in this heavy rain to get there a bit of a distance 35 min and disappointed. The photos make the food look so good. But trust me it was not. Nothing we ordered was good. The broth in my pork belly ramen was salty and fishy, the seasoning on calamari was excessive and I believe it was frozen, my husbands chicken fried rice was flavorless, his fried pieces of chicken app was just ok and the gyoza he did like. Over all the sweet chili sauce, gyoza,water and can of coke was the only good thing. Service was fast and our waitress was nice and attentive. We would never go back. I love any type of Asian Cuisine and I’m sorry I have no idea what that was but definitely didn’t taste authentic. I posted a pic of the ramen and the breading I took off the calamri. I left all my ramen and didn’t even want to bring the leftovers. I left practically the entire thing, it wasn’t your typical nice big bowl of ramen. Their portions are really small compared to most ramen places. Beneath all that breading was the most paper thin ring of calamari I’ve ever had and this is my go to appetizer I try from everywhere I go. It almost felt insulting as a costumer that what popped in my head was carelessness on the food taste and quantity, as if myself or others aren’t suppose to know better on how Asian food should taste. If I could grade a 0 on...