morimoto and ramen
My favorite iron chef has always been Masaharu Morimoto. Maybe I’m biased because I had the opportunity to meet him in person at his Morimoto restaurant in New York, but I’ve always preferred his quiet, unpretentious style over some of his counterparts’ tendency to be more flashy. And unlike some other “celebrity” sushi restaurants that are more hype than substance (cough, Nobu, cough), Morimoto the restaurant is not only amazingly good, but (relatively) reasonably priced, but I digress…

NY Magazine recently featured a two part article on ramen, featuring Morimoto’s tips on ramen and his pick of the 5 best ramenyas in New York City.

I’ve only visited Rai Rai Ken, his number five choice, but was a bit surprised (spoiler alert) to see him choose Momofuku as #1. I’ve never eaten there before, but from what I’ve heard, Momofuku Noodle Bar (emphasis mine) is really more of…well, a noodle bar than a ramenya.

So can any NYC ramen patrons out there chime in? Does Morimoto-san know ramen? Is a trip to NYC in my future?

4 thoughts on “iron chef: ramen!”

  1. chef morimoto is my all time favorite iron chef too!! i love his creativity, he is so talented & *un-showy*, no stupid & annoying bam here & bam there……….

    thanx for the great article…..now i cannot wait to go to nyc & try all those ramen houses on chef morimoto’s top 5 list 🙂

  2. Ray: coming from a food writer, I take that as high praise. Thank you! And you have amazing timing: I just might be going up to the bay area next week and if I do, I’m definitely going to try to get in some ramen. Thanks for the suggestion!

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