You’ve probably heard about it… the long lines at Ippudo, the Ramen noodle shop in NYC that is apparently to die-for.  What was all the hype about? Naturally, being a lover of anything Japanese, I had to try it. Of course, I didn’t believe the stories about the long lines and decided to head over there for lunch. I showed up an hour after they had opened for the day, and I mean, what was I thinking? It didn’t seem like i was!  I walk in, expecting a 30 minute wait, which is reasonable for a popular restaurant in Mahnttan. Instead, the wait for a table was on the order of 2 hours. Urgh! Sadly, I abandoned that quest and decided to come a bit more prepared the next time.

So last weekend, I rallied up the troops and got there at exactly 11am, when they opened. There were already 20 people in front of me, but thankfully since our entire party was there, we were seated right away! I ordered some shishito peppers, steamed pork  buns, baby cucumbers and of course a hot steaming bowl of the spicy ramen. Wow, they weren’t kidding. I’ve never had a better bowl of ramen before, EVER! And I grew up in South East Asia.  The wait was most certainly worth every last drop!