Sunday, January 4, 2015

Ippudo - Bucket List Check

Happy 2015!!! Although the year got started with a few sad events in the midst, I did manage to end 2014 on a high note with my little munchkin. OK so it was not a blow out party, but it was  wonderful because it was calm which is exactly what this girl needed after the hectic year 2014 turned out to be.

Right before the year ended I did manage to check another name from off from my restaurant bucket list. Thanks to my friends J and J (Names are withheld to protect the innocent) who are two of my five partners in crime when it comes to these sort of endeavors, we managed to get into Ippudo after a one and a half hour wait. Ippudo was part of a list of noodle restaurants around the city that were noted in Tasting Table's Ten Great Bowls of Ramen We Are Craving Right Now List (although one of my favorites Nauruto Ramen was not part of the list much to my dismay). This place was well worth the wait especially because December 30th turned out to be one of the chilliest days we've had so far this winter, so a hot bowl of ramen was just the thing to chase the chill away. For an appetizer we had the Hirata buns, which are about as wonderful as Baohaus' Chairman Bao (but not quite enough to make me want to stop my illicit love affair with this little bundle of deliciousness). For our main course us ladies went with the Akamaru Modern while our other cohort went up a notch ordering the Akamaru Chasu (which is the Akamaru Modern with extra pork chasu). All I have to say is that this was probably one of the most wonderful and satisfying experiences I have had eating ramen. Now I am looking forward to checking out the rest of the other places on that list and hope that they are all as wonderful as Ippudo was. Here are some pictures I managed to take.

 Bowls adorn the entry to our noodle heaven

 My partners in crime

 Hirata buns

 Hirata bun food porn

 Akamaru Chasu

Akamaru Modern