Midtown Manhattan is notoriously lean on good restaurant options. Enter Tonchin Ramen, a new outpost from a Tokyo-based restaurant group that’s giving diners a reason to head further uptown. Located on 36th street, the dimly lit hole-in-the-wall is the perfect respite from the maddening crowds of Broadway and Times Square.
The unfussy interior, a collaboration between Brooklyn studios LMNOP and Carpenter & Mason, stays true to simplistic Japanese design elements. Inside, intimate booths and minimalist wooden tables line the deep indigo walls. A hand-woven curtain by Salt and Still was commissioned to hang between the kitchen and eating area, the ceramic lampshades were made by Brooklyn-based ceramicist Helen Levi and the uniforms were designed by workwear brand, Peels.
In the bright white open kitchen, chefs create traditional, bold Japanese comfort food like the Classic Tokyo Tonkotsu, a steaming bowl of ramen made with umami pork broth, homemade noodles and roasted pork. The cocktails are also big on flavour; the Hinoki Apple is made from Hinoki Vodka and pear syrup, while the Wasabi Vodka Tonic has a healthy, sinus-clearing dose of wasabi. An evening here won’t just satisfy your hunger for ramen, it’ll quench your thirst for Tokyo.
