Kuu Ramen
“but overall much better than the infamous ramen co. this will be my go to ramen spot when I'm in FiDi.”
“$10 is really cheap for a lunch in the financial district so anyone should take advantage.”
“There are 5 flavor options for ramen: miso, shoyu, Okinawa shio, chili chili (figured that is spicy miso) and veggie miso (vegetarian).”
Kuu Ramen
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Decent ramen spot in fidi. The broth and noodles are good, but the pork size is TINY. If I am paying $13 for a bowl of soup, I would appreciate a little more meat in there. Also the water glasses are TINY, think dixie cup size. For a dish as salty as ramen, I would expect a restaraunt to serve more water (or at least bring a pitcher to the table so people can refill their glasses…not too much to ask considering water is free). They have good beer specials though.
Wow – this place is small! By small, I mean one small room. If you want to come here, be prepared to wait and snatch a seat. We got lucky and got the two seats with a window view.
I arrived around 12:30 on a Thursday and order took about 10 – 15 minutes to come. However, they also messed up my friends order, and it took them another 10 or so minutes to rectify. Granted, they figured out that they gave him the wrong order as they were handing us our order…
On to the food:
– Spicy Tuna Donburi: not so spicy, if at all, but so light and delicious! The sweet sauce helped enhance this dish.
– Teriyaki Donburi: yummy and definitely a good option for something filling.
– Japanese Fried Chicken: never again. Absolutely bland even with the sauces they provided to us.
It didn't win a spot on my fave list but it's an all-right option to go to once in a while.
Good:
The place is nicely decorated and very clean.
The ramen is good quality for this price. However, the spicy ramen might seem too spicy for some people.
Bad:
Seating is very limited and you have to share a table with other people. Don't expect to get a seat right away either, especially on weekdays during crazy lunch hours in Financial District.
I keep coming back to Kuu because it is near my office, open late (for Wall Street standards… since everything in FiDi closes at like 6pm!!), and the food is decent. To be honest, I prob wouldn't frequent here as often if I were still in midtown since there's Totto, Hide-Chan, etc. etc., but for downtown standards, it's actually pretty good. My only complaint is that it is a little expensive (with added toppings, my ramen usually ends up around $20), but everything is fresh and I like their karage fried chicken here.
you know what, I love the okinawa ramen with arugula…..the noodles are always done right and I have to say that this place is better than the reviews. granted, the charshu pork is a slim cut, but the bowl is very enjoyable. stop being so snobby about soup , it's a fast food, not a fine dining tasting menu, ya know?
Cute hole in the wall with communal tables and wall to wall Asians. On my first night in NYC, it is cold–not NYC cold but definitely freezing for this Cali girl. So really I HAD to chase ramen, if only to warm my bones.
Service is kinda meh cuz you really can't tell who the hipster clientele is from the hipster wait staff, and you kinda have to yell to get their attention, which because I had just landed and was hangry, I had no problem doing.
But the food is amazing; I had the chili ramen with the spicy ground chicken and pork. Man, I loved them noodles and I appreciated the perfectly sliced soft boiled egg which was still a lil runny. And boy did all the slurping clear up wrecked sinuses. And with my ice cold Asahi beer, it was perfection.
Glad I found this minuscule joint and glad they take credit cards as I forgot to hit the ATM before the trip. Doh!
The place was packed. No big surprise there on this front, as FiDi lunch hours are hellish (and it's not like this joint sports a lot of real estate either). Nevertheless, myself and my lunch-time companion made the daring decision to meet between the prime feeding times of 12:30-1:30.
Luckily for me, lunch partner had possessed enough guile (with a touch of luck) to grab a pair of seats next to the door. All the other seats, which came in the form of a couple of community tables and stools, had already been snatched up (with some people electing just to stand and use the table edges to put their food on); this was a viable and somewhat novel strategy, if one was looking to eat quickly.
As for myself and the lunch buddy, we were afforded the opportunity to take our time. I generously ordered and covered lunching expenses for the afternoon so that she could hold down the proverbial fort… keeping the scavengers away from our precious seats that we were blessed with. We split an order of karaage chicken, with me opting for a teriyaki chicken bowl, and her getting a spicy tuna bowl.
My favorite bite of the afternoon was the karaage. It wasn't dried out and it was crispy. The teriyaki and spicy tuna bowls weren't too impressive. A bit sweet on the teriyaki and the greens around the spicy tuna didn't seem all too fresh (a bit wilted and not-so-green, as appearances go). Everything tasted alright though.
All in all, a perfectly satisfactory dine-in experience. Perhaps the ramen at this place is their calling card (it would make sense… seeing as the word ramen makes up half of the joint's namesake). That possibility alone warrants a return visit at some point in the near future, although their most recent performance was not the most impressive of outings.
The ramen here is definitely MEH. I had the Tonkatsu Miso Ramen. It's shameful. The noodles were undercooked and almost crunchy, definitely NOT fresh. If you want to put the name of a dish in the name of your restaurant, may be spend a bit more time perfecting said dish would be a good idea?
Kuu would have gotten two stars but their salmon avocado roll was pretty decent.
In whatever case, I would definitely NOT go back.