Menchanko Tei

After a long day of working, Ken and I went to dinner at Menchanko Tei to fill up on ramen and fried chicken. Ken first visited the restaurant a couple years ago when his brother-in-law was in town on business and took him there – he brought me there because we were both in the mood for ramen and Ken said their fried chicken ramen combo was really delicious. The restaurant is located in midtown west sandwiched between a Dunkin Donuts and a Five Guys:

The restaurant has a front room and a back room along with a small bar area for dining in case you go by yourself. It’s a popular spot for lunch and when we visited on a Saturday night, there were a lot of Japanese people dining by themselves.

Ken ordered the Tori Kara (Fried Chicken) Menchanko original recipe topped with japanese style fried chicken:

And I ordered the Hakata Ramen – ultra thin ramen noodles in a rich broth topped with simmered pork slices, black mushrooms, red ginger, and scallions:

We also ordered two rice balls – sake (grilled salmon) and Mentaiko (spicy rod roe):

My ramen was really delicious and hit the spot; the noodles were thicker than the ramen you’d order at Ippudo, but the thickness of the noodles matched the rich broth and thick slices of pork. The rice balls were a little too salty and the seaweed had been added to the rice when the rice was still hot so the seaweed was really mushy. Ken and I really enjoyed our noodle dishes (Ken loves their fried chicken noodle dish) and wanted to stay for dessert but since their menu is pretty sparse, we hiked to Times Square and ate Cold Stone (strawberry shortcake!) We also took this photo in Times Square:

There’s a Menchanko Tei closer to us in midtown east and we are definitely going to head back before the winter ends for some delicious ramen.