I had arranged to meet a younger friend from my school days on Garosu-gil, since he was back in Korea for the first time in ages, but there was nowhere decent to eat. The good places all had long lines and were hectic, and I did not want to walk into somewhere unproven or expensive either. So we ended up at a newly opened ramen shop, IPPUDO NEXT DOOR.
Side dishes
Nothing impressive turns up as a side dish. In proper Japanese style, anything extra costs you money. The prices are about the same as they are over there, which makes them expensive if you want to call them expensive. The interior feels more like a cafe than a ramen shop. Maybe because it sits back off the street, or maybe because word has not got around yet, there were hardly any customers, so it was a good spot for talking. (Which saved us the price of coffee…)
Shiromaru
A standard tonkotsu ramen. Plenty of people like to quip that the ramen here came by way of the New York branch, so it tastes different from the real thing in Japan… but Ippudo has dozens of branches across Japan (somewhere around 80 to 90), so unless you go to the original Fukuoka shop or somewhere like it, there is bound to be some variation in the taste. A bowl like this would count as reasonably good in Japan too. That said, it is only good for a chain, so anyone chasing the ultimate bowl of ramen might not be satisfied.
Akamaru
Akamaru is a Japanese-style spicy ramen made with garlic oil and a secret spicy sauce. A tonkotsu ramen that somehow feels Korean, you could say.
Gyoza
We ordered it as a set, and the gyoza were a bit ordinary. Part of it is that I am not a big fan of small gyoza, and part of it may be that they were not juicy.