As it will soon not be ramen time for me: I love the hot soup one and I am less inclined to have these noodles in a cold dish, although I tried once at Takumi and it was delicious, but I really associate ramen with colder days...One of the ramen joints that was on my radar is Ramen-Ya and we decided to go for lunch on a week day. When we arrived at their location on West 4th street, I was really surprised to see the entrance that is a white townhouse, giving the impression you are going to a friend to have a meal.

Ramen-Ya is a tiny place for sure and we got seated at the counter. A disappointing counter in fact because I like to sit there to watch the kitchen and how they make the food.

Before getting our soups, we decided to order pork gyoza, not spicy. They were pretty good, juicy and tasty, with a nice charred shell.

Then came our ramen. Vegetarian for Jodi, with the Yasai ramen, made with a vegetable miso soup, topped with nenma, kikurage mushrooms, bean sprouts, corn and scallions. She added a boiled egg (aka nitamago).

On my side, I went for the musashi shio black that has a Tonkotsu pork broth topped with shashu pork, kikurage mushrooms, nitamago (seasoned egg), scallions and black garlic oil.

Both ramen were good, but I definitely preferred mine because the broth was more flavorful. However, I admit that I preferred the noodles in the vegetable version as they were thicker, giving a nice texture, and tastier. The broth in the musashi shio black was very good, silky, and I appreciated the fact that the garlic was not overpowering. I should mention the shashu pork that was deliciously cooked as well as the egg that had a nice half cooked yolk that was slightly runny.