#1 BEST Japanese Ramen in The Country!

Hey guys, Mike Chen here in Manhattan. I'm so excited about this meal I'm about to have right now. Of course being New York City new restaurants pop up all the time But this place I'm about to go to I haven't been there in several years and last time I ate here I remember proclaiming it the best ramen noodle I've had outside of Japan and now they have finally opened a shop here in New York And they're inviting me in before their grand opening, which I think is in a couple days. Let's go eat Hello. Hello Hideki-san, how are you? Thanks for having me. I'm a big fan of your ramen. Very big fan of your ramen. Hideki-san is the executive chef and co-owner here at Okubo, New York and I've eaten at your LA location many times I was so sad it closed down over there because of the pandemic But it's here in New York and you're gonna show me how everything is made This is gonna be so exciting. Okay, so they make their ramen in-house And let's just go see the process of this. This is so interesting to me What makes their flour so special is that it comes from Nippon, the oldest flour mill in Japan Which dates all the way back to the 1800s. They use three different types of flour and what makes them so special compared to American flour Is that Japanese flour has more proteins. All these noodles are made in-house This is something you do daily I remember how good these noodles were I'm so excited for this. The smell of the chashu when that torch is Grilling the surface is almost too much and the broth It's just that great seafood aroma and the pork and of course the glistening freshly made noodles This is just as good as I remembered it If not better like whenever you taste a bite of food that you haven't had in a long time that you really liked before I kind of say a little prayer beforehand just to Make sure my memory is serving me correctly. There's no mistaking how good this is So amazingly fragrant and Flavorful and what hits you really after that first amazing slurp of these smooth Delictable noodles is that awesome umami hit. This kind of bombards the back of your tongue No much to love About this bowl of noodles. When you start slurping it, I got to become a little overwhelmed by the flavor Amazing thickness richness from the dippin broth and then the noodles themselves are really in a league of their own That's one reason I love a skim it so much It preserves the chewiness of the noodles so well once you take out the boiling water and soak it in cold water It just remains so amazingly chewy and elastic-y The mouthfeel is just exquisite. Like I said smooth on the outside and so slurpable. This is so good I totally forgot there's two giant fatty pieces of chashu sitting on this bowl You will absolutely Love the chashu. At this point I don't know what one element is the best in this bowl because they're all equally important it seems they're all equally delicious Like I said the noodles Amazingly springy. Dippin broth is aromatic. It's rich. It's velvety. It stays on. So even though the noodles are a little thick That flavor is clinging on for dear life I think I like it more than lime in there Just adds another layer of flavor and I remember the first time eating at this restaurant in LA right by Chinatown Remember dipping the ramen in the broth for the first time slurping it up and just feeling overwhelmed by how good this is And sometimes like I said, you don't know the food you had many years ago If it's gonna be just as good if you have it now today Good food at least for me is about how I feel when the food is in my mouth and this thing every time I slurp I feel so happy. It's rare I finish bowl noodles without eating the chashu or the egg first. And like I said, the chashu is amazing My taste buds are so overwhelmed and happy every time I dip the noodles in this broth and slurp it up I just want to keep doing that over and over again You guys really need to try How good this is. The umami bomb that hits you after every slurp is no joke. It's such an addictive flavor Especially when you pair it up with the chashu. Everything here is A+. I even forgot about the egg Sometimes in a bowl of ramen Certain elements are kind of not as good as the other. I mean I've had ramen where the broth is delicious, noodle not as much, where the noodle and broth is delicious, chashu is an afterthought This, the chashu is so thick and fatty and when the torch kisses that, you hear the sizzle, you smell that Whirling fat, all that aroma and flavor will translate onto your tongue And if you eat it with your noodles, it makes each bite smokier, richer, better Noodles are gone now We'll get a second bowl, right? Thank you so much chef. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Itadakimasu. I just get so excited I do, I get so excited whenever you bring me a new bowl of noodles. This one right away I'm gonna put the lime in for that extra citrusy flavor. It's just so pretty. I was just looking at this It's just so pretty. I love the first dip For me the first dip of the skimming, it's always the most flavorful and also you have that taste of anticipation I feel like my second bowl of skimming, even better than my first. I could eat this every single day Every single day. You taste the bonito, you taste the chicken and you never want the slurping to end This is definitely Living in a penthouse overlooking Central Park rich kind of noodles But at no time does it ever overwhelm you or make you feel like there's too much. You just want more Mmm, these katashi are so good. Really nice to get the scallions involved So you add some crunchy texture and nice garlicky refreshing flavor to these noodles, kind of balance out the richness a little bit too So this restaurant is really unique. There's only two items on the menu, skimming and a ramen That's it. And when you try this, you will understand how much work and effort and dedication went into making this taste So absolutely unbelievable. Also, let's try the other ramen too This is really good. This is very rich broth. It's rich but super flavorful Mmm, this is a chicken and pork broth with thin noodles. Now, of course all the noodles made in-house here Noodles are so good here. The thin noodles are good. The thick skimming noodles are good I think three bowls of ramen is my limit, but this has been an incredible walk down memory lane My favorite bowl of ramen in this country. I love skimming. I love how chewy it is I love dipping it in the broth and this place is one of the best places to do it And I know there's a ton of ramen shops in New York But guys if you love ramen, if you love skimming, definitely come here to try this. I think you're gonna love it Dinner is gonna be a flushing. There's this place that I think before it was more a takeout place Now there's a lot of seating here. So this is a really popular chain from China and they specialized in Sauerkraut fish and it's kind of cool is that if you look behind me, there's like one, two, three, four, five Fifteen rice cookers. It's all you can eat rice all you can eat rice usually just cook it in a giant cooker in the back and give it to you, but There's cookers. I think that's better. So you get your dish and go get your rice Traditional Chinese dish calls for a traditional Chinese soda Bei Bing Yang It's pretty much just a more artificial phantom. Appetizer is a Taiwanese sausage. Usually people eat these with raw garlic This is good, but it's very fatty a little sweet it needs something to balance this out Yeah, raw garlic would have been really good for this Still really yum. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, this is huge This is way bigger than I thought. That's a giant giant Plate of fish. So this thing it's just full of chilies sauerkraut, scallions, garlic Giant pieces of fish fillet. All swimming in the soup that I bet you is Absolutely delicious. Oh Yeah That is so good spicy sour tons of flavor And the sourness is very unique because it's from sauerkraut So it's not gonna be like a like a umami filled sourness like like from Chinese vinegar flavor is quite sharp There's also peppercorn in here for some numbness. The fish fillet is super super tender. They say they use snakehead fish That's some of the most tender Fillet of fish you'll ever put in your mouth. I mean, this is a giant giant plate, but it's really ultra light I mean the fish is light, the veggies here are light. The soup is so delectable And what's great about this is whatever you can't finish at a restaurant take it home I think it tastes even better when you reheat it I think the sauerkraut flavor steeps into the fish even more. Fish is so tender and flaky The flavor is so mild and the strong sauerkraut flavor doesn't really change the flavor profile of the fish much Like they all kind of complement each other. The soup is spicy, it's numbing, it's sauerkraut-y, the vegetables the same flavor But the fish is just mild It's so mild It's so nice. It's no wonder they have a thousand locations of this place back in China Also, they brought me over some of this. This is pork belly on a stick Very tender a little sweet Very tender. I think that goes really well with the soup too Another reason I love the soup, it completely cuts down any of the fattiness from pretty much anything So it actually goes really really well with a fatty pork belly Take a bite of that sip some soup That's so nice So so nice. Oh that definitely warmed me up So nice to be able to walk around flushing and just grab some random food and see if there's any new restaurants open. Oh Let's get some ice cream I'm not in New York as much anymore So it's really nice to be able to come back and have a fantastic food day today. Had some amazing Life-changing ramen, then able to explore flushing a little bit. Those three bowls of ramen definitely so fulfilling I think that's it for today's food adventure. As always all places I went to listed down below for you guys Thank you all so much for watching until we eat again