Raku - City of New York

This place is fantastic for udon and gets quite busy during lunch hours. Having lived in Japan for two years, I can say that the udon here feels genuinely authentic and appears to be made in-house rather than store-bought.

This restaurant has completely changed my perspective on udon, especially with their cold yamakake udon. I find myself ordering it even in winter because the broth has such a rich flavor.

I visited on Sunday at 2:30 PM and there was no line. I ordered tempura udon and eggplant as an appetizer, and both dishes were really enjoyable.

We were in the neighborhood and had lunch here. It’s very popular. We were seated within the wait time they had advised which was 20 30 minutes. Hubs had the cold udon noodles with vegetable tempura and I had the warm Niku udon noodles, which is short ribs with tendons and tripe. It so rare to see this available outside of Chinatown. The vegetable tempura was light and airy delicious. They were cut like fries. Eggplant, sweet potato, onions and green pepper. The cold udon noodles are a little thinner than the warm udon noodles. The texture of the warm udon noodles has a nice chew to it. The broth is very good as was the short rib, tendons and tripe. They were braised to perfection. I see why it is popular.

Soup was so hot and it felt like it was never getting cooled down. I ate half and took the rest to go. I saw a homeless man shaking and shivering nearby, so I gave him the soup. Happy Holidays, New York.