“Like typical eight-person ramenyas in Japan, Minca is cramped, not air-conditioned, and has exposed brick walls and just a few tables. The best place to sit is at the long wooden bar facing the kitchen, so you can watch the chef cook. Ramen is Japan’s most popular street food, so it’s no surprise that lots of teenage Japanese expats frequent the place, along with suit-and-ties pausing for a quick after-work meal…”
Timothy Cooper
New York Magazine
Read more“Minca aptly bills itself as “Ramen Factory,” for other than a few standard appetizers, ramen is the only item on the menu. But so many kinds of ramen, served with a really impressive variety of fresh ingredients. Think flavorful mushrooms, great broth, tender pork, and noodles with firm spring and good bite.”
NYC.com
Read moreMinca is a Garlic Laden Ramen Explosion
“I don’t taste much garlic in this,” said Amy. I stared at my friend in disbelief as we dug into our bowls of ramen at Minca. She said… what? The pork-based broth of our basic ramens was completely saturated with garlic, maybe so much that my friend’s taste buds had been shocked out of its ability to taste garlic. But I could taste it fine. And it was delicious…”
Serious Eats New York
Read more$25 AND UNDER; East Village Noodles, All the Way From Japan
“One such expat is Shigeto Kamada, a musician, who says he despaired of finding good ramen in New York. So he taught himself to make it by reading books and watching videos. Now he is satisfying similar appetites at Minca, a little ramen shop he opened about a month ago in the East Village…”
The New York Times
Read more
“The usual noodle-bar gimmicks are not part of the equation at Minca. You can’t mix and match your meat and broth. Instead, the gleaming East Village soup-stop stays focused on 15 simple items—all of them certainly better than anything you microwaved in college. Nab one of the few bar stools overlooking the stoves and dive into light homemade dumplings stuffed with panfried minced pork, followed by chashu ramen, a buttery broth stocked with egg, bamboo shoots and sheets of nori, topped with thin, tender slices of pork.”
130 Grand St.