New York: Tabata Noodle

Rather than staying in and cook, we decided to go out for lunch and waited 40 minutes for Tabata Noodle Restaurant.  It's sort of a weird restaurant... they serve Japanese ramen, but rather than traditional ramen, they have fusion ramen.  The main cooks aren't Japanese either.  Rather, the majority of the staff is Burmese, so there are some very Southeast Asian touch in some of the ramen.

Tabata Noodle Restaurant

540 9th Ave 

Between 39th St & 40th St

Hell's Kitchen, Midtown West, Theater District

Manhattan, NY 10018

Outside of Tabata.  It's very close Port Authority.

Part of the menu.

Yea, we laughed at this for awhile, but I actually thought about ordering it cause it was in one of the newspaper in NYC. 

Inside of Tabata.  Fairly cramped.

Instead, I went with the Tabata Ramen.  Chicken broth with soybean powder, coconut, red onion, cilantro, and spicy chicken.  This was one of the ramen that was more Southeast Asian.  I was expecting flavors more like tom kha but it's more like laksi.  Spicy chicken sorta got lost it in.  Janice liked it, but I just though it was average :P

Link decided to get the Dark Men.  Turns out it is actually chicken broth with black sesame paste and ground pork!  I like it a lot since the flavor's a lot heavier.  Sorta has a hint of the Chinese fermented black beans.

Link and I also decided to share a few rice dishes and first to arrive was chahan.  Solid fried rice.  In fact, one of the better fried rice I've had at a ramen place!

Sutamina Don.  Pork & veggie sauteed with spicy garlic sauce.  We expected it to be so much more but it tasted just like a Chinese dish.  Not spicy enough.  Jimmy got the ramen version of these.  I didn't try it since I was sorta disappointed with the rice version of it.

Lava Men.  Chicken & pork bone broth soup with beansprouts, eggs, and pork.  A much more traditional style ramen.  Good bit of kick.

Fried octopus I believe.  Traditional Japanese fried food batter so it's light and good with sprinkle of lemon!

I wasn't that big of a fan for Tabata, but probably my own fault.  I figured... can't go wrong with ordering the namesake ramen, but didn't expect the ramen to be so coconut-y (don't like coconut).  Other stuff I tried was way better than what I ordered.  I can see why this place is popular though since it does have a wider selection, and for the price, the portion's reasonable too!