Lunch Beat: Ramen Yebisu Opens, Sapporo-Style

The newest ramen noodle shop in the neighborhood opened early last week. Ramen Yebisu (52 7th Avenue, between St Johns and Lincoln Places) serves Sapporo-style ramen, which isn’t widely available in New York.

The Tokyo- and Hakata-styles are more well-known, and all three are discussed in detail by the Serious Eats Guide to Ramen.

Sappora-style ramen comes from Sappora, which is the largest city in Hokkaido — the northernmost island of Japan. The weather is cold and the ocean is close — so the ramen bowl is heavy on the soup. The noodles are thick and typically have a “sea flavor.”

Ramen Yebisu joins two other ramen noodle shops in the neighborhood — ZuZu Ramen (173 4th Avenue at Lincoln Place) and Naruto Ramen (276 5th Avenue between 1st Street and Garfield Place).

This noodle shop (it’s more traditional to call these places shops, but it’s certainly a sit-down affair) is the second location for Ramen Yebisu, which opened in the previous Olieng spot. The first opened in Williamsburg (126 N 6th Street between Bedford and Berry Streets) in 2012 after its stall became extremely popular at Smorgasburg.

The shop officially opened for lunch on Tuesday, November 3 and still has some trappings of a brand new restaurant. Hours are still getting firmed up (however I’ve been told they are going to stick to 12pm-11pm seven days a week going forward). Credit/debit card machines have not yet been installed, so it’s cash-only at this point.

The soup broth options include seafood, pork, and chicken-base — with a Veggie Miso Ramen Bowl ($13) option as well. There are also soba noodle dishes available.

But we’re here for the ramen so that was our focus for lunch. The Yebisu Ramen Bowl ($17) is a seafood-broth with mussels, prawns, snow crab, and scallops. As per the Hokkaido-style, there was more soup — and seemingly fewer noodles — than you may be used to. The seafood was plentiful, and surprisingly varied.

The Sapporo-style tradition was also evident in the “fishiness” of the taste. It has a sea foam aroma, which didn’t quite suit us.

The hot chili powder they offered is recommended, and well-worth the stained red fingers until your next shower!

The Miso Ramen Bowl ($13) is a soybean-soup ramen with pork, bamboo shoots, sesame seeds, crispy onion, garlic, ginger, and beansprouts (the boiled egg is $2 extra). It’s a perfectly tasty bowl of soup, but not exemplary.

They have a great selection of sake. The shirakabe gura is their house sake ($6) and tastes dry and not very sweet — which suited us well.

The decor is minimalist and pleasant — making the best use of the space. Even when packed, the restaurant won’t seem uncomfortably so.

Ramen Yebisu serves up a solid bowl of ramen noodles. The food isn’t stunning, however it’s in its early days and has time to come into its own.

Park Slope Lunch Beat Rundown: Ramen Yebisu
Where: 52 7th Avenue, between St Johns and Lincoln Places.
Phone: No phone as of yet.
Regular Hours: 12pm-11pm, all week.
Who To Bring: The lunch time rush is light, so you’d be able to bring a party of 6 easily. It’s great for two people, as well as a nice spot to come in on your own.
Kid Friendly? Could be tricky if it gets crowded. Highchairs were not available at this time, but perhaps so because it just opened.
Best Bites: The Miso Ramen Bowl ($13) is a nice bowl of soup. The seafood-laden Yebisu Ramen Bowl ($17) has the traditional “fishy” flavor that’s part of the Sapporo tradition — which may or may not suit you. Go with the shirakabe gura, which is their house sake ($6) — it’s neither too dry nor too sweet.