the secret ingredient to noodles: LEAVE OUT THE CRAB (a ramen review)

forgetting completely where I live last night, my visiting scottish friend, stewart and i, headed for yakatori in the east village. on st. marks. on a friday night. soooooo instead of the inevitable 1.5 hour wait appetizer, we took on to “plan b”: noodles.




"menkui tei" is my shining star of japanese noodles, located on 56th street at 6th ave. i go after work (“noodle fridays”) and sometimes after the gym (just to insure i completely erase any accomplished exercise results). as it turns out, my favorite place has a second location right around the corner from st. marks, so our plan b is a no brainer.


NOODLE FRIDAY IS ON.


we walk in and are greeted by a line of 8 people waiting: one large group of 6 and one couple I will affectionately call mr. and mrs. douchebag. adhering to STANDARD PROTOCOL, i head to the front to put our name on the waiting list. naturally, this IMMEDIATELY starts a stir with mr. douchebag, who (always one step ahead) cleverly thinks I am about to cut off his manhood with this sly maneuver of mine.


“I WILL NOT BE MADE A FOOL OF!”



so doing what every douchebag is trained to do on a date, he puffs up his (manscaped) hairy chest and charges up to the front to erase all potential line confusion by sticking his ELBOW out in front of me. this move permanently secures his territory and proclaims that the battle for noodles is ON IF I WANT IT. fortunately for him, they were seated, and there would be no need for me to embarrass him. I’m sure he did enough for himself by sitting down and ordering up a hot steaming plate of pad thai. ahh, the east village.




ESTABLISHMENT REVIEW:

now, it is famous in all circles that japanese politeness and service comes standard with ramen. in fact, entering into their other location on 56th is like teleporting yourself away to tokyo with the thunderous noise of the of the “slurp” and the incredible customer service. however, that place is far away and is not here. not now. not on friday in the east village. it seems that sadly, the location of this ramen shop has completely transformed this “ex-pat-jap-staff” into those “new-york-city-service-industry-tards” that believe that the customer is to make THEIR life easier. perhaps they are responding to a endless supply of mr. and mrs. douchebags. i don’t know and i don’t care. i want my gyoza with a side of niceness, and no crab.


time it took to take our drink order: 10 minutes
time it took to get our bill: 25 minutes
waiters it took to get that bill: 3
time it took to get attitude when we politely asked for reasonable requests (i.e. our bill 3 times): 0 minutes.


TAKE OUT ONLY.