📍Susuru Ramen

I grabbed a quick bite with a neighbor. Not a literal neighbor but a friend from a building nearby. Ramen is comfort food for me, especially when it’s cold. After my trip to Japan around Labor Day, my Ramen standards have gone up considerably. So I’ve been visiting local places that may have been overlooked. Susuru is in Astoria so I made the trek.

I read online that it was pretty small. Just a few tables. People usually wait outside, even on weekdays. Sure enough, on Monday at around 7 pm, my friend and I were 3rd in line. You put your name down on a sheet of paper by the door but you have to be there when they call you. It took about 15 minutes for a table to open up. They moved fast in there.

One person is handling all the front-of-house responsibilities. She was maintaining the line, taking orders, bussing tables, and getting things ready for the next customers. She is very efficient.

For a place with 7-8 Ramens on the menu and not much else, they have a surprising beer selection. Including a variety of smaller brewers and two beers brewed in Kyoto. One was a Matcha IPA and the other a Yuzu lager. I wasn’t planning to drink but how could I say no to a Matcha IPA?

The first thing you’ll notice is it’s green. I mean really green. Like Ecto-Cooler Hi-C green. This beer is 8.5% and it tastes like Matcha with a strong barley aftertaste. It was pleasant. I appreciated it for the change of pace. I like that I can get a local Japanese beer in NYC.

We split an order of Chicken Karaage (Japanese fried chicken). These came out super hot. Each piece was in the 2-3 bites per piece range. They’re dusted with salt and black pepper and served with a spicy mayo. The S&P makes a big difference. Given that these are made with the fattier thigh pieces, I could enjoy them without the sauce. The texture of the fry was beautiful. They used rice flour as part of the coating which gave it a lot of crunch with minimal heaviness.

I order the Kuro Ramen. It’s called Kuro because the only difference from their main Paitan Ramen is the addition of black garlic oil. Otherwise, the Ramen included scallions, bamboo shoots, raw onions, a whole egg, and Chashu (roast pork) in a Chicken-based broth. The onions and scallions were great for texture. The onions especially added an almost crunchy element.

The broth was rich without feeling fatty. It is a true chicken broth. I couldn’t taste any fillers. This makes it comforting more than anything. The addition of the black garlic oil added a great deal of umami to the broth. It brought a savory layer that built on top of the broth base. The pork was lean and just a little smoky. The most interesting part was the crust. It had a spice rub, not that dissimilar to pastrami. The spice rub stayed on despite being submerged in the broth. The “pastramification” of the pork was unexpected but a welcome layer of flavor and texture.

📍Susuru Ramen
33-19 36th Ave, Queens, NY 11106

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