So after hitting many noodle houses in Manhattan over the past 22 months or so, I think we're ready to declare the winner. Hands down, the crown has to go to Food Sing 88 Corp. in Chinatown. It's an example of why so many other hipper noodle joints, while good, are hardly a deal.
Momofuku, which is good in its own right, gets up to $15 for a bowl of ramen. Same with
Ippudo. True, they may use Berkshire pork belly, while Sing 88 doesn't even remove the bones from your meat (the duck and the short rib arrived nestled in noodles and broth still clinging to large bones as well as teeny bits of bone that you have to awkwardly pull out of your mouth from time to time), but even with better quality meat, they're still no match for the roughly $5 a bowl at Sing 88 (not to mention for an extra $1 you get extra noodles in your bowl). And, when you leave, you're completely satisfied. True also, Ippudo and Momofuku are Japanese and Sing 88 is Chinese, but if you're looking solely at the noodles, Sing 88's can't be beat. You can watch the guy through the dirty window with the security grate in front of it flopping large hunks of noodle dough on a plastic board and turning them into perfectly chewy, tender long noodles that stew in a rich beef/pork broth. All you really have to pick is your meat or seafood -- Alisa likes the fish balls -- and a bowl is under your nose, steaming your face, in under five minutes. When we went earlier today (a Sunday), it was packed. And certainly with good reason. Another reason to visit Chinatown regularly: dumplings. Today
we picked up two bags of frozen dumplings at
Tasty Dumpling: 50 veggie for $12 and 50 pork and chive for $8. If you want to eat them there, you can get 5 for $1. The first time I went two summers ago while filling in for the City Hall reporter, I got 10 for $2 and I could barely finish the plate. There's a raging debate about who has the best dumplings -- I tried the ones at Fried Dumpling around the corner last month, and they were quite delicious as well.
Mindy Kaling of "The Office" claims to be partial to Prosperity Dumpling, which I have yet to try, but might better avoid since they have no vegetarian option for Alisa. If you don't want to head all the way into Chinatown, Vanessa's Dumplings on 14th is also a viable alternative, with a variety of different kinds -- but there, off Union Square, you get just 30 for $10. It took us long enough to make this important discovery: For the past year, we've always bought Trader Joe's dumplings. Those might be a fine staple if we leave the city someday, but for now, there's no reason to ever leave Chinatown without a bag of frozen dumplings and a belly full of hand-pulled noodles.
So after hitting many noodle houses in Manhattan over the past 22 months or so, I think we're ready to declare the winner. Hands down, the crown has to go to Food Sing 88 Corp. in Chinatown. It's an example of why so many other hipper noodle joints, while good, are hardly a deal. Momofuku, which is good in its own right, gets up to $15 for a bowl of ramen. Same with Ippudo. True, they may use Berkshire pork belly, while Sing 88 doesn't even remove the bones from your meat (the duck and the short rib arrived nestled in noodles and broth still clinging to large bones as well as teeny bits of bone that you have to awkwardly pull out of your mouth from time to time), but even with better quality meat, they're still no match for the roughly $5 a bowl at Sing 88 (not to mention for an extra $1 you get extra noodles in your bowl). And, when you leave, you're completely satisfied. True also, Ippudo and Momofuku are Japanese and Sing 88 is Chinese, but if you're looking solely at the noodles, Sing 88's can't be beat. You can watch the guy through the dirty window with the security grate in front of it flopping large hunks of noodle dough on a plastic board and turning them into perfectly chewy, tender long noodles that stew in a rich beef/pork broth. All you really have to pick is your meat or seafood -- Alisa likes the fish balls -- and a bowl is under your nose, steaming your face, in under five minutes. When we went earlier today (a Sunday), it was packed. And certainly with good reason. Another reason to visit Chinatown regularly: dumplings. Today 
we picked up two bags of frozen dumplings at Tasty Dumpling: 50 veggie for $12 and 50 pork and chive for $8. If you want to eat them there, you can get 5 for $1. The first time I went two summers ago while filling in for the City Hall reporter, I got 10 for $2 and I could barely finish the plate. There's a raging debate about who has the best dumplings -- I tried the ones at Fried Dumpling around the corner last month, and they were quite delicious as well. Mindy Kaling of "The Office" claims to be partial to Prosperity Dumpling, which I have yet to try, but might better avoid since they have no vegetarian option for Alisa. If you don't want to head all the way into Chinatown, Vanessa's Dumplings on 14th is also a viable alternative, with a variety of different kinds -- but there, off Union Square, you get just 30 for $10. It took us long enough to make this important discovery: For the past year, we've always bought Trader Joe's dumplings. Those might be a fine staple if we leave the city someday, but for now, there's no reason to ever leave Chinatown without a bag of frozen dumplings and a belly full of hand-pulled noodles.
