New Yorkers lucky enough to get a seat at Ramen Lab this month will be able to taste the Tan Tan or other types of ramen that Oahu residents can enjoy daily at Gomaichi on Keeaumoku Street.
Gomaichi co-owner and chef Hiroyuki Kimura has traveled to New York to set up a pop-up restaurant at Ramen Lab, a project of Honolulu-based Sun Noodle.
Sun Noodle supplies most ramen restaurants in the islands with various styles of ramen noodles, many of them custom-made to the restaurants’ chefs’ specifications, but it also makes many other types of noodles and related products.
The Gomaichi pop-up at Ramen Lab starts today and runs through the end of the month. On Thursday the Honolulu ramen restaurant also will join other ramen-ya from Japan, Rhode Island and Florida for the third annual New York Slurpfest, a $100-per-ticket event staged in partnership with Sun Noodle.
The company is the noodle supplier for all four restaurants.
Ramen Lab was first opened for educational purposes, said Ken Uki, son of Sun Noodle founder Hidehito Uki.
Ken Uki leads the East Coast operation of the company, while his father oversees the company from its Honolulu headquarters. There also is a factory operation in Los Angeles.
Sun Noodle staged seminars at Ramen Lab, the younger Uki said, inviting chefs and the public for tastings and the like.
Ramen Lab has since moved to Nolita, the North end of Little Italy in New York, and features monthly pop-ups by different ramen restaurants from around the country and the world.
Ken Uki used to work for Gomaichi owner Kimura part time, years ago, he said.
However, that connection is not what got Gomaichi invited by Ramen Lab’s independent board. “The people on the board did research and came to realize that (Kimura and his team were) the original people who brought Tan Tan ramen to Hawaii, so they were very excited to showcase them,” Uki said.
Diners who are able to squeeze into the 350-square-foot restaurant will be able to see Kimura and the Ramen Lab staff prepare the ramen via the exhibition kitchen.
“The kitchen is open because we wanted the customers and the chef to only be divided by the counter,” Uki said. “They can see the broth, see the (staff) cooking noodles, and for many people who have come … they have been blown away by the difference between instant ramen and the craft ramen that we do.”
Learn more
>> Gomaichi, 631 Keeaumoku St. 951-6666
>> Ramen Lab, 70 Kenmare St., New York; 646-615-7522
>> info@sunnoodle.com
rikatorres.com/demo/gomaichi
ramen-lab.com
sunnoodle.com
