Before I start, I have to say that I would eat the noodles at Menya Sandaime every day, if I could.
According to their website, they continue to use a traditional Japanese recipe that has been passed through three generations. Their Tokyo-style broth takes over 12 hours to prepare, and they make their noodles in-house. Seriously, you can even see the room where they make their noodles in their 1st Fort Lee location! With their quality and time-intensive ingredients, this restaurant is dangerously tempting.
The pork broth here is so fatty and indulgent, and pairs so well with their housemade noodles. I’ve tried their tonkotsu and black ramen dishes, which both have a tonkotsu broth base. The difference between these two dishes is that the black ramen has the addition of a smoky seafood flavor. For those who might be scared off by this, it’s really not that fishy, and I actually like this addition a lot. My favorite between these two is the original tonkotsu, but you can’t go wrong with either. If you like some spice, their karakuchi ramen has the spicy version of the tonkotsu ramen. These are the three ramen options that are topped with bean sprouts, scallions, spinach, marinated egg, & grilled pork belly. The tonkotsu ramen is $9.50 at the Fort Lee locations, while the black and karakuchi ramen are $10.50.
Now I’d like to talk about my favorite dish here - the tsukemen ($11). Tsukemen is a ramen variation* where the noodles are plated separately from the broth. These dipping noodles are slowly gaining popularity in the U.S., but you might be wondering - it sounds just like deconstructed ramen, so why am I paying $1.50 more to get ramen plated separately?
What separates tsukemen from traditional ramen are 1. their noodles and 2. the broth. I prefer the tsukemen noodles that are comparably thicker and chewier than the tonkotsu ramen noodles. The tsukemen broth is slightly thicker than the tonkotsu broth, which makes sense for the noodles to absorb more broth. The tsukemen broth is a very similar broth base to the black ramen, which comes with a smoky seafood flavor as well. However, the tsukemen broth comes with small chunks of onions and pork, which pairs really well with the noodles. The tsukemen noodles are topped with bean sprouts, scallions, spinach, marinated egg, & grilled pork belly (it comes with one extra piece than the ramen😊).
Their pork is unbelievably tasty - it’s perfectly fatty and slightly charred. Pork belly is one of the integral components of a ramen dish, and I’d say that you can usually judge how good a ramen place is by their pork. If you don’t like red meat, they also offer a shrimp option to substitute the pork, which my dad once ordered in addition to to the pork belly.
Menya also offers amazing gyoza ($5.60), or Japanese pan-fried dumplings, which a framed newspaper on their wall claims is the best. Dumplings are different EVERYWHERE you get them, and Menya’s gyoza certainly do not disappoint! As you can see, they have a thin crispy sheet that connects all these dumplings together, which is probably created by pouring a small amount of water + starch into the pan; this allows for an added crisp that elevates the already existing flavor of the meat filling. I’d say these are a must-have side to your noodles.
Menya opened a second Fort Lee location off Bergen Boulevard that offers specialty items not sold at their original location, such as chicken kara-age, pork buns, chicken teriyaki & grilled pork belly dons (rice bowls), as well as an extended list of noodle add-ons. I’ve only tried the pork buns (1/$3, 2/$5), which I honestly didn’t have high expectations for. Not because I doubted how good the pork would be, but because I didn’t know how worth it the buns would be, since they use the same pork belly in the ramen. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by these buns - they blew my expectations out of the water! Somehow, the pork reimagined in the bao bun was a totally different, yet still as indulgent, experience than the ramen dishes. The buns are slathered in spicy mayo and topped with scallions, which were a refreshing complement to the charred pork belly.
I’m not too adventurous when I come here, as I usually get the same dishes every time, but I have complete confidence that all their dishes are just as amazing as the ones I routinely eat. Ramen can cost $20+ in Manhattan, and Menya’s pricing is unbeatable. If I go to the city with my dad, we typically stop by Menya on our way home, instead of eating overpriced and under-delivering noodles. These warming and filling noodles are the greatest meal on a snowy winter night, but somehow also on a warm summer day. I cannot stress how extraordinary these noodles are!!
See you soon,
Carissa 😊