Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Ramen from Woorijip 11-03-2009


Location: 12 W. 32nd St.
Time: 1pm

Feelings: Everyone knows about the most popular Korean lunch spot, Woorijip in K-Town. If you work in the area between 23rd and 42nd, I am sure you have gone there at least once. Needless to say, it's a chaos during lunch hour, but the line goes miraculously quickly. When you go in, you see an island of little plastic containers full of fresh Korean food at very reasonable price. They also have buffet, sushi, lunch boxes and noodle bar. The success at Woorijip resembles Prada sample sale on the first day: know what you want, get it, pay cash and leave. Voila, it can be done within 10 minutes.

I ordered #1 from the noodle bar menu, which was spicy ramen with eggs ($5). You can conveniently pay at the noodle bar, but they did not let me pay for the Ito-En tea I picked up. Unfortunately, the ramen turned out to be packaged ramen that I often see at Korean and Japanese grocers...with some eggs thrown in. I still enjoyed the huge ramen tub plastic container, however. Next time, I'll stick to the buffet, cold food station or chap chae.

1 comment:

kimchijjigae said...

I can understand your disappointment with the ramen at woorijip but unfortunately most Koreans interpret the word ramen as instant ramen, not the traditional ramen noodle dish found in japanese cuisine. Now you'll know that the next time you're at somewhere distinctly Korean, ordering ramen will almost always be instant ramen with some eggs, scallion, and maybe some rice cakes if you're lucky