Samurai Papa

Fantastic food and service! I had the curry ramen ($ 13) which was extremely delicious. The décor and ambience in the place is great and it’s right in my neighborhood. As a native of East Williamsburg/​Bushwick/​Bed Stuy, I’m still getting used to places like this being so close, but I’m really happy I have Samurai Papa to come to for lunch or special occasions.

Great ramen. Good service. Nice ambiance.

If I could give it 10 stars I would! My favorite restaurant in all of New York!
The vegan ramen is incredible, but I don’t recommend going «spicy”– much better to add your own spices.
If you go before 7pm on a weekday you get a free beer with your ramen! Best place ever!

Their tonkotsu broth was pretty good, not so much soup which I thought was weird at first but it’s thick and good. Noodles could’ve been harder, too soft for my liking. Cheap Sapporo beer!

Good, not mind-​blowing.

The sushi here is actually better than the ramen, which says a LOT. Because the ramen is on point.
Also, before someone else decides to freak out about Bukkake being on the menu: Bukkake is a cooking term that was adopted by the porn industry. It has long since been used to describe Japanese cooking. Getting mad at a restaurant for using the term Bukkake is as stupid as getting mad at Budhists for using the swastica.

My 4 stars comes with a major caveat — I’m not a huge fan of their ramen but their small and shared plates are amazing.
FOOD:
Ramen: I came with 2 friends and we ordered the 3 version of Tonkotsu ramen. Believe me, I know my ramen and Samurai Papa is doing something different from 99% of ramen restaurants out there. Their broth is rather thick and almost has the consistency of a stew. It’s really not at all like the broth you’d get at a typical ramen restaurant, which is clear and not really muddled with what I can only describe as «pulp» from ingredients. The broth at Samurai Papa didn’t necessarily have a bad flavor, but the consistency threw me off. They provide you with an additional cup of clear broth to add to your ramen, however even when I added all of this, it was still not what I expected. My party agreed that it was a little odd because typically we eat all the noodles but leave the broth, and it was the reverse here.
Appetizers/​Shared Plates: I believe this is where Samurai Papa shines. We ordered the fried chicken appetizer and it was incredible! Flavors were incredibly complex and basically came like a salad. It was a big portion and well enough to share among the 3 of us.
AMBIANCE: I love the décor in here and the communal tables are very spacious so not at all awkward. The restaurant has a very clean look that is distinctly Japanese influenced, with a twist of hipster Brooklyn. My friends and I definitely got a kick out of the beanies that were for sale on the walls. We referred to it as a «Ramen shop with a small beanie franchise.»
CONCLUSION: I will certainly be back here to order many shared plates and sashimi with friends.

Is this the best ramen I’ve ever had? No. Does it hit the spot on a cold day? Absolutely.
This place has pretty good ramen, especially for the area. It definitely has a cozy, semi– hip vibe. I like the lighting and the wooden tables. Yeah, I instagrammed that. #noshame
Now let’s get to food —
I ordered the lunch special, which comes with ramen, salad and an appetizer. All for about $ 10! I opted for the shio ramen, which comes with pork belly, some green onions, mushrooms, a half cooked egg & eggplant (?). What’s unique was that they served it with a small bowl of dashi, which is a stock that you can use to adjust the flavor of the ramen. Very cool. Everything was also served in a cool bowl, so I’m a fan. The ramen was pretty good, the pork belly was tender. I added corn in for an extra dollar, and it was well spent! (LUV CORN) It came with a good amount, and I was still eating corn at the end of my meal.
The salad was actually a great start to my meal, and I appreciate that it was a salad of mixed greens instead of the usual iceberg salads at Japanese restaurants. The gyoza was alright. Very gyoza, nothing too special about it.
I should also mention that serve was great. The server gave me all my food at the appropriate times, so I never had to look for my food. Whenever I was finished with one dish, the next one came soon after. Want to know what really solidified it though? I was unaware that it was cash only, so I had to find an ATM nearby. I asked her if I could go find one, and she said yes. That’s a huge amount of trust! I could’ve totally been a criminal and dine and dashed! But I AM A GOOD PERSON. And came back after walking around a little. (Btw there’s a deli 2 blocks away that had an ATM that lets you take out in increments of $ 10).

This place is solid, especially for the area. I oils the travel out of my way for the ramen, and they should source better noodles. But it was tasty!
Recommend

I love the ramen here, the shio pork bone is the best. The fried garlic tastes super good with the ramen and sesame oil. Lunch is affordable and good $ 12 for a ramen and a sushi shot. The sushi shots are amazing must try!

Delicious, it was my second time going there. I love the broth-it’s creamy, and it’s served in a traditional style so you add more broth to make it more tame. We also got the pork buns which was pretty decent, but I think the pork buns from tottos ramen is still better.
Price wise is reasonable-​$ 12 for a bowl. Oh, and it’s cash only.
This is a nice little gem near my apartment, and I’ll definitely be back.

The fried chicken was lacking in the crunch. I associate fried with a crunch and didn’t find it. So that was lacking.
The tonkatsu shoyu ramen was good! That one piece of pork made it yum!
The mixed berry Panna Cotta was good.
However, some of us left hungry after the meal…

Revamped menu (I think). The name of their new signature ramen is kinda off-​putting, but I’m sure many will find it hilarious. Hint: it’s bukkake.
I don’t remember what I ordered this time around, but it was some kind of ramen (maybe the bukkake, I may have blacked out after) and it was great. We sat at the bar and service was pleasant. The fried chicken appetizer is ze bomb. Sapporo on tap deliciously smooth as usual.
Still cash only.

Décor of this place is great. The service very prompt and hospitable. Came here for lunch special ordered the ramen lunch which consisted of a salad, a sushi shot (sushi in a small martini glass) and the chicken broth ramen for main. Presentation of food here is great, along with the assortment of toppings that come with the ramen. Ordered the chicken broth based, it was just ok not as rich as the pork based my Friend had. I would definitely come back to try their other favors.

If you want to skip my story heres the headline:
SERVICE WAS PATHETIC –lost our order never said anything so we never got served & IT IS 1000 Degrees in the place where you eat hot ramen??? The ramen is probably good but we’ll never know. Ours never came.
I want to write a good review about this place because its a small business & I honestly get what happened to us but I’m sorry I can tell this was not an isolated incident. I should have trusted the bad reviews and skipped the place.
The story:
4 of us drove from bayside queens to get ramen and a mix of sushi so we picked this place. We walked in and they sat us at a communal table pretty much right away. There are only two waiters in the place and no bartender.
Here’s the highlights:
–We ordered drinks & appetizers from our waiter who eventually came about 5 – 10 minutes in… ice teas and 2 diet cokes.
–Five minutes later ordered dinner
–apps came out in probably 20 – 30 mins (maybe less)
–every app from edamame to pork buns were cold. Even Gyoza serve in a skillet that was once hot
–NO drinks even after we reminded him twice. didn’t come for 45 minutes. and when they did one couple got theres and the other waited another 10… SIMPLE DRINKS!!!
–PPL kept coming in after us, ordering and getting their food really quickly
–at about an hour we got ramen spices and a sorry we’re backed up (it wasn’t that packed)
–hour and a half later NO RAMEN … we asked the waiter what the deal was and he said he’d check… he comes back 5 minutes later with a fresh note pad and I knew what he was going to say — he tried to pull the «yeah what exactly did you order so I can check where it is?»
— we called him out politely and said so our order is lost? he confirmed and apologized. We wanted to leave, he gave us the check… THE FULL CHECK… NOTHING REMOVED OR COMP’ed so we paid and left as quick as possible at almost 11 with most places closing nearby. $ 50 on cold appetizers and a drink I had to chug before leaving.
I have to say I understand things happen but thats pathetic that he didn’t notice we had not gotten anything… its not a big place… we didn’t get lost in the crowd. Never again will I go back… I’ll just keep going to Chuko… its worth the wait.

Cute but cash only. Communal tables which I like. We sat at the bar and got miso ramen, extra spicy. It wasn’t that spicy but you could add jalapeño and sesame chili oil which they give you on the side. Also, they only have pork belly and no ground pork (ugh, I sound like such an f’ing ramen snob — sorry). But yeah, it’s good. I prefer Ivan in Manhatten or Tamashii in Queens, but for Williamsburg this is fantastic. Just get a credit card machine, please!

Vegan Ramen. The end. Drops mic. So delicious… happy hour doesn’t hurt either. ;)
Can’t wait to go back!
Really dig the interior design and big communal table for multiple or one party.

What a cute, little, tasteful place! Samurai Papa was my first meal as a New Yorker and I’m glad to have started out on a delicious note.
My first evening in Brooklyn was very chilly and wet from the rain. I knew I wanted something warm for my tired soul, exhausted from moving in, and looked for places around the neighborhood that would serve warm, comforting food. I found Samurai Papa on Unilocal and thought ramen would be a solid choice. Only a couple minutes from home, pops and I walked over for dinner and were lucky to arrive just on time to take the last two seats.
I loved the décor of this place. The dim lighting and simple, wooden interior were even better for the chilly weather. It was a little weird to sit at a huge table and share the area with strangers but we didn’t feel crammed at all. I ordered the shoya ramen and pops got the vegan ramen and we both enjoyed our dishes. I added some extra spiciness to my ramen which made it perfect for my liking. Broths of both ramen were deep and smooth but I’ve definitely had better before. However, I really liked the noodles. A little different from the traditional ramen noodles as they were «chewier» but they felt very fresh.
The ramen we had were not really to die for but I wouldn’t mind coming back once a while for some hot broth and noodles on a chilly day as it is so close to my home.

~~~~~ samurai papa~~~~~~~~
It’s been 2^nd time I went to… First time, I really loved vegan noodle in which I strongly recommend!
Soup is yam :)
I took off one star bc servers weren’t the same as first time…
First time, Japanese server, bring water, appetite, everything is great second time, non Japanese server, my table was full of mess, and not bring any menu & water till I asked, also the appetite for the noodle…, it looked like for the previous customers :(!!
Noodle, this time was hard, I told the waiters… They told me the kitchen is ”not” same as before so I strongly recommend when Japanese servers are in the restaurant,
It’s better !!

While I was in Japan, I had ramen for breakfast, lunch, and dinner consistently for the first few days. It was not at my behest and it eventually drove me absolutely mad; I vowed to never touch another bowl of ramen for an undetermined amount of time.
Arriving back in the States, I kept receiving suggestions to have ramen at the new hip places that just opened. I refused since I was still in recovery, and not a fan of waiting outside of any establishment in the frigidity of NY.
Months passed, and in my search for a place to reconnect with a dear friend of mine, I came upon Samurai Papa. Located in East Williamsburg, it’s still far enough from the more popular neighborhoods that we ended up not having to wait.
The interior has a very minimalist and industrial feel; grey-​themed with two communal tables, the middle being the largest, and seating at the bar as well. The unmarked bathroom is hidden behind sliding doors on the left wall.
My yuzu and ginger iced tea had a hint of yuzu flavor, but totally missed the mark on the ginger. None of that good spiciness was present, whatsoever– only sweetness.
We both ordered the sushi shots to start; I got the hamachi (yellowtail) toro shot. The shots were accompanied by three types of soy: regular, wasabi mixed, and extra spicy. The tiny spoons were deceiving; I would suggest two spoonfuls– 3 was too overpowering.
The fish itself was divinely fresh. However, I thought it was priced too high ($ 6) for what it was: a deconstructed roll in a shot glass. Slicing the fish into small pieces only served to make it seem like there was more than you were being served.
For the highlight of the evening, I settled on the aori miso ramen. The menu listed a description of the type of broth and ingredients used. My particular one read as such: «stock: chicken, lobster, bonito, mussel, garlic, miso paste, sesame oil. topping: sliced pork, soy sauce egg, mixed vegetables, kikurage mushroom.»
The broth was absolutely spot on. It was not too heavy or greasy. I usually go with tonkotsu (pork based broth), but this miso broth had a depth of flavor that could rival any of those found in Japan.