Zuzu Ramen

Solid ramen spot. Will satisfy your needs on a rainy night. Vegetarian ramen is good, dumplings good — not the thickest or best ramen (I prefer other restaurants in Manhattan for veggie ramen) but it’s good enough that I’d stay local. It’s cozy: I love the ramen bar area/​tables, wood, and yellow lighting. Waiter was very friendly and attentive.

Find me a place where you can turn Top Ramen into a meal I’m willing to pay +$ 10…the answer is this place. Pretty much any bowl of choice will fill you up very nicely. Very flavorful and I even drank the entire broth!
Very nice place to come with a group of people. I love the wooden table and seats that are in this place.

Came here for dinner before I head over to the venue Littlefield (which is a block away) and loved the Ramen here! I tried the ZuZu Ramen and it was delicious! The place is cute and homey and they have a decent size dining area. The table designs are pretty cool — they’re literally straight up tree trunks.

The ramen here is great. It has a bit of a Thai fusion aspect to some of the dishes. The service is excellent. The guys who take your order are super courteous and chill. The place is cozy and inviting and the music is the kind of stuff I grew up listening to. I always find myself coming back here despite not living in the direct neighborhood.

Despite all the reviews about the ramen being mediocre here, I found the food to be pretty good! I don’t think I’ve gone out and had ramen in an actual restaurant before (the closest I’ve gotten was udon and lovely homemade instant ramen.), so maybe I’m just really low-​maintenance in this department. My boyfriend and I dropped by last minute after seeing it on Google maps and perusing through the menu.
The place itself is small and a little cramped, but very cozy. **This place is cash only!** We realized that only after we got there. The restaurant was fairly busy so we weren’t able to sit at a table. We instead snagged some seats at the bar which was totally fine with me.
I really liked the vibe of the place-​it seems like the perfect location to get together with some friends and catch up! The menu is pretty simple: a few variations of ramen, an assortment of buns and dumplings, and lots of sake. We ordered the Ginger Soy ramen, the Basil Scented Roasted Chicken Thigh ramen (quite the name!), and a glass of Nigori sake.
Despite being busy, the food came out in a decent amount of time. While I largely enjoyed my dish, the only thing that put me off was the poached egg. While I am overall not a big fan of undercooked eggs, this one was just entirely runny. It kind of just melted into my ramen and I lost it a few minutes into eating.
Overall though, the ramen really hit the spot. We will most likely be returning :)

Had a small sized menu and ordered the zuzu ramen and really did like it. I always get so afraid of japanese ramen places over salting their broth, but my ramen had a rich, clear broth without it being overly salty and overpowering the other components of the dish. Good noodles, don’t know if they handmade it in the restaurant, but it was definitely fresh and springy. Left me feeling very satisfied and warm afterwards. Definitely going to come back and try the curry ramen.
Quick note: cash only.

This place has nice décor, great service but the food wasn’t good. I ordered the ribs appetizer. Taste was good but it was precooked then heated up and then sauced. Meat feel right off the bone but it was weird. Then I had the ramen. The ramen is like ramen from all the ramen places which is pretty good but the soup base wasn’t good. After I was done eating I raced home cause I had to go to the bathroom. I had a pretty bad stomach ache after that place. Don’t think I’ll be going back. … shame, they did have a nice saki selection

My bf and I came here on a whim right after Brooklyn Boulders and we were so pleasantly surprised. Love the environment, the pork buns were so savory and the ramen broths were just right — usually I have to add sauces to ramens at other places but this one was good on its own. The slow poached egg was a unique touch. Will come again!

I’ve never eaten ramen before and this was a great place to start. Busy Friday night, to be expected at prime time dinner, and had a 20 minute wait. Not a big deal but kind of bummer seeing as how you have to stand at the door to wait, since there’s no real bar area but it worked out fine since the server allowed us to buy a couple beers for the wait.
The ramen bowls were very decent sized and they were so yummy! I got the ZuZu ramen which was a basic flavor style, perfect for a first timer, but far from basic tasting. The pork dumplings for appetizers were great too!

Friendly, attentive service with okay ramen. The atmosphere is lackluster. Better for grabbing take out than enjoy a cozy bowl of ramen.
I came after work one day andI had the zuzu. The broth was pleasant and the noodles had a nice chew. The chasu was tender but not super flavorful and the bamboo shoots tasted like the woody canned variety rather than proper menma.
Zuzu Ramen seems like a «asian-​style» joined owned by a white person trying to squeeze a few pennies out of a fading food trend.

Stopped by here on a whim with my wife and kid and was pleasantly surprised. We started with the dumplings and yakitori, unfortunately the ribs weren’t ready yet. Both were fresh and delicious. For our main we had the garlic broth, the zuzu ramen and the kids ramen.
The kids portion was large but he enjoyed the noodles and ate most of it. I had the zuzu and while I really liked the contents, I wanted a little more flavor out of the broth. I tired the garlic broth and thought it was better than the zuzu.
Our waiter was super nice and paid extra attention to our 3 year old. He made point to bring out his food first and even brought ice to cool down the ramen without us asking.
We will definitely return for more.

Ate there with the boyfriend. In his words: «GOOD soup! Bad ramen…» Indeed the broth were flavorful and savory but tbh tasted more like chicken noodle soup rather than authentic Japanese ramen.
Salmon buns were really good and redeemed it a little for me but my bf really disliked the food so we settled on ²⁄₅.
This ramen place is certainly different, just not good different.

I used to come here with a group of friends after work, it was a tradition. Located on 4^th Avenue, it’s hard to spot at first. My friend absolutely loved the ramen here, a little too much. The Garlic Soy Ramen was our go-​to, the Zuzu Ramen being a bit of a splurge. The Green Curry Ramen was just as good, and we tried every flavor on the menu between 4 people. Good times, old times. I will come back someday and reminisce on how good and how simple life once was.

Pretty good ramen (had the zuzu). No complaints, but not the best I’ve had. I’d come again. Service was very good — the place was not crowded. But with so many ramen places now, not sure if I’d make a trek here again.

A perfect place to grab dinner after rock climbing. I ordered the Zuzu Ramen, which had charsiu, slow cooked egg, and veggies. For $ 14, it’s a decent sized bowl of ramen. It’s definitely not the best I’ve had but good enough to fill up my belly after an intense workout. I agree with what other Unilocalers said about the bok choy. I had to leave it out because it was just too big to chew on (:har har:). It’s cash only but they have an ATM inside the restaurant.

The stars are for their cozy ambience and good service. For the ramen, I was totally disappointed. The broth is too salty and has little umami. The bamboo shoots are hard and bitter. The eggs are cold. And more seriously, they use the same noodles for totally different broths.

It’s a fairly small place so be prepared to wait if you come with a large group during busy hours (7pm onwards).
The ramen was good though (and a big portion too!) and my friends enjoyed the pork buns.
Great place to hit before going to BkB or after BkB, especially on chilly days ;)

I wanted to like Zuzu because it’s very close to my apartment and the people are cool. But I’m afraid I waited too long to come here. Zuzu’s been here for a few years, one of the first places in the BoCoCa area to hop aboard the ramen boom. If I had come here three years ago, I think I would’ve liked it more. But alas, I’m afraid ramen snobbery is now a part of me.
That said, I had the green curry miso ramen. The broth was just okay (not too much kick to it), and the charshu was bland. Maybe they overcooked it, but it was rubbery and robbed of all flavor (except for the delicious fat deposits).
I will say that the pork buns were delicious. Very tender, but the chili dipping sauce they included with it was a bit out of place.
Anyway, glad I finally came here after living in the area for 4 years.

Everything I tried here was just A-​OK. Nothing I was really particularly a fan of, and nothing that makes me feel the need to come back.
— Chili Cumin Glazed Pork Ribs ($ 9 for 4)
This appetizer started off really great. The cool Wasabi Slaw on top was cool and very refreshing, and a nice complement to the sweetness of the glaze on the ribs. The first few bites of the huge ribs were excellent too, very soft, juicy and flavorful. However, once I started on the other 3 ribs, it was apparent that they showcased the one good one on top, and plunked down 3 others that were pure bone and fat. They’re better off giving a much smaller portion of higher quality, as this instead just left a bad taste in my mouth.
— Soy Glazed Salmon Mini Steamed Buns ($ 8 for 2)
These buns were actually quite large. The only thing mini about them was the amount of salmon hidden inside the bun. They were packed with that same wasabi slaw from the ribs, which at this point was just too much. After eating through some of that, you could find a tiny little strip of salmon.
— Zuzu Ramen ($ 14)
Their signature ramen, this was just ok. Often poached eggs in ramen are overlooked, but this was a rare case where it was way too undercooked. The yolk was practically raw, and the white around it fell apart immediately after my spoon entered the bowl. The noodles were decent, and the broth was pretty weak.
The place was empty when I came in for dinner, with standard décor for a low-​end ramen shop, including stool seating and a few tables. There is a big ATM machine right when you walk in since it’s Cash Only.
There’s nothing about this place that is really bad, but also nothing that stands out in a positive way. It’s just mediocre, but a decent choice if you want some ramen without having to wait on a huge line like nearly all of the popular joints around NY.

One of the better ramen spots in Brooklyn. It’s a small restaurant with tables and a bar to sit at to your liking. Staff was really friendly, like a «how you doin’» kind of nice which is different for a change.
My boyfriend and I ordered the pork shoulder buns and a bowl of ramen each. Truth be told, I really didn’t expect much but that’s when things get good. The pork buns were excellent, it’s not your average fatty pork belly in a bun but it’s shredded pork that has been marinated really well with a nice kick to it. Not to mention, they are really generous with the portions of the pork.
Ramen was delicious. We were both very satisfied with our own bowls of decadent noodles. He had the Green Miso Curry Ramen, had a slight spiciness to it but nothing a person can’t handle and a few basil leaves to give it that Thai flavor. I had the Zuzu Ramen, broth was excellent, tasted like a soup that I would make at home. As for the noodles in both bowls… perfect. Cooked al-​dente, they use wavy noodles here but no complaints from me.
Great spot to grab some ramen, I really didn’t know something like this was hidden in Brooklyn — ramen lovers need to come here.