Enerugi Ramen (1020 Manhattan Ave.), a cozy and casual Japanese restaurant, recently opened in Greenpoint. The ramen-focused restaurant hosted a soft-opening on February 25 and quickly moved forward with a grand opening this past Friday on March 10.
“The response has been great,” chef and co-owner Kingston Li told Greenpointers.
“We have been attracting new ramen lovers on the daily basis,” Li continued. “We actually caught the neighborhood by surprise, as during our renovation period, we kept a tight lip about what would be there.”
Li also explained that they decided on having a soft opening before being completely done with construction as they “didn’t want to keep everyone waiting.”
“Everyone that came in told us they been waiting for something different…We are so glad we fit their palate, and their response has been tremendously positive. As more and more people are noticing us, we have been quite busy,” Li said.
Li told Greenpointers that when the team behind Enerugi Ramen was looking for a location, they scouted sites all over Brooklyn. Li noted the development going on in the northern section of Greenpoint, and “saw a great entry point to come in and to grow with the neighborhood.”
“So far it’s been great experience,” Li said, noting the “great neighborhood and lovely neighbors.” He said he’d love to thank everyone who “gave us a warm welcome.”
For the past two weeks, since opening the last week of February, Enerugi Ramen’s best-selling dish has been the Pai Tan Ramen, the restaurant’s signature bowl. This popular menu item comes with pork cha-shu and a soup base that has been slow-cooked for 16 hours. The pork is accompanied by noodles in a chicken bone broth and topped with tamago, scallion, menma and kikurage. Li said this item sells out everyday.
Enerugi Ramen’s menu includes several other ramen dishes with choices of pork cha-shu, spicy ground pork, or chicken, plus two vegetarian offerings. The rest of the menu offers fried rice options and don bouri with poke or pork. In a section called “platters,” there is chicken teriyaki, fried chicken, and pork katsu.
The menu also includes a generous list of starters and appetizers like spicy tuna tartare, seaweed salad, pork dumplings, pork buns, spicy chicken wings, Brussels sprouts, and okonomiyaki. There is mochi ice cream for dessert and even a kids’ menu featuring ramen or plain butter noodles.
Enerugi Ramen is open Monday through Friday noon – 3 p.m., and 4 p.m. – 10 p.m. and on the weekends 11:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Great addition to the neighborhood. My daughter and I ate here last week, and it was delicious! So glad you’re here, and close by.
I was really excited to have a ramen place so close to home, but Enurugi’s flat screen televisions (both turned on pointed towards the street) changed my mind. As a consumer, I can not support businesses that add to our neighborhood’s sensory overload. I draw the line at televisions in the window. Let the food speak for itself.