Ramen Shack Long Island City

Amazing ramen from the creator of the ramen burger at Smorgasburg. Today was the last day, but I hope the chef opens up another location soon. We waited 2 hours for the most amazing bowls of ramen and rice! Check out @goramen on Instagram to follow the chef’s adventures and @hungrycarol for my food adventures!

Ramen Shack... it may not look great from the outside and I mean you may not even notice it here walking by based on its location, but this establishment serves some GREAT ramen! This place was started by Keizo Shimamoto, who made the the ramen burger popular! He has had the ramen burger going on for years now and decided to open a permanent shop at Long Island City in Queens, a quick walk from the 21st St. stop (first stop into Queens from Manhattan). This spot is very simple, there are not many seats in here (~ 10 total with a handful of bar stool seats and at a table against the wall). The menu is simple here, bowls of ramen and ramen burgers! I have had the pleasure of trying three bowls of ramen here and they were all awesome! First one I tried was The Quiet Storm, named after the famous song by Mobb Deep (even Prodigy decided to visit them). This bowl of ramen is a "rich 13-ingredient broth" with soy sauce tare, pork belly, and spinach, accompanied by thick noodles. You definitely taste the complexity of this bowl and was completely satisfied. Another bowl I tried was a special one made that day, a Green Curry Ramen. This is definitely a unique bowl, and no the ramen itself was not very thick. I felt it had the right combination of green curry taste without it overpowering the dish. Recently, I was able to try a Brooklyn Blend type ramen that used thin noodles and had garlic oil in it. The broth tasted great and the flavors all mixed together very well. As for the ramen burger, my favorite one here is the Fuji Pineapple! The grilled pineapple adds some nice flavor and texture, with me wanting to get more! What is especially great about this establishment is that I can honestly come back here again and again to try different bowls of ramen. Every time I visit here there seems to be a new bowl of ramen to try that Keizo has experimented with. I have seen many different types of tonkotsu, shoyu, paitan and shio ramens available. The names of the many ramen bowls are also very creative. Ramen Shack, you have won me over and I shall make sure to come back soon! Note: Their hours can vary as Keizo does other events such as Smorgasburg (try them there too!). I would definitely say check their Instagram/Facebook page for their hours. It seems sometimes they will close at 3pm, 7pm, or 9pm so make sure you check because you do not want to be disappointed and make a trip to a closed restaurant!