Our first ramen stop in 2017 and our 6th stop on our Great New York Ramen Tour was at Ganso Ramen in Downtown Brooklyn. Ganso doesn't have the best ramen in the city. So, I wouldn't go out of my way to go back... However, if you're in the neighborhood and have a ramen craving they are a good option.

Our Rating out of 5

• Overall: 3.5

• Broth: 3

• Noodles: 4.5

• Toppings: 3

We started out the wintry weekend by grabbing dinner with some friends in Downtown Brooklyn and decided to check out Ganso since it was in the neighborhood. It's larger than some ramen places and was appropriately chic for Brooklyn. With a fair amount of people waiting, we were told the wait for a party of 4 was 15 minutes, which in reality was closer to an hour. So, if you come at dinner time, and its cold out, be prepared to wait!

Ganso Shoyu

The shoyu is their signature dish, and the most traditional of their offerings. The broth was different from most shoyus. It had a higher soy sauce ratio and as a result a very strong umami flavor that, when eating the broth by itself, was a tad saltier than I would have preferred. However, the salt didn't bother me when combined with the noodles. Just, maybe don't check your blood pressure after eating this bowl... The noodles were the classic Tokyo style, which are wavy and on then thinner side, but not as thin as thin noodles. They were the best part of this bowl! The toppings were scallions, spinach, nori, an ajitama egg, and chashu pork. The egg was good; it was medium boiled and pretty typical. Nothing stood out about it specifically. The chashu pork was a good thickness but the fat to meat ratio was waaaaayyyyyy too fatty. It was like 90% fat. The actual taste of the tiny bit of meat was fine, it was flavorful from all the fat, but could have used some more seasoning. Lastly I decided to add their spicy ground pork on the side, and I'm glad I got it on the side! I like spicy foods, I even got a hot sauce kit for Christmas, but the fraction that I added was almost too spicy for me. It wasn't what I would call a good spicy either. It was a too much heat that overpowered the other flavors.

Miso

Ganso has two miso options. Traditional and spicy, which is the same spicy ground pork I got on the side with the shoyu. We got their traditional miso. The broth had a noticeable fish flavor, and was on the blander side, which made it seem a bit more watery than most miso broths. It was served with thick noodles that were by far the best part of the dish. Jenna suspected that Ganso's noodles were Sun Noodles, so we asked, and it turns out they were, which wasn't surprising! So far, we haven't had any sun noodles that we didn't like, and it seems like they are the noodle supplier of choice for almost every ramen joint in the city. If not, maybe they should be... The toppings were the same as the shoyu, minus the nori. All in all, this bowl lacked flavor and originality.

Ganso Ramen Address:

25 Bond St, Brooklyn, NY 11201