Ramen Okidoki

Found this place by accident and thought that we would give it a try. Ramen was okay but ambience was nice. Its small but in a cute way. I had the chicken ramyun and I enjoyed it for the most part.

Come here for a quick filling meal.
Don’t expect hand pulled noodles, homemade broth and charred char siu.
You will get packaged ramen, canned broth and boiled? pork chop.
But it will be cheap and filling and the service will be fast and polite.

My girlfriend and I ate here the other night and I’m making my rounds on Google, Unilocal,etc to let it be known!
This place made me feel like Guy Fieri was in the kitchen filming «Dinners, Dives and Drive Thrus»! From the simple décor to the smile on each guests face, I knew this place was a hidden gem but the flavors really made it worth the trip. The food is delicious and fresh.
In our old neighborhood we had our go-​to Ramen joint that also happened to have an amazing bar so we set out to look for something similar. While Okidoki doesn’t stock a full bar, they have the most delicious pork broth I’ve ever had, and I’ve had tons of Ramen (even a Ramen Burger).
The server was super cool about comping our app because it came out a few minutes later but it was worth the wait. Soon after we ate our ramen (yum!) and for desert we grabbed some green tea ice cream to go. Will be going back for sure and if you’re local, get in there and see for yourself.
(writing this to hopefully drive so much traffic they expand to a bar.)

The service here was excellent and they’ve done a good job of making a small space a great place to just relax and eat with friends.
The Ramen was good but not mind blowing, I had the BBQ Tonkotsu Ramen which was noodle in a creamy broth with bonito flakes and pork chashu. It was good, but I had to wonder… what on this bowl was «BBQ’ed»?
The broth could have a little more punch. Having said that this place has a lot of potential. It’s very affordable. I prefer the fat content of my ramen and broth much higher though.

I came here for dinner with my boyfriend. We found it on Unilocal and were in the mood for ramen. The tables are cute. They have stools and there are hooks on the wall for coats. The server was pretty knowledgable about the menu and attentive. I was surprised to see this restaurant doesn’t serve beef ramen. For an appetizer, we ordered the spicy tuna rice ball. It was very good. I had the spicy pork ramen and my boyfriend had the pork Tokyo ramen. Both were good. The broth was great and we both enjoyed it. I would definitely return.

This is what you want to have in your neighborhood if you love ramen.
The service is spot on, quick and with a happy attitude.
The food from appetizer to desert was delicious. Everything cooked fresh and filled with flavor.
If you are in the area and you want great service with wonderful tasting food come here!

My friend and I wanted to get ramen since it was raining out. The ramen wasn’t the greatest but the croquette was good and the staff was very friendly. They provide a pickled radish dish on the house as well.
Ramen: My friend got the veggie ramen. It has green noodles so don’t be alarmed when you get it like we were. She said it was really good but later got a stomach ache and the noodles didn’t sit well. Not sure what they’re made of, but they should write whether they use green food dye or a spinach based noodle etc. I got the miso ramen but was not a fan since the broth was not authentic miso base. The noodles in the miso are yellow/​curly and the texture was just right however had a fishy taste to them. I did enjoy the various toppings in the miso though.
Croquette: We shared the potato croquette which had carrots inside with a side of tonkatsu sauce. First time I’ve ever had one with carrot but it was great!
I’m a harsh critic when it comes to ramen since my mother is from Japan and we have high standards. Overall I wouldn’t come here for the ramen but the appetizer here was good and I would like to try these onigiri people keep talking about. Plus the staff was very attentive and friendly.
Food: 2.5÷5
Service: ⁵⁄₅

I came here for lunch with a bad hangover from going out the night before. This is one of the few ramen places that don’t close in between lunch and dinner. It’s a very small ramen restaurant that fits about 4 – 6 tables max. My friend and I ordered two pork belly buns, the fried oysters, spicy tuna onigiri and shared a bowl of ramen and a large hot sake. I thought the everything was great except the oysters may have been a bit more on the super oily and greasy side. I enjoyed everything about the ramen. The noodles were al dente, the broth was full in body, and the egg was cooked perfectly. Definitely perfect for a cold day!

Came to this cute little ramen shop on a rainy day. We entered as it just re-​opened at 5pm, so got seated immediately. I liked that between each table were lots of coat/​bag hangers. I came with one of my girlfriends, and the waiter nicely pulled out the seat for both of us to sit. My friend told the waiter that she wanted the BBQ Butaniku Ramen and the waiter was nice enough to inform her that this ramen was on the oily side. She hesitated at first, but she decided to get it anyway. I ended up getting the miso ramen.
As the food arrived, I thought the portions looked smaller than other ramen places I’ve been to, but I underestimated the portion. My friend tasted the bbq Butaniku Ramen and liked that it tastes different from other ramens she had tasted in the past. I personally liked the miso more. They were both good though and we both left there extremely full. Also the spicy radish that comes on the side came in a cute fish shaped bowl!

Ramen was OK, but I feel there are better ramen places. The pork chashu seemed a little overdone to my taste. Good enough if you are looking for one in the area though.

I’m so glad I finally decided to try out this place. It’s a pretty tiny space but very comfy. I’ve been craving fried takoyaki for a while so I ordered that and a pork bun. Both tasted AMAZING! I see that not many people order the fried takoyaki and that the pork bun is a popular choice here, but please try their fried takoyaki, you WON’T regret it. I had an Asahi beer for the first time and I really enjoyed it, it went perfectly with the pork bun. The service here is also lovely and I will definitely be coming back to try out their ramen, but it’s still too hot for it, 75 degrees in November… crazy! But yes, definitely try out this place.

Ramen Okidoki offers four types of ramen, appetizers, curry, and rice balls. Lunch prices are a dollar or two cheaper than the dinner prices. Lunch combo is available as an add for $ 3 more one gets a salad of iceberg lettuce and carrot ginger dressing along with choice of rice ball. I got the ramen with salt chicken broth and bf got the Tokyo ramen that is the traditional pork broth and comes with all toppings. Noodles are served al dente or «harder bite». I prefer the pork broth. The tako wasabi is actually quite good. Pork buns are also excellent– choice of mild or spicy. Mild is served with the sweet hoisin sauce, spicy would be spicy mayo. A tad overload on the sauce with the pork buns for me, the bf loved it– he’a a bit heavy handed when it comes to sauces: preference. Pretty good ramen place in Astoria.

First time trying here (usually a ippudo girl) and not disappointed!
I ordered their tako wasabi (it was good), a spicy tuna onigiri (
.good. — next time I’d like to try their kimchi one) and had their spicy pork ramen. Not my fav noodles but the broth, the egg (yolk was perfectly the way I like it), bamboo shoots all made up for it.
Will def be back!
PS: the server was great :) super kind and not overbearingly in our faces but attentive enough.

A cut little ramen spot with quite an extensive selection from hot, masamen (cold noodle with hot sipping broth), and Hiyashi cold ramen.
What I really like the most is the al dente ramen noodle here. Also, among the four of us, we have three different types of noodles which added a nice variety to the menu as well. I had the spicy ramen which they were able to make less spicy. Believe me, ask for less spicy. The broth is quite tasty with the right amount of fat. I think next time I’ll try the basic non spicy broth to really judge it correctly.
Service is very friendly and relatively efficient. Not a lot of seats, maybe 26 in total so may potentially cause some wait in winter time. It’s a repeat for me.

Chris and Joshua were great with the service!
The quality of the food was excellent, love the way they incorporate all the ramen with either chicken or vegetables. *for those of you who don’t eat pork* it’s a big +
Asahi is my favorite beer! And Nigori sake so maybe next time I’ll have some. Thank you for having us!

Food:
Awesome Ramen with an excellent spicy broth that packed great depth of flavor. Cool cozy spot that had lots to try from small appetizers to huge bowls of ramen.
Brew:
Kirin’s Ichiban
A crisp and refreshing, contrast to the rich broth and fatty pork.
I took advantage of their special, 2 beers and Japanese fried chicken for $ 10.99.
No regrets. Definitely will be back.

I’m not a ramen expert, but a friend of mine is and I went with her here the first time. We shared a big bowl of soy sauce ramen and got spicy tuna rice balls.
The rice balls were amazing and huge– I got them by myself two more times after my first trip.
I personally liked the ramen. My friend wasn’t a huge fan. But I liked it.

So last Saturday my boyfriend and gal pals hung out in this part of town enjoying what the heart of Astoria has to offer and when it came to dinner my best friend really wanted ramen and saw this place across the street from the bar that we were at.
I was excited to come here because I hadn’t had noodles in quite some time and had also never been here. Upon entering I liked how homey it felt despite this place being quite small and narrow. They really did a lot to not make the space feel cramped and their modern wooden furniture was comfortable and neat. There is one row of tables for 2 and another row of tables that a slightly bigger and made to seat groups of 4 (which was perfect since that’s how many people were in our group).
For starters my bestie ordered a pork bun which was a steamed bun filled with pork and served with Okidoki’s spicy sauce. It was the size of your average pork bun and she thought it was delicious.
For my starter I ordered a Kani Onigiri. Onigiris are japanese rice balls and Kani is Japanese for crab. The rice ball with made with pulled crab meat, white rice, sesame seeds, a seaweed wrapper and Japanese style mayo. My first bite was like a party in my mouth, it was really one of the finer rice balls I’ve ever had and as I passed it around the table everyone agreed that it was a thing of beauty. So nice in fact, that I had to order it twice. Mmmmmmm.
As an entrée I ordered the Tori Shio Tsuke-​men. This featured Okidoki’s special noodle with bamboo shoots, scallion, chicken breast, red pepper powder, black pepper powder, bean sprout, a salt flavored egg, cabbage, fish cake and citron powder served with a separate salt flavored chicken dipping soup.
It was delicious. The noodles were kind of flat and not too thick… so pretty much my favorite kind. The flavors were really delicious and this will probably be the same thing I order when I return. My only con is that the chicken, while generously portioned, was a tad dry and could have been seasoned better. But the chicken chunks having absorbed the broth flavor did help.
My boyfriend was happy with his entrée which was their Shio Ramen. This is Okidoki’s natural salt flavored chicken noodle soup with bamboo shoots, chicken breast or pork chashu (he went with the chicken), scallion, salt flavored egg, fish cake and citron powder. He liked it and didn’t have much to say.
Ingrid S. ordered their Okidoki Ramen which is their original silky butaniku (pork belly) soup noodles with bamboo shoots, bean sprout, cabbage, pork chashu, salt flavored egg, fish cake and katsuobushi. Ingrid felt that there was a lot of fat in her dish and it may have made her sick. She also felt that pork was dry as hell with gobs of fat on it and overall, just not the best ramen ever. Also, I was jelly that her meal included bonito flakes — I LOVE bonito flakes! :D
Zaneta wasn’t impressed by the chasu pork in her Tokyo Ramen. She felt that it was also too much fat and not enough char from the blowtorch. But overall she felt that the flavor of the ramen was good and she really enjoyed the noodles and broth… and yes, I polled Ingrid and Zaneta so I could incorporate their thoughts into my review, lol.
We washed our food down with cold saki that complimented our food perfectly. Service was on point, prices were reasonable and everyone pretty much had a good time here. I definitely look forward to coming back!

With winter slowly winding down, the ramen season will slowly wind down for me as well. I’m a big ramen fan but I have to say the best time to enjoy a bowl of ramen is really when the weather is chilly. Ramen and cold weather are made for each other, it’s like Batman & Robin, Tom & Jerry, Bert & Ernie, Bonnie & Clyde, SpongeBob & Patrick, Han Solo & Chewbacca, Pinky & The Brain, okay okay you get the idea. So before the cold weather completely dies down, my friend and I will try to tackle as many ramen places as we can starting from my borough Queens!
Now I’m not a big time ramen expert, just a normal dude that loves ramen and can eat it any time of the day. But to me a good bowl of ramen has to have 4 basic elements– Broth, Noodle, Egg and Chashu and I will describe MY PERSONAL experience base on these elements.
First stop Ramen Okidoki in Astoria Queens, it is located on 30^th ave between 34^th street and 35^th street. Not a very hard place to find, look for a big sign that sits right in the front of the restaurant.
Parking: weekdays not too bad but week nights and weekends can prove to be difficult since there are a number of excellent restaurants around the area. If you are taking public transportation, it’s the N, R at 30^th Ave– from there it’s about a 3 blocks walk!
Décor and Ambiance: First impression: The restaurant is small but clean and well taken care of. There are 4 tables for 4 and 3 tables for 2 which allow them to accommodate up to 22 guests. The seats are comfortable and there are plenty of room between the tables, so you are not sitting on top of each other and you won’t have to listen to the table next to you. There are hooks on the left hand side of the wall to hang your jacket, overall a small but cozy restaurant.
We came on a Saturday afternoon around 2pm, a table just finished and was on it’s way out so we got seated right away.
The 3 of us ordered 3 different ramen + 1 appetizer off the menu– BBQ Tonkotsu Ramen, Kurokarashitsuke-​Men, Veggie Ramen and a side order of pork buns.
Also we took advantage of their lunch special and added $ 3 to get a side order of Kani Onigiri and a Spicy Tuna Mayo Onigiri.
Out of all their items, I would have to say the BBQ Tonkotsu Ramen was my favorite– The broth had good heavy pork flavor but had a lot of broken fat floating at the top. The noodle was chewy and had good texture, my favorite part of the dish is the egg, it was very well executed, the egg yolk was custard like and was still runny once you sank your chopstick into it. The Chashu was a little bit too lean for my taste, and since they grill the chashu before it is plated, it actually made the already lean meat even harder to chew on. I will have to say that chashu was the weakest part of the ramen.
The Kurokarashitsuke-​Men, which is cold noodle served with hot dipping sauce was not a good choice from me. The broth itself was delicious and had a very creamy milky taste but unfortunately the broth was not very hot and didn’t warm the cold noodle very well. which brings me to the noodle, the noodle was extremely cold and it definitely had more chew on it than I wanted, it had almost this under cooked cellophane noodles texture which even with the dipping sauce tasted bland. The egg again was solid so props to the chef for being consistent with the eggs but the meat in the dipping sauce didn’t really hit the mark as it was again a bit overcooked.
Base solely on ramen this place would be a 3 star but I love the onigiri and pork buns too much to let it sit at 3.
The Onigiri was huge, and had a good amount of filling inside, unlike some places where you will have to eat ¾ of the onigiri to discover the filling. I like the Kani Onigiri the best since the Kani was mixed with a bit of sweet mayo and it went perfectly with the slightly salted rice.
The pork bun was excellent as well, unlike the BBQ Tonkotsu chashu, the chashu in the pork bun was soft, melts in your mouth good, combine that with the hot pillow soft bun and a little bit of hoisin sauce, excellent just excellent!!! MUST TRY
Service: Excellent service, our waiter was polite and was constantly coming over to our table to make sure our water was filled. He also asked us about our meal and had small talks with each table. props!
Price: good! Most ramen ranges around $ 10-​$ 13 which is good in my opinion since most ramen places nowadays will run you around $ 15-​$ 20 for ramen.
Overall: I can’t say Ramen Okidoki is the best ramen I ever had but since they are pretty new to the ramen scene, I can see potential in them as they continues to grow. Their price point is great even if their food is just average and their service is excellent. I will definitely come back again another day and try more of their menu and hope that they’ll improve in their techniques as time passes.

Came here with a friend who had never tried restaurant ramen before. He liked it enough that he now wants to try every ramen restaurant in New York. I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic and thought it was only decent.
I had read in some of the reviews that Okidoki was BYOB. I see that in the right-​hand side it does say beer and wine only, but I called them to check and the girl on the phone said that they were BYOB. So we packed up two beers each and headed out. Once we got to the restaurant, the person we had talked to on the phone told us that they were actually not BYOB, and that she had misunderstood us. Now, this wouldn’t have been such a big issue had we not been planning to go to a club immediately after finishing our meal. Anyway, they couldn’t make an exception, so we had four beers and no idea what to do with them. We had to get really creative (and REALLY full REALLY quickly) in order to finish those beers off. Let’s just say it involved sneaky chugging somewhere.
We stopped in on a Friday night, and since Ramen Okidoki is super small, we faced a bit of a wait: a couple of pairs were ahead of us, and we ended up waiting about 10 minutes. The place overall it super tiny — maybe 7 tables total — and thus there was not much room to wait.
Once seated, we got down to ordering: I had heard relatively good things about the tonkutsu and ordered that, while my friend ordered the spicy version. The tonkutsu was pretty good, although it lacked a standout ingredient. The broth was short of outstanding, the pork mediocre. It was definitely tasty, but I didn’t quite feel compelled to finish my bowl. My friend actually requested a less spicy version of the spicy ramen. Even so, upon just tasting it, it coated my mouth with hot, hot chili flavor. If you’re generally a fan of medium spice, definitely request less spicy, if you dare to do even that.
Ramen Okidoki may turn the uninitiated into fans of the noodle, but it’s just not a top-​notch bowl.