The Resy Guide to Cozy Noodle Soups in New York

What to order: The phở bò.

What to order: The duck shio soba.

Uzuki specializes in buckwheat soba noodles, served kake style (meaning there’s no dipping involved; the noodles, broth, and sauce are all in one bowl). The soba is renowned for its lightness, flavor, and texture. Their hot soba dishes are decadent in a way that you have to see to believe: the duck shio has three separate preparations of duck (Japanese roast duck, duck confit, and Peking duck), spinach, snow peas, buckwheat sprouts, yuzu, and fried scallions. Swoon.

What to order: The spicy niku hot udon. (Though in all truth, any of the udon soups here are worth venturing out.)

Those who seek udon know to go to Raku. A noodle soup institution with a bookable location in Soho and another in the East Village, Raku doles out comfort by the piping hot bowlful, brimming with flavorful dashi-based broth and a tangle of plump, chewy, and what sometimes feels like infinitely slurpable udon. The spicy niku udon with beef short ribs and honeycomb tripe has revived many a frozen soul, but with a kitchen built on udon, you can pick your fighter.

What to order: The nam-tok more fire.

Rich, complex, and deeply savory, this comforting pork blood soup is a marvel that packs umami in every bite and is garnished with juicy pork meatballs, sliced pork, and a drizzle of greens with silky angel hair rice noodles.

What to order: The bacon, egg, and cheese ramen.

Rasheeda Purdie’s teeny tiny ramen spot in NoHo expertly combines two important food world concepts, respectfully honoring tradition and innovating in new and exciting ways. Take, for example, her bacon, egg, and cheese ramen with thick bacon, a soy egg, and glistening lard oil in a chicken stock and shoyu broth she perfected during her pandemic deep-dive into the dish. All of her bowls are worthy of a trip, during which you’ll likely get to chat with the chef herself as she prepares each and every order behind the counter.

What to order: The new Tokyo-style shōyu.

Tucked off the hustle and bustle of Delancey is a tiny noodle joint that serves some of the best ramen in the city. Ramen Ishida’s bowls are near-perfect, and they don’t get any better than the signature shoyu ramen: a deceptively simple chicken and porcini broth amped up with truffle, with thin and still-springy noodles, chashu pork, chicken breast, shiso, bamboo shoots, and one impeccable jammy egg.

See also: The best (spicy) vegan ramen in the city at Mr. Taka, the cloudy miso paitan at Totto Ramen, and any of the ramyuns at the Michelin-starred Jeju Noodle Bar.

What to order: The thenthuk.

Himalaya’s answer to the hearty noodle soup is its quintessential thenthuk, and you can find a stellar version of it at this family-owned restaurant in Woodside, Queens. Made with a deeply aromatic beef bone marrow broth dotted with specks of red chile, the soup boasts Tibetan hand-pulled noodles torn into thick, imperfect-but-texturally-perfect pieces, heady with shaved daikon, cilantro, and morsels of deliciously seasoned beef.

What to order: The spicy red chile ramen.

Expect tears to come to your eyes when you dine at Ivan Ramen, both because the broth is spicy in a way that provokes watery eyes and because it’s good enough to make anyone cry. All of the bowls at this famous spot are worth traveling for, but there’s just something about the spicy red chile, with its dashi chicken broth, pork chashu, smashed egg, red chile tare, and yu choy that always manages to steal our hearts.

What to order: The pork noodle soup.

What to order: Mohinga a.k.a lemongrass fish noodle soup.

As Myanmar’s national dish and a staple of Burmese cuisine, it only made sense that Myanmar-raised chef and owner Myo Moe would bring mohinga to the Brooklyn masses at Rangoon. And her lemongrass fish noodle soup is a sight to behold, thanks to an onion fritter looming high above the rice noodles and thick-with-flavor fish broth. A creamy egg, cilantro, sweet lotus root, garlic oil, and a lime for squeezing complete the picture. Add (lots of) fish sauce to taste.

See also: Rangoon’s other noodle soup — the ohn-no khaut swe, a homey coconut-laced chicken feat.

What to order: The Persian herb and noodle stew.

What Sofreh chef-owner Nasim Alikhani calls “Iranian ramen” is a dish steeped in tradition, the sort of timeless and restorative stew every Iranian mom would feed you should you begin to feel an inkling of a cold. At Sofreh, that means whole wheat noodles and lentils piled high with fresh herbs, yogurt, garlic chips, fried mint, and crispy onions — a surprising medley of texture and color.

What to order: The souper soup.

As Murray Hill’s go-to since 1964, Sarge’s has the neighborhood covered with blintzes, chopped liver, and pastrami. But real ones know that the matzo ball soup is where it’s at. Look no further than the souper soup: A clear and buttery chicken stock rich in collagen, matzo the size of a grapefruit like your bubbe made it, noodles, and a very satisfying kreplach (a.k.a. a meat-filled Jewish dumpling, this one’s huge) to finish it off. Practically medicinal and a portion size big enough for two.

See also: The chicken noodle and matzo ball soups at Katz’s and 2nd Ave Deli.

What to order: The pan mee.

If you’re an anchovy hater, beware: This Malaysian noodle soup arrives stacked high with the little umami fish, crisped up and fried. A time-consuming process (the menu notes a 15-to-25-minute wait for the dish), Kopitiam’s pan mee is an incredibly satisfying bowl of hand-ripped noodles soaking up the salty anchovy broth, alongside a winning combination of wood ear and shiitake mushrooms, minced pork, spinach, and fried anchovies.

What to order: The goat meat pepper soup.

Tasting-menu-only Dept. of Culture’s “Nigerian American cousin” serves outstanding à la carte fare in their Clinton Hill home. There’s a lot to love here, but the goat meat pepper soup might just outrank penicillin in our book of the greatest illness-curing inventions of our world. The broth is surprisingly light, poured over hyper-thin noodles and goat meat that almost melts in your mouth. As the name suggests, this soup has a kick, but it’s not overwhelming at all. An ideal sinus clearer, if you will.

What to order: The beef noodle soup.

At this shoebox of a restaurant, patrons are here to slurp one thing and one thing only: beef noodle soup. And Ho Foods does Taiwan’s national dish right with a beefy, bone-rich broth and QQ (that’s next-level bouncy, for you) noodles that hide beneath a couple of slices of red-cooked beef shanks that will melt in your mouth. Opt to make it richer with liquefied bone marrow (you should) and spicy (you should, too).

See also: The beef noodle soup at Yumpling and Mama Lee.

What to order: The wonton noodle soup.

The Hong Kong-style cooking at this Chinatown institution has saved many a nighttime reveler in the wee hours of the morning. And one of the best things you can order at this cash-only Cantonese canteen is the wonton noodle soup, where fat pieces of shrimp in translucent dumpling skins float amid a pile of noodles and scallions plunked in soup. The broth could cure any ailment alone, but if you’re feeling peckish, do top your bowl with roast duck or pork.

What to order: The khao soi kaa kai.

Uncle Boons still lives in some of the dishes at Ann Redding and Matt Danzer’s spiffy Thai Diner. Case in point: The khao soi kaa kai, a Northern Thai-style golden curry rich in creamy coconut milk, flecked with egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, fresh turmeric, and a riot of deep-fried noodles (that only get tastier when soaked), with a wonderfully braised chicken leg sticking out.

See also: The khao soi at SkyIce and Pig and Khao.

What to order: The crossing-the-bridge noodles.

Artist Stephanie Shih was the first to clue us in on the marvel of quoqiao mixian or crossing-the-bridge noodles, a rare Yunnanese specialty found in Brooklyn’s Chinatown of Sunset Park. Order it and you’ll find yourself presented with a large bowl of bubbling and peppery broth — the kind you know has been pored over for hours, if not longer — and a plate heaped with pork, Silkie chicken, tofu, a quail egg, vegetables, and freshly made noodles, to be rapidly thrown in raw in quick succession and cooked in the soup.

What to order: The signature Afuri ramen.

What to order: The phở gà.

There’s lots to love at chef-owner Ly Nguyen’s electric restaurant, which dives deep into what Saigon’s late-night crowd eats. Cue the phở gà, or “Vietnamese chicken noodle soup for the soul” as Em’s menu notes, a reinvigorating and intensely savory and shimmering broth that tastes like the essence of chicken, crowned with freshly shredded chicken, rice noodles, and your usual phở fixings.

See also: Another chicken phở stunner in the shape of Two Bridges gem Phở Gà Vàng. And all of the beefy phở — the Madame phở with short rib at Madame Vo, and the house special phở with roasted bone marrow and oxtail at Hanoi House.

What to order: The gya thug.

Over in Jackson Heights, Khampa Kitchen keeps a piece of home alive with its Tibetan homestyle cuisine. Most particularly, the Kham region of Tibet, from which the owners’ families forage herbs for them. Perhaps that’s why the gya thug is so intoxicating. Think a complex, herbal, and numbing broth, featuring linguini-like pasta like you’d find in a supermarket (only in Queens), capped with greens and chunks of your choice of meat — we like chicken or pork.

What to order: The longevity noodles.

Inspired by China’s longevity noodles (long noodles that symbolize a long life, which you’re bound to find at every Lunar New Year table this year and next), Jean-Georges Vongerichten offers his own take on the traditional dish at his seafood enclave (which is quite possibly The Fulton’s sleeper hit), with a half-pound of glazed Maine lobster cut into sizeable nuggets taking center stage in a gingery broth filled with wheat noodles, pea shoots, and green chiles.

What to order: The tortellini en brodo cup to go.

Missy Robbins revelers would be remiss without their seasonal pilgrimage to Lilia’s next-door takeout window. Stay on the lookout for the tortellini en brodo, which only comes when the cold hits and is served up in a to-go cup, so you may sip it then and there, or as you stroll through McCarren Park.

See also: If you prefer your tortellini en brodo whilst sitting down, the comforting Italian mainstay can be found on the menu with a Cantonese twist — think wun tun ravioli — at Bonnie’s.