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Soul Ramen Pop-Up Restaurant in Manna's Delivers Asian Noodles to Harlem

By Gustavo Solis | November 18, 2015 11:33am
 A new pop-up ramen restaurant opened inside the Manna's Soul Food on Lenox Avenue and 134th Street.
A new pop-up ramen restaurant opened inside the Manna's Soul Food on Lenox Avenue and 134th Street.
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Soul Ramen

HARLEM — There’s a new ramen shop inside a 20-year-old soul food restaurant.

Steve Ha — a relative of the founder of Manna’s Restaurant — opened up Soul Ramen from inside of Manna’s Lenox Avenue address in October.

“I got really into ramen about five years ago,” said the man whose family owns seven soul food restaurants. “Me and my friend would eat ramen from different places and then we decided to do our own take on ramen. We were at my house making the broth, cooking the buns, every weekend.”

Ha, 32, studied ramen in Japan for six months and has worked in various ramen restaurants in Manhattan and Queens, he said.

He spent a couple of years looking for a place to finally open up his own restaurant in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. He had investors and savings but the high rents and instability of the restaurant industry kept him from signing a lease.

“As I was looking for space I realized it was too much risk especially these days,” he said. “Ten out of eight restaurants shut down within three years.”

So he convinced his uncle, who runs Manna’s on Lenox Avenue and 134th Street, to open a pop-up restaurant inside.

His goal is to make ramen popular in Central Harlem, specifically as a delivery order. He developed a technique that keeps the noodles from getting soggy and keeps the ramen fresh for long deliveries.

“People think of it like it’s French fries, when you get it delivered it’s going to be all soggy,” he said. “But I want to change that. I’m trying.”

The menu has four kinds of ramen and five appetizers. The noodles are made with vegetable, or chicken broth, or an ox-tail infused broth. They can be served with beef, pork or just vegetables and cost between $11 and $14.