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Bassanova is a branch of a popular Tokyo ramen shop that specializes in tonkotsu ramen, which is pork bone broth and they are also famous for their green curry flavored broth as well.

Originally, it was associated with Keizo Shimamoto who is a well-known ramen blogger who actually got involved in the restaurant business.  There was a falling out between Keizo and the New York owners and he’s no longer involved, which you can read his blog post here.

The restaurant is located in the heart of Chinatown on Mott Street in a basement level space.  It’s a simple, but clean looking all white space with an open kitchen.  The service is generally fine and everyone has been friendly.  They’ve kept the menu very short with only ramen and drinks, which I prefer as I love specialist restaurants who stick to what they’re good at.

Tondaku Ramen

This is Berkshire pork tonkotsu ramen.  Tonkotsu broth is rich broth that is made from boiling pork bones for a long time.  The toppings were porkloin cha shu, kikurage (type of mushroom), ginger, crushed sesame, nori and scallion.  The broth is rich and a bit heavy although not oily at all; it has a great pork flavor.  It’s richer than Ippudo, but I preferred the flavor of this broth to Ippudo as I found it much more complex.  They use the thin type of ramen noodle that I thought was quite good, nicely al dente.  The toppings were all good, but in particular their cha shu was very nice; tender and flavorful, probably the best one I’ve had in NY so far.  Overall, it was excellent and the best tonkotsu broth in Manhattan right now.  8.5/10

Tondaku Wadashijilu Ramen

This is the same as the regular tondaku except it includes a dashi that is a fish stock in the broth.  Also the toppings are porkloin cha shu, menma (bamboo), gyofun (not sure what that is), nori and scallion.  I read online some people found the broth too fishy, I’m not sure if they changed the broth based on online reviews or something, but I actually didn’t find it even remotely fishy.  You could tell they used a fish stock, but it wasn’t fishy at all so I’m not sure what people were talking about.  I found the broth to be very slightly lighter than the regular todaku, but still rich.  It was very good although not quite as good as the regular tondaku, but definitely worth trying.  Also, sorry my picture doesn’t look that great; for some reason there were a lot of bubbles in the broth.  8.25/10

Tondaku Green Curry

This is Berkshire pork tonkotsu green curry broth ramen.  It’s topped with porkloin cha shu, shrimp, zucchini, okra, bell pepper and coriander.  I was a bit skeptical of the broth, but it really tastes like a nice green curry and was quite nice.  They use a thicker noodle that was more al dente and was a much better noodle for this type of broth.  I liked the noodles in this broth a bit better although both types of noodles were both quite good.  Overall, while I liked the tondaku broth a bit better this was different in a good way and worth trying.  8/10

Overall, I really enjoyed the ramen here and I’d highly recommend trying it out.

Address:
76 Mott St (between Canal St & Bayard St)
New York, NY 10013