Stephen Pursley has spent a lot of his life learning about Japanese noodle dishes — years in restaurant kitchens in the U.S., a stint in noodle shops in Japan, and running his own ramen pop-up — and Menya Rui, his 24-seat casual noodle shop, is the culmination of that commitment. He makes the noodles in the shop himself, on a machine with its own tiny vestibule that you can see from the dining room. You can get Pursley’s delicious renditions of popular noodle shop dishes like shoyu ramen, but Menya goes well beyond. Pursley wants you to try the tsukemen, which are cold, rinsed, thick noodles topped with pork that you dip into a hot broth. It’s a satisfying contrast of temperatures and textures, and the action of the dip slows you down, allowing you to revel in the experience. He also wants you to venture into the brothless noodle category, the mazemen, which use bouncy futomen noodles enveloped in either an aromatic scallop oil or a layered chile oil with notes of orange and ginger. Pursley, who was named a Food & Wine best new chef in 2023, has a line out the door almost everyday, but don’t let that discourage you, it moves fast and it’s certainly worth the wait.
Greg Rannells
