Fresh off 1 hour on the treadmill at 10.5 incline and 3.3 speed to sweat out the sins of the night prior, I found myself craving ramen. I wiped the sweat from my dark brown eyes that are slightly too big for my face and remembered how someone commented on a TikTok I made about Momofuku, saying Minca was the better ramen choice in EV. I showered off, tucked my adidas sweats into my Nike socks, slipped on the all-black hokas and set off on the 0.4-mile journey. I missed it on my initial walk by as it is extremely ducked-off. Lowkey as the kids would say. With about 14 seats, an open kitchen based on necessity and the workers all speaking Japanese amongst themselves, Minca is about as authentic as a ramen place can get. It brought me straight back to wandering down a random street in Shibuya, seeing impeccably dressed Japanese residents enjoying their bowl of ramen at the tiny little ramen restaurant scrolling their WhatsApp. I ordered the seaweed salad and the Spicy Miso Ramen. I always say that you can tell how good a Japanese restaurant is by how good their seaweed salad is. Okay I’ve never said that but this seaweed salad was really damn good. The ramen broth was flavor blasted without being too salty or too heavy, and the noodles had the perfect texture that would leave a smile on even Ivan Orkin’s face. Honestly, it was a big mf bowl too and I think two normal humans could split this and still walk away content. I, however, happen to be a big dawg. My #1 ranked ramen in EV as of now. Also, I love the name of this place. MincaMinca! Sounds like a cute pokemon hahahahaahaha.