"If there was an NBA team made up of the restaurants with the best noodles in the city, they’d be called the New York Noodles and Raku would be in the starting five. This Japanese spot in west Soho is casual enough to sit in your workout clothes without feeling self-conscious about your running fanny pack that was advertised to you as a “belt bag.” Also, every check at this Japanese restaurant comes with several frozen grapes in a small dish. In a hypothetical experiment to incentivize humans to run outside more, we’d advocate for a Pavlovian method using bowls of udon followed by these frozen grapes." - hannah albertine