Midtown Lunch

Looks like Midtown ramen mainstay Sapporo has gotten another menu facelift (you may remember the last one was in 2010). Spotting the yellow and white “New Sapporo” posters adorning the windows this week, I grabbed the new takeout menu on my way back to the office from lunch. The new menu, which you can check out after the jump, takes an axe to the old ramen offerings and adds new — and some rather odd — dishes. Oh, and make sure you check the prices on your Sapporo favorites, as they might have changed as well.

The menu’s first side includes appetizers and ramen. Noticeably absent from the list is the mapo ramen Brownie enjoyed last year, and the Sapporo special ramen ($12) and tan-tan men ($11) are no longer Midtown Lunches.

Although the list of ramen dishes has been cut in half, there is one surprising addition: tomato ramen ($9), which is described as “ramen with an Italian twist” and includes tomatoes and basil. Um … huh.

Also missing is the tanin-don I was rather fond of. The oyakodon Donny liked made the cut but is more expensive at $9.50. Luckily, the katsu curry stayed at $10. Many other dishes didn’t make the cut at all, like yakisoba, sukiyaki, gyoza ‘n’ rice and gyoza soup (although gyoza are still listed as an appetizer). However, there are definitely additions I will return to try, like $10 items chicken nanban (sweet marinated fried chicken), oyako-toji (chicken cooked in sweet egg sauce over slow fire), and niku tofu (pan sauteed beef and tofu cooked with sweet soy sauce). The gyu-negi-moyashi (pan sauteed beef, scallions and bean sprouts) also sounds worth while, but is pricey at $10.50.

For comparison, above is the old Sapporo menu that I’ve had tacked up on my office wall for a while now.

So, out with (some of) the old, in with the new. I’ll be checking out some of the new menu items in the coming weeks … not sure about taking one for the team with that tomato ramen, but if any of you Midtown Lunch’ers check it out, be sure to let us know how it goes it the comments!