This gem in Harlem (there’s another on the Upper West Side and a newer branch in Hamilton Heights) provides an astonishing range of ramen/ One dry bowl with broth on the side sets your mouth aflame with kimchi, but our favorite fiery bowl is the spicy tonkotsu, a pork-bone broth packed with chile oil and black garlic.

The focus of the menu at this very serious ramen joint on Astoria’s main drag is a creamy 17-hour Hakata-style tonkotsu broth. Have it with the traditional additions, or better yet, order it “New York style”: two kinds of fish cake and its signature “fireball,” a loose meatball of peppery ground pork that subsides into the soup as the flavor explodes.

Founded in 2010, this intimate noodle parlor in western Hell’s Kitchen, with additional locations in Midtown, Boston, and Taipei, takes ramen back to its Chinese roots, with a chicken-pork broth, wavy blond noodles, a hot-as-hell condiment called extreme rayu to be used sparingly, and a potential side of avocado. If there’s a line when you arrive, put your name down on the list by the front door.

The menu of this restaurant on the edge of Koreatown focuses on Tokyo comfort food, including a collection of ramen based on what it calls a Tokyo-style tonkotsu broth, and many of the bowls set off on strange but lovable jags. A case in point is the smoked dashi ramen, which begins with the broth and then adds fish oil and clams, for a spectacular combination of flavors. Noodles made on the premises are another plus at this outlier among ramen joints

Helmed by Iron Chef star Masaharu Morimoto, Momosan brings some celebrity luster to the genre. Six types of ramen are available at this ramen shop with branches in Seattle, Boston, Miami, California, and Waikiki, including a dry version of dan dan noodles, but the best is tan tan. It offers a spicy sesame-laced broth further inflected with scallions and cilantro. The bowl is recommended for folks who like a little spiciness. The noodles are the firm and spaghetti-like Sun noodles.

When ramen hit New York City like a ton of bricks in 2004, Rockmeisha was there. Owner Toshiaki Kondo once operated a ramen stall in ramen’s hometown of Hakata, and his pork-knuckle tonkotsu is the city’s most perfect, beige and dense. There are no optional add-ins to his bowl and the price is modest, but this may be the one bowl of ramen in the city you shouldn’t miss.

An attractively designed space near Washington Square Park accented with neon lighting, Karakatta focuses on spicy renditions of ramen. Not that you can’t get some un-spicy bowls here — there are three types of cold ramen available — but the flagship is the spicy ginger stamina, pungent with fresh ginger and laced with chile oil. It comes in five levels of hotness: “two flames” is often hot enough, even for lovers of spicy food.

Since 2004, this first David Chang restaurant has been slinging ramen using wheat noodles made on the premises. There is usually a choice of two bowls per day, and on a recent evening, the selection ran to smoked pork belly and garlic chicken ramen, both good. The bowls are kept simple and the clarified broths are deeply flavored. This, along with Rockmeisha, were the places that initiated the current ramen fad in the city.

This long-running East Village ramen parlor established itself way before Ippudo, and it takes its ramen every bit as seriously — with a jazz soundtrack. It also hasn't hesitated to innovate, as demonstrated by its ramen that’s deconstructed in the Tokyo style, with thick noodles, a spicy miso broth, and a whole slew of extra ingredients to be added to the bowl at your pleasure.

One of the city’s meatiest bowls of ramen is found at small Greenpoint ramen parlor Wanpaku, which conceals the “secret” cocktail lounge Hidden Pearl in its depths. The beef rib ramen, which is sometimes on the menu, is served with a massive, bone-in rib as its centerpiece, almost too much meat to eat in one sitting. Other worthy ramen soups here include the spicy pulled pork and miso beef versions.

Sweet Cats is one of those newfangled arcade cafes, where claw machines line up filled with brightly colored stuffed animals. Order from a counter at the rear and sit at one of the pastel tables. Several of the selections include a bowl of wavy packaged ramen improved with a fried egg or a smoky grilled hot dog. There are plenty of pastries and cakes on the menu, too, part of an ambiance aimed at kids’ birthday parties.

One of the city’s first izakayas, founded over 20 years ago, has long served a menu of sushi and Japanese comfort classics, along with a growing list of very good ramen in tall narrow bowls. The noodles themselves are more substantial than most and of average circumference, and many of the combinations are remarkable — including one bowl that resembles wonton soup, tastily bridging the gap between Japanese ramen and its Chinese antecedents.

When Nakamura opened in 2016, the Lower East Side had never seen anything quite like it. The noodle shop is run by Tokyo ramen master Shigetoshi Nakamura, who makes his own noodles in the basement of the restaurant and experiments with the genre. Case in point: The X.O. miso ramen, a vegan soup that’s served with an unusual fish-free X.O. sauce.

This Japanese import landed with a thud in Bushwick in 2016, setting down in a dusty industrial area and immediately generating long lines. The place boasts two dining rooms, one allowing you to eat by yourself in a narrow carrel as if in a university library. The noodles, though, are exceedingly solid. They’re available in varying levels of thickness and doneness, and deposited in a tonkotsu broth a little lighter and silkier than most. There are now two Manhattan branches on the West Side.

Tsuta is a celebrated Japanese chain that started as a noodle stand a decade ago in Tokyo, but today it’s best known for being the first ramen shop in the world to earn a Michelin star. The broth, made from chicken and shrimp, is lighter and less salty than usual. It’s also provided in smaller quantity, so you tend to slurp up all of it instead of leaving some in the bowl. In the signature ramen, the broth is laced with truffle oil, and the noodles are softer and more supple than most.

Ramen noodles can be ordered at several levels of firmness, and broths at several levels of density, at this Park Slope parlor. Of particular note is a vegan bowl made with a rich broth laced with sesame oil, in which sesame seeds and scallions float in profusion, with deep-fried and sliced tofu added. There’s another branch in the West Village.