Minca

The usual noodle-bar gimmicks are not part of the equation at Minca. You can’t mix and match your meat and broth. Instead, the gleaming East Village soup-stop stays focused on 15 simple items—all of them certainly better than anything you microwaved in college. Nab one of the few bar stools overlooking the stoves and dive into light homemade dumplings stuffed with panfried minced pork, followed by chashu ramen, a buttery broth stocked with egg, bamboo shoots and sheets of nori, topped with thin, tender slices of pork.