There used to be a good number of Ramen Setagaya shops scattered around the city, but in recent years they’ve scaled back. Now the place to go is in the heart of St. Mark’s Place.
There is a wide table down the center of the restaurant with a bar running all along the walls. Grab a bar spot by the window if it isn’t cold out and hang your stuff on the handy hooks underneath.
Setagaya has a fairly limited menu but there are still enough choices to make going back a time or two required eating. They serve both hot and cold ramen dishes and almost everything is imported from Japan.
Their Shio Ramen is the default for a good reason. The pork falls apart wonderfully and has a great grill flavor and the egg is cooked just-so. I do think they get a little carried away with the scallions so keep that in mind.
Gyolou Ramen is a bit more of an intense flavor with cabbage and garlic added to the mix while the Spicy Miso Ramen is a shocking angry red color but probably won’t burn your tongue off.
People can rave about Ippudo all they want, I would much rather grab a bowl at the casual Ramen Setagaya.
Reverse Thieves 
I don’t know about the Ippudo in NYC, but for me, the best ramen will always be a bowl full of pure Hakata tonkotsu soup like @ Ippudo (and their spicy bean sprouts are heaven!) :3
There is definitely nothing wrong with the food at Ippudo, but in NYC it is the atmosphere. Ippudo here is super trendy, it just isn’t comfortable. I prefer places with a casual and relaxed vibe so I’m going to pick places with good food AND good atmosphere over others.
-Narutaki