Kusabi @ The Central, Clarke Quay

Located at Level 1 of The Central, this place is quite small in size. Attempt #2 to eat there. Went there at about 1+pm on a Saturday, and the place was practically empty except for another one or two occupied tables.

table setting

nice ambience

Nice to have the entire restaurant to yourself. Hahaa.

history/origin

limited offer menu

Our lunch time still qualified for the 'limited offer' even on a weekend, so we chose that. For the limited offer, we can select a bowl of ramen (half-size), then select a side dish and finally a drink/dessert from the list. All these for $12++. Not a bad deal mah, since ramen (full size) per bowl is already $9+ onwards.

My friend ordered Uobushi Tonkutsu Shoyu Ramen (add $2 to upsize back to normal size, otherwise it is half-sized), with unagi don as his half-side dish and a goma ice-cream for dessert. I had the Toribushi Ramen (chicken based soup) at half-size, side dish was gyoza, and orange juice for drinks. Added a plate of char shiu as well ('coz I was worried that they'll give me half piece of char siew for my half bowl ramen... which to my delight, it wasn't the case.. hahaha!)

chopsticks, awaiting to attack the ramen

Iced water was served without any fuss. Service was very good that day. Our friendly waitress was very polite and everytime she was about to serve us something, she'd say, "Shitsereishimasu" and she always have a smile on her face. Such a sweet girl.

After a short wait, our food arrived. Makan time!

half-sized toribushi ramen (bottom), regular sized uobushi ramen (top)

gyoza, drizzled with vinegar

Uobushi Ramen

Toribushi Ramen

Looking back at the ramen pictures, just realised that I forgot to take a picture of the noodles. Oops. The noodles for Uobushi and Toribushi are different. The soup for Uobushi (with fish powder/stock, I think) was an acquired taste. I liked my chicken-based soup Toribushi ramen more. It came with a piece of good sized charshiu and half an egg, and lots of spring onions. The noodles were springy and well-cooked, and soup was warm and just nicely salted. Gyoza was pretty run of the mill but its fillings were a tad dry. Perhaps need more vegetables.

chili oil

Add a few drops of the chili oil onto the noodles, and immediately, the taste was transformed. More kick! But be careful. Just a drop or two will do (per bite).

egg

yummy charshiu

The charshiu was mostly lean meat but it was tender with some fats at its side (yummy!), and has a nice smokey flavour (subtle). For the additional side dish @$5++, you get 3 pieces of charshiu.

serviettes served on a tray...

goma (sesame) ice cream at icy cold

It was a filling meal. Total costs came up to $36 for 2 pax.