Ikkousha Hakata Ramen 博多一幸舎 @ Tanjong Pagar

It was rainy afternoon, and we still haven't have our lunch. Walked into Ikkousha at about 3.30pm and ordered some food.

shop front

Oooh, didn't know they still serve complimentary hard boiled eggs!

complimentary hard boiled eggs (served chilled)

 

Ok, let's have one. Pretty easy to peel.

I ordered karaage to share and a small bowl of chashu don. The fried chicken was nicely fried and there's a small serving of flavoured salt on the side. Loved the size of the fried chicken too.

Karaage @$5

Cha-Shu Don @$4

Was happy with the cha-shu don. Just the right size as a snack. The rice has some drizzle of soy sauce and tasted good. Cha-shu was nicely tender and flavourful. Quite yummy. Then, I added some broth from the ramen. DIY chazuke? Keke!

yummy

In the past, I liked Ikkousha ramen for its flavourful soup. That still stands and now the cha-shu don can be a good alternative when you're not that hungry. Just wished that they could serve a small bowl of soup with it as well.

ramen

Ikkousha Hakata Ramen 博多一幸舎 

Address: Apt/Blk 7 Tanjong Pagar Plaza #01-104B, Singapore 081007

Website: https://www.ikkousha.sg/

Contact: 6538-1880

Business Hours:

Monday to Saturday

11:30am - 10:00pm (Last Order 9:45pm)

Sunday

11:30am - 9:00pm (Last order 8:45pm)

[Media Invite] Takumen Ramen Gallery ラーメンギャラリー 宅麺 @ 66 Circular Road

This small eatery located at 66 Circular Road (somewhere near Boat Quay), has a narrow entrance and a large Samurai statue holding a bowl of ramen. Takumen aims to deliver the flavours of popular ramen shops in Japan right at this Ramen Gallery, minus the queue.

ramen

step right in for delicious ramen 

Expect brands such as Honda Shoten, Sakutaya, Chibakara, Hajime, Bingiri and Do.Miso. Each of these brands specializes in flavours such as Tonkotsu, Iekei, Jiro-style, Toripaitan, Katsuraa-style Tantan-men and Tokyo-style Miso Ramen.

Was invited to try Hajime and Do.Miso. The experience felt somewhat like those cosy ramen bar in Japan, where one squeezed into the small space with the hope to enjoy a hot bowl of tasty ramen on a cold night. Except, instead of cold nights, often times, it will be hot and humid mostly. Not to worry, as ice-cold water (complimentary) or a mug of Asahi beer will balance that out. Noticed that they have a buy 1-get-1 free for alcoholic beverages on weekdays from 3pm to closing and all-day weekends. Terms and conditions applies, hence do check with the staff.

interior

Hajime

Do.Miso

The kitchen staff works tightly to deliver hot bowls of ramen to awaiting customers. It was interesting to see a lady in the kitchen of a ramen place.

soon to be filled bowls of delicious ramen

If you're feeling peckish, there's a bowl of hard-boiled egg at the small table near the entrance. Feel free to take as much as you need. I can barely finish a bowl of ramen on my own, much less to eat additional hard boiled eggs...

hard boiled eggs

What type of ramen do you prefer? The lighter or stronger flavours?

Do.Miso Ramen (front) and Hajime (back) - photo credit: @jellymagically

Ramen Hajime was a two-time winner for 2010-2011 Tokyo Ramen of the Year, in the shio ramen category. For Singapore, we can get its Tori Paitan ramen, which is a white chicken broth ramen served with tender, boiled chicken breast, spring onions and menma. The soup was silky smooth and creamy.

Hajime Tori Paitan 

Hajime Tori Paitan flavours are indeed light, yet creamy enough to have a hint of lip-smacking collageny goodness. The flat noodles were springy and delivers just enough of the soup to ensure a healthy tasting mouthful.

springy noodles in white chicken broth

Personally, am more of a fan of stronger tasting ramen and specifically miso or tonkotsu broth. These days am more into aka miso ramen.

Do.Miso speciaizes in miso ramen and uses a unique blend of 5-types of red miso (including sweet Edo Ama-miso and mild Shinshu miso) resulting in tasty, rich flavourful miso broth. Lovely. Just my type of ramen.

ど・みそ - bite-sized bowl when sharing with friends

The Do.Miso broth was not spicy and on first taste, one could savour the roasted sesame flavours. Nice. Each bite had a combination of sweet corn, miso broth and plenty of cabbages and beansprouts. This noodle variant is very much to my liking. Ajitama is a must-have for any ramen. If you ask me, I'd go for the 'everything also have' ramen bowl. Usually marked as special in the menu. The 'everything' usually simply meant that the ramen bowl comes with ajitama and char shiu.

The char shiu for the Do.Miso is of the belly and shoulder parts. Both equally tender and not too fatty. While we were there, we could hear other patron busy slurping his bowl of ramen. That's a good sign at any ramen shop!

Oh, you may want to try the gyoza if you are at Takumen. I heard that their gyoza is made of Iberian pork. For myself, I'd order up the karaage as a side-dish for the ramen.

In terms of favourites, it seems like Sakutaya ramen is the current 人气 ramen at Takumen. This style of ramen is said to be in the style of the famous Yoshimuraya of Yokohama. Maybe, I'll try this next time to understand more.

award winning ramen

signage

Thank you Shermaine for the invite and The Ramen Gallery for hosting the tasting. Takumen is at the same stretch as Hitsuji Club and Tendon Kohaku.

Ramen Hiwamatanoburo ラー麺 陽はまた昇る @ Fushimi Inari Station Kyoto 京都 伏見稲荷

Had chosen to stay at Airbnb while in Kyoto as the price was more affordable in comparison with a hotel. Arrived around 430pm and explored our accommodation a bit before venturing out to find food. Luckily, I suggested to eat nearby and we walked up and down that area for a while before deciding on ramen.

shopfront

Slide open the door to reveal a small cosy ramen shop. Think the staff was a tad too busy to entertain us so we just figured out what we needed to do.

Saw a small vending machine, so instinctively that'll be where we purchase our meal ticket. Ok, was feeling adventurous so had chosen one that had no picture. Item number two on the first row.

choose your dish

Just sit where you like and wait for your ramen to be served.

Chef at work

table seat

Niboshi Tori Tonkotsu Ramen ¥780

handmade noodles

thin, tender chashiu

Loved the ramen there. The soup was strongly flavoured and thick but yet slurpilicious. Friend thought it was a tad too salty but I thought it was just fine. The chashiu was of the thin, almost ham-like and so tender. Lava egg cannot be faulted. Delicious!

If you're ever there, don't forget to order the tori karaage. It looked so good!

Ramen Hiwamatanoburo

Location: 38-15, Fukakusa Ichinotsubocho, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, 612-0012
Contact: +81 75-642-5705
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hinobo915
Business Hours:
11:00～22:00
Closed on Thursdays and the second Wednesday of each month
 

Ramen Santouka 山頭火 @ Cuppage Terrace

It has been a long, long while since the last visit to Cuppage. Must have been a few years, at least. Was wandering around that area looking for lunch place, and chanced upon Ramen Santouka. Had always wanted to visit the one at The Central but didn't.

menu

Ramen Santouka and pork cheeks seemed to be an inevitable order, so we did the necessary. Service was friendly, and the place was rather relaxed since it was already past the usual lunch hour on a weekday.

Toroniku Miso @$22++

Sis ordered a Kara Miso Ramen, and me dad and myself had small rice bowls.

Kara Miso Ramen @$14.50++

Added eggs for the noodles. Not quite flavourful.

Komi Tamago @$1.50++

The miso was thankfully, not too salty. However, the spice level of the kara miso was a tad disappointing.

pork cheeks to share @$12++

sake ikura gohan @$8++

The salmon ikura rice bowl, has flaky salmon. Was ok only. Dad's order of fried rice looked more moist.

The green tea here is served in a small pot, and priced at $4++. Otherwise, one could request for the FOC iced water.

The restaurant is rather small and compact, and could probably seat about 20 pax.

A meal for a family of 4 pax, would costs around $80.

RamenPlay @ Novena Square Part II

First time trying the ramen at RamenPlay. Surprise surprise! Haha, that's because on earlier visits, I was ordering the Chashu Donburi.

Colleague ordered the Butariki Ishinabe, which was served hot stone style. This stone pot rice smelled delicious! All of us were enviously staring at it while awaiting for our items to arrive. Too bad the raw egg was broken when it arrived. Otherwise, would've made a prettier picture.

stone pot rice with pork slices, topped with raw egg

Meanwhile, we munched on gyoza. It was just alright.

gyoza (5 pieces)

while waiting, let's look at the picture

Lunch was a busy affair for this place. At times, chaotic too. The table next to ours, had one rice dish missing while his partner was already about to finish hers. Little did I know, I was about to experience the same.

My colleagues had finished more than half of theirs when mine came (after one reminder too).

toroniku uoboshi tonkotsu ramen (3 pieces) @$11.80++

Luckily, the Toroniku Uoboshi Tonkotsu Ramen was very likeable. Pork cheeks were tender and had a smokey flavour. Felt that these lent some character to the overall taste. Enjoyed the lava egg with its tasty yolk too.

Here is the link to earlier visit.

Ramen Champion @ Great World City

Ramen Champion Great World City (GWC) opened in early November 2013. This is its 3rd outlet after Bugis+ and T3 Changi airport. Was recently invited to try the ramen from the four contenders of Ramen Champion GWC.

entrance

They are Bishamon Zero, Tonkotsu Itto, Miyamoto and Butaou.

who's going to be Ramen Champion?

nice colourful backdrop

huge lantern inside the restaurant

My first time trying all four brands so was anticipating for the first sip of soup, texture of the noodles, flavours of its ramen egg as well as how its chashiu is going to be like.

First up, Bishamon Zero. Not new to the ramen scene in Singapore. Originated from Sapporo, Hokkaido but interestingly, it has a China-born chef, the boyish Chef Wang Hu Rong. He has undergone intensive training with Mr Koji Tashiro of the Menya Koji Group.

stall front

Bishamon Zero sent out its Sapporo Miso Special Ramen. Soup was flavourful due to its meat (chicken and pork) based broth and miso taste was evident. Not too salty and warms the belly. If the corn had been sweeter, it would've been perfect!

Noodles were springy and cha shu was tender with good ratio of fats and lean. Liked the thickness. The eggs were good, with both the whites and yolk well-flavoured. Yummy. The spicy beanpaste (豆瓣醤) added some kick to the ramen.

Bishamon Zero's beautiful bowl of Sapporo Miso Special Ramen (@$14.80++)

springy curly noodles

For the hungries, one can try the side-dishes too if that bowl of ramen wasn't able to fill you up. Chicken karaage was pretty good. Looked abit flat but its meat was tender enough. Batter tasted very familiar ;)

tori karaage (@$4.80++)

mentaiko gyoza (5 small pieces @$5.80++)

Okonomiyaki Gyoza with bonito flakes (5 small pieces @$5.80++)

snow pear juice is available

Chef Wang made a special appearance, so here's a snapshot of him.

Chef Wang Hu Rong

Next up, sampled the Special Tonkotsu Ramen from Tonkotsu Itto. This brand originated from Tokyo and helmed by Chef Yukihiko Sakamoto. This is his first outlet  outside of Japan, and serves Hakata-style ramen.

Singaporeans are very familiar with tonkotsu (豚骨) broth, boiled for several hours from pork bones resulting in a rich tasting broth.

Tonkotsu Itto's - Special Tonkotsu Ramen (@$16.50++)

cha shu overflowed as it was served in a rather shallow bowl with thin straight noodles

Liked the robust tasty soup full of pork-bones goodness but there was too little of it! Noodles were rather thin and abit soft. Cha shu was good, firm to the bite and not too lean. The wood fungus added some crunch when eaten together with the noodles. The ajitsuke tamago has good flavours in its yolk but the egg whites portion were rather bland.

After this elegant, dainty looking bowl of ramen from Tonkotsu Itto, next was a rather masculine looking one! The Pork and Vegetable Ramen from Miyamoto. Helmed by Chef Ryutaro Miyamoto, this brand was voted as 2012 Narita City Most Popular Ramen, and runner-up in 2013.

Miyamoto - Pork and Vegetable Ramen (@$16++)

Loaded with lots of bean sprouts and cabbage, and had a small mound of chopped garlic. Noodles were of the thick variant kind (similar to mee hoon kueh texture but in noodles form). It's a huge bowl. Generous servings of thick cha shu slices too. Cabbage taste is prominent in the soup. Best amount of vegetables amongst all the contenders. Frankly, this bowl of ramen is not much of a looker but it tasted good. If you fancy thicker noodles and wants more vegetables in your diet yet able to have enough meat, then Miyamoto Pork and Vegetable ramen can fulfill these.

best flavoured yolk!

Finally, it's Butao's turn. Originated from Saitama Prefecture in Tokyo, and was awarded Outstanding Ramen Rookie Award at Hong Kong's The Ultimate Ramen Champion competition. Doesn't that makes you eager to know how well it'll fare in Singapore?

Butao - Special Sukiyaki Ramen (@$16++)

Chef Toshikazu Yoneda had indeed created something special. Poached egg? Sukiyaki soup base for ramen? Ok, a first for me. Soup was sweet as expected of a sukiyaki broth cooked with pork bones and vegetables. Light tasting with sweetness. Break the poached egg, stir well into the soup. Quite yummy. Didn't like the pork slices though as they were a bit tough.

soup slurped up in no time!

Also tried a personal favourite of Malcolm. Butao's fried chicken wings. One pax can easily polish off a plate of these. Beer food, or children's favourite?

sprinkle with lots of chili powder, add a squeeze of lemon

Don't forget to vote for your favourite ramen contender to become the Ramen Champion!

whom has captivated your tummy?

Special thanks to Malcolm, Komars Group for the invite. Ramen Champion, ごちそうさまでした!