Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King @ Orchid Hotel, Tanjong Pagar

Met up with Drumstick one Friday evening after work and she highly recommended that we go to this newly-opened ramen place. We reached at around 7pm and there was a queue forming, partly because the place was small and could seat only around 20. But more importantly, these people were there for the awesome ramen and soup broth. We waited around 20-30 minutes for our turn, half the time staring into the restaurant and willing the customers inside to finish their meal quickly so that we could savour the noodles as well.

I forgot to snap a photo of the order form, but when you're queuing up, the waitress will hand you an order form, which you are to fill up:

i) Which type of soup base you want: Tonkotsu, Black Spicy Tonkotsu or Red Spicy Tonkotsu (yes, they only have 3 types)
ii) Texture of noodle: Hard, Normal or Soft
iii) Taste of the soup: Light, Normal or Strong
iv) With seaweed, with egg or with both
v) Chicken oil: Less oil, Normal or More 

One of my weird habits is that I like to fill in survey forms so I liked this questionnaire-like form. I chose Red Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen, less oil, normal texture and with all toppings!  

Small place for a quick meal - do not expect to take your time here. You'll be stressed out by the queue outside anyway. Cozy, Japanese-like setting. Chefs and most wait staff were Japanese, and I like the vintage Japanese posters on the wall. 

Free eggs and pickled beansprouts! 

You could also grind your own sesame seeds while waiting for your noodles to arrive. 

 Red Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen with Seaweed and Egg ($15.80) - The broth was flavorful and hearty, the noodles al dente, the chasyuu pieces generous and lean. One reason why the broth was so tasty because besides the chicken oil, pork lard was floating around as well. I tried to be health-conscious but couldn't resist slurping up the soup anyway.
 

Giant piece of seaweed

Their stewed egg is the kind with a runny egg yolk, which I absolutely adore.

I need to have a ramen fix every now and then and this is definitely one of the places I would return to.

How much was spent per pax: Around $18 per pax
Would I come back again? Yes!

Address: 1 Tras Link #01-19
Orchid Hotel
Singapore 078867
Tel: 6636 0855

Opening hours: 1130am-3pm, 6pm-10.30pm

Daikokuya Ramen Dining @ Raffles City

Last Friday night Sreny and I finally met up after almost (or more than, can't exactly remember) 3 months of not meeting up. I had just heard about the opening of Daikokuya in Singapore so we decided to have dinner at the one at Raffles City (the other branch is at Paragon). There was a queue forming by the time we reached there, around 7pm, but we were third in queue and the only pair there, so it turned out that we got to be seated first!

While we were still queuing we were handed the menus to browse through the items, and the waitress came back once in a while to see whether we were ready to take orders.

A glimpse of the menu:

Prices are quite reasonable as you can see, comparable to the rest of the famous ramen restaurants around like Santouka and Noodle House Ken. Sreny ordered the above, while I ordered the following:

One of the features that set Daikokuya aside from the rest of the ramen places is that they have ramen from different parts of Japan, for example Tokyo, Kyushu etc, so you can decide which kind of ramen you want. There were so many different kinds that we were spoilt for choice, and after a while all the bowls of ramen on the menu looked the same to us.

For side dish we ordered Pan-fried Gyoza with Mentai & Mayo as it was one of the more interesting ones there. It wasn't as pan-fried as we liked it, and we realized the difference between the various kinds (around 4-6) of gyozas featured in the menu was actually the same, save for the sauce on top. So the "mentai" isn't really the mentaiko that we like, but just a kind of sauce dribbled on top of the gyoza.

When my ramen came I was wondering what was so "charred burnt" about it, since it was named "Charred Burnt Miso Soup Ramen", nevertheless the soup was still tasteful and I liked it!

The ramen I ordered didn't come with my favourite stewed egg, so I had it added for $2.00.

Half cooked, half watery, just the way I liked it. I should've dumped it into the hot soup when it came, 'cos I left it out for too long and it turned cold.

Sreny's Pork-based Miso soup Ramen with Flavoured Egg.

There was a subtle difference between the tastes of our ramen, but both are really quite nice. If you're a ramen fan, this is worth a try! I would say it's comparable to Santouka at Cuppage Terrace and some other ramen places. This branch is quite small and a bit on the cramped side though, and the tables are so near to one another, it's not really conducive for hanging out after you're finished with your meal.


How much spent: Around $20 per pax
Would I go back again? Yes! To try the other flavours :)


252 North Bridge Road #B1-13
Raffles City Shopping Centre Singapore 179101
Tel: 6336 7456
Operating Hours:
Sun-Thurs 11.30am – 10pm
Fri, Sat 11.30am – 10.30pm