Would you line up for an hour for food? Because it certainly seems like you'd need that amount of time standing in line at Menya Musashi Ramen over at Raffles City. During peak periods, at least. This fairly late entrant to the Singapore/Malaysia Ramen market originates from Tokyo, where it's gotten hugely positive raves & reviews since its' opening in the 1990's.
Like pretty much every other ramen restaurant once it's opened shop in our borders, there's a strict kitchen | seating/dining area segregation; no chance of sitting at the counter and chatting up the chef while he cooks up your noodles, sadly.
This particular outlet in Singapore is surprisingly sparse on the choices. You do get a choice of 3 soups - white, black and red - but they're basically the same pork-based soup (white), with a choice of added fried garlic oil (black), or chili oil (red). No choosing how well done you want your noodles to be, either.
Oh, in our customary fashion of trying a new ramen place we also try the gyoza at SGD5.90 which was decent.
I go for the Black soup base with Kakuni (Braised Pork) instead of the usual cha shu. At SGD14.90, it's very similarly priced to the competition.
Unfortunately I thought the ramen wasn't really to my tastes. The noodles were a bit soggy for my liking (I prefer a firmer, more al dente bite), and the soup was too thick and oily - bordering on being an (oily/greasy) gravy, really.
The darling was also somewhat disappointed with her Tsukemen (Red, SGD14.90). The Tsukemen "style" is where you have a dry bowl of noodles, and you dip it into a sauce/soup before slurping/eating. We felt that for dipping, the red soup was not strong tasting or concentrated enough. The cha shu is good though; and if you're a big eater you can "upsize" your order of noodles up to a whopping 5 times portion.
Also, we thought that the egg was overcooked - bordering on being hard boiled.
At the end of the meal we were rather let down. Perhaps the overall taste of both types of ramen just didn't gel with our tastes & preferences. Add in the upwards-of-45-minute queue times and we have to say that it isn't worth the wait at all. Non-halal.
Our Ramen Rankings:
Superb!: Ippudo & Santouka
Delicious!: Nantsuttei, Tampopo & Keisuke Tonkotsu King
Solid: Shin-Sapporo, Keisuke, Gantetsu, Gensuke, Riki, Ikkousha & Bario
Below Average: Marutama, Menya Musashi & Menya Iroha
This place doesn't sound promising! I still love Santouka and always will!! :P
ReplyDeleteSantouka used to be one of my favorite places but lately it seems their soup base and pork cheek has become WAY too salty for comfortable human consumption :(
Deleteooo, some KL folks have lamented that the one in 1 utama also overcooks its eggs sometimes!
ReplyDeleteThe weird thing is, from your review of KL's outlets, and from reading online reviews of the actual Tokyo outlets, it doesn't even seem like the SG shop sells the same broth. For example, a tripadvisor post says "If you want authentic Tokyo, shoyu style ramen, you must visit Menya Musashi" ... but the SG soup base is most definitely NOT shoyo base.
DeleteBro, 1 Utama "new" old wing, isetan, there's musashi ramen already ;)
ReplyDeletebut yea, if you're getting the "highest level" of ramen (outside japan, the closest you can get to that is singapore, and now 1Utama i guess), it is really up to preference.
When I holiday'ed in Tokyo last year, it seemed to me like any random roadside Ramen joint also was "pretty darn good." Some more it was (relatively) cheap. Over here in KL/SG, goodness, a bowl of noodles & 2 slices of miserable meat already can cost sgd20 or myr30 and above ...
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