3 slices belly chashu, wood ear fungus, spring onion, nori.
Kanada-Ya in London is one of my favourite ramen places in the world! 🍜
When I found out they were opening here, I had to try. Sadly Kanada-Ya in Singapore can’t compare.
1. The pork broth, probably the most disappointing, is thick, one-dimensional, bland, doesn’t have any taste or flavour. It lacks salt and umami. It tastes creamy and not like pork broth, more like a tasteless, liquid carbonara sauce. It tastes like they added flour tbh. Did not, could not finish.
2. The chashu is plain, nothing outstanding. The spring onions taste dehydrated. You know when you buy instant noodles and there are spring onion bits inside? It tastes like that. Sort of like cardboard.
3. The forms for filling out your order are recycled (i.e. multiple people have used the sheets before and the unerasable pencil marks are still there).
4. Not all chairs have a back so you’re sitting on a stool.
5. The music is rather loud J-Pop/J-Rock. You know the volume of music in restaurants has been increasing over the years? To encourage diners to eat quickly and go.
6. It’s hard to get the waiters’ attention and they don’t seem well trained. I said I was ready to order and gave my slip to the waiter, and thought the waiter was going to take my order, but he didn’t and just put the paper back on the table. Until the manager-looking guy came round to ask if we had ordered, then only was our order taken. Then the food took a while to come.
7. Idk why people open a ramen chain when they can’t run it well? As a paying customer, it just seems cheap, low budget and not value for money to spend almost $21 for this experience! This isn’t a place I‘d visit again or recommend. Despite being newly opened, there was no queue, not a good sign.
8. The mall itself is meh with a myriad of not pleasant smells :/ Shops here are what you’d find in a heartland mall, except this is new. The touchscreen directory on various floors don’t work. You have to use mobile data and Google instead.
9. There are better shopping malls and ramen shops in Singapore. Today’s experience was not great.