For The Love Of Ramen

Bari Uma was good, but I felt the broth weren’t flavourful enough.

The dish that impressed me the most that night - Uni Cream Seafood Ramen. A very simple dish that was beautifully executed, this is good for sharing because one might get jelat after a while. Comprising of uni cream ramen served with ikura, clams, prawns, crabmeat and tobiko, I would say it's more pasta than ramen, it was prolly so named only 'cause of the ramen used. Nevertheless, still a joy to devour this in its entirety.

Always spoilt for choice whenever I'm here, with their wide array of dishes here - hot to cold, soup to dry, you name it, they have it. They may not have the best price point but I think their soba is pretty much worth a trip down given the quality and quantity of it.⁣

Got their Spicy Tsukemen to try as well and it was rather disappointing. There was barely any hint of spice at all and neither the portion nor taste justify the price point. ⁣⁣

Afuri gained popularity for their yuzu ramen, though I feel that Yuzu ramen is an acquired taste. Having been exposed to the strongly flavoured tonkatsu ramen that’s prevalent in every corner of SG, taking in the first mouth of yuzu broth can be a little strange for some. It is refreshing on the palate, and one may easily wolf down the entire bowl without the typical greasiness that comes with tonkatsu broth but that say, some may also find it bland. The portion was rather small and i didn’t get that sense of fulfilment that I usually have from devouring an entire bowl of soupy ramen. While it does change things up a little, I’m gonna stick to my greasy tonkatsu broth. ⁣

How did it take me so long to find this treasure! Unlike the usual thick udon, the udon here are of a thinner cut and what’s even better is that they are freshly made. I order the kake udon (plain udon) even though I wasn’t particularly hungry because my friend had high praises for them, and I’m glad I did. Every mouthful of the udon was springy and chewy, and while the soup was rather plain, it was satisfying at the same time. What’s even better is they are on ShopBack Go! Get up to 20% Boost on your first visit!⁣

Feeling a little adventurous today and decided to go with the Green King, which came with a mountain of grated parmesan cheese seated atop green broth made up of fresh basil, which helps to cut back the taste of the cheese. While tasty, the dish was overall very rich and heavy, and I simply couldn’t finish it.⁣

Original BUTAO King consists of a very rich tonkotsu broth which was almost creamy-esque, with every mouthful bursting with umami. Definitely a safe order for the non-adventurers! ⁣⁣⁣

Got the Furious Mala MazeSoba at the lowest spice level and boy was it spicy. The noodle was a little tough, seemingly undercooked but it was probably the nature of the soba used. Coined the Mala Mazesoba, it did not have the typical mala fragrance we are all so familiar with. But rather, it felt more like a bowl of spicy noodles. The pork chashu that came along was amazingly soft and flavourful but did nothing much to save the dish. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

The Smoke and Pepper Ramen fared better than their Shoyu Ramen in my opinion. Albeit salty, you could actually taste the richness of the broth. That said, I really think there is nothing much to shout about for the ramen here.⁣

Got myself a hot bowl of Shoyu Hamaguri Soup with sous vide chashu, black truffle sauce, spring onions, porcini mushroom sauce and leek. While it all sounds very posh, what with the truffle and porcini mushroom, I must say this bowl is way too salty for me. The sodium seemed to have overpowered all flavours in the ramen since I couldn’t taste any sweetness from the clam. Couldn’t help myself from reaching out for the ice cold tea to quench my thirst.⁣⁣

Paid them a visit and felt that the standards have dropped a little, still good nevertheless, but the ‘wow’ factor that they used to have seemed to have disappear