Yoshimaru Ramen Bar

this was a really surprise find that i thoroughly enjoyed!! was searching for a place to have ramen, and i came across this place which was recommended on some other blog. lo and behold, i realize it had been on my foodie radar list for quite some time but i completely forgot about it. anyway, super glad to have visited it, because it can be considered one of my favourite ramen places now! for some quirky flavours (which i absolutely love) and for its really affordable pricing (: i preferred this way more than the hokkaido ramen at santouka (though that was good too!) and it's so much cheaper!

the key is always in the details, and we had so much fun with this little bowls of sesame seeds which we were given to grind as we waited for our ramen to arrive. this is a really small shop tucked away in a corner of the holland village enclave, and i don't think reservations are allowed, so do take note of that!

i was at a dilemma between choosing the mini burgers and going for their ramen. ended up kinda forcing sam to share both with me :p so that we could get the best of both worlds!! and that was really the perfect combination. we had everyone salivating over the burgers ;) there are three flavours of burgers: spicy cha shu, teriyaki chicken ($2.80 each) and the mentaiko ebi mayo ($3.80). i ordered the combi of all three flavours which cost $8.80. and all of them were soooo good! first up was the ebi burger which came with a light crisp-battered ebi tempura encased in pillowy mini patties. i liked how all the burgers came with a generous serving of fresh lettuce within them, which deftly drew out the flavours of the other ingredients by cleansing our palate. the spicy cha shu was tender and yielded easily as it released its innate juices with a bite. the teriyaki chicken was delicious as well! 

shared the original karamiso tonkotsu ramen ($12) with Sam. this was a flavourful medly which hit all the right notes with its punchy broth, soft cha shu and delish flavoured egg! i always love the egg! 

if i could choose though, i'd go for the spicy version of the above (also $12). this delivered a beautifully hearty essence with the underlying spiciness, which livened up the entire bowl of ramen. not too spicy, just perfect.

Yoshimaru Ramen Bar specializes in Hakata ramen, and so we definitely had to order it! the Traditional Hakata Ramen ($11) was a simple, heartwarming dish with all the necessities (: it didn't make much of an impression with me though, because (*points below*)

saving the best for the last...the Karaka Men ($13) aka the spicy yuzu ramen!!! *squeals!* give me anything with yuzu and i'll fall for it ^^ LOVED THIS. i was really amazed at how the tangy notes of the yuzu went so harmoniously in this savoury dish. who knew that such a combination worked? the zesty flavour kept me addicted right from the start, and i couldn't help but reach for more spoonfuls of soup even though the bowl didn't belong to me. whoops! :P but it was REALLY awesome. i will definitely come back for this, and order a whole bowl for myself. yumms!  

Yoshimaru Ramen Bar
31 Lorong Liput, Holland Village
Tel.: +65 6463 3132
Mon-Fri 11am-3pm, 6pm-11pm
Sat, Sun & PH 11am-11pm 

Tonkotsu King

i've been wanting to try this place since forever!! i can hardly believe i waited so long for it. but the queue is just a huge turnoff. and though i thoroughly enjoyed my ramen here, i'd say i probably won't do this again anytime soon. tonkotsu king definitely has one of the best ramen broths ever though!!!!! :) i love how it is so rich and full-bodied.

i ordered the original tonkotsu ramen, but there are also the red (chili) and black (pepper) spicy versions. i can't judge the black version as i don't like pepper, but i loved the punch from the chili in the red one! the noodles are springy, kinda al dente style, and you can opt for the flavoured egg with the flowy yolk inside! i found it really fun to be able to choose from the various options from the thickness of the soup broth, to the ingredients, the noodle texture, etc. you can customize it just the way you like! :) the only let down was probably the cha shu which was not very tasty, and not tender. sad for me, because melt-in-the-mouth cha shu is a key ingredient i look out for.

if you aren't picky about wanting only the flavoured eggs, you then have a free-flow of eggs to satisfy! they also have a free-flow policy for beansprouts. so awesome :D and this sesame-seed grinding seems to be becoming a trend in ramen places here! :p a great way to entertain yourself before the meal. for this ramen joint though, the plus point is that your food is served almost the moment you take your seat. the queuing is done outside (and it's really stuffy in my opinion. not a pleasure at all), and you give the waitress your order there, so that you are served immediately when you get your seat. 

Tonkotsu King

Orchid Hotel, 1 Tras Street, #01-19

Tel.: +65 6636 0855

Daily 11.30am-3pm

6pm-10.30pm

The BEST ramen in Singapore: Ramen Keisuke

hihi! oh gosh this post is SUPER overdue. i wanted to blog about this place the moment i tried it, but evidently i couldn't find the time to >.< oops! and i declare this the BEST RAMEN I'VE EVER EATEN. thanks to jiayee for the awesome recommendation!! ^^ it's her favourite too! and i'm not thaaat discerning when it comes to ramen - i usually like it because of the soup/charsiew, or i just find it alright, but this ramen...this ramen is different. 

we started off by digging into this cold dish of bean sprouts. it comes on the side and you can help yourself to as much of it as you like! it's super refreshing and crunchy and we totally devoured half a bottle (it was quite a big bottle) among our whole table :P haha.

i ABSOLUTELY L.O.V.E.D. my bowl of ramen. i do concede that it's not the most photogenic thing on earth (even just compared to the other two below) but i personally felt that it tasted the best! ^^ just a simple Tokyo Style Pork broth ramen with flavoured egg ($13) and it was da-bombz!!!! so so so good! the soup was so deliciously rich and full-bodied, and you could really taste the essences of the tonkotsu within this luscious soup. as i slurped it up, the flavours sloshed on my tongue and i went to ramen-heaven ^^ what really made this bowl of ramen so awesome was that everything in it was good!! a lot of ramen places tend to either do well in one aspect of the ramen, but fail in others, while Ramen Keisuke managed to achieve the sacred trinity of rich soup, bouncy noodles and well-executed ingredients. the cha shu was delightfully soft and the flavoured egg was done to perfection, producing a brilliant concoction that had me squealing with joy.

for the fans of chilli, the Tokyo style chicken stock ramen ($13) didn't disappoint too! though i'm a strong supporter of pork-based ramen, this chicken stock ticked all the boxes with me as well, with the punchy spiciness that elevated the entire dish.

perhaps the most interesting of all was the crab stock ramen ($13.80)! completely unheard of before, this was a really interesting soup base that tasted exactly like how a good crab bisque should be ;) super thick and rich with buttery flavours, this was a hearty bowl of soup which went well with the other ingredients. while i still vote for my ramen as the best of all, this was definitely an interesting contender! (:

BEST RAMEN PLACE. 'NUFF SAID.

Ramen Keisuke
Parco, Millenia Walk #P03-02
Tel.: +65 6337 7919
Mon-Wed, Fri 11.30am-3.30pm 5.30pm-10.30pm
Thu 11.30am-3.30pm 5.30pm-10pm
Sat & Sun 11am-10pm 

Ramen Kagetsu Arashi & my hot pink blazer :D

i got my tonkotsu ramen fix!!! (: a bowl of warm soupy ramen was probably one of the things i missed on exchange. there's only so much a bowl of instant noodles can do...it's food for the soul when we were freezing, no doubt, but i still miss the hearty japanese soups which i know have been boiled painstakingly for hours to produce a rich, flavourful broth, without being overwhelmingly-thick like western soups. i've been wanting to get a yummy bowl of such tonkotsu soup, and while i was glad to have some ramen at Santouka previously, i have to say that i still prefer tonkotsu ramen to hokkaido ramen! 

and so, ta-da! i present my delicious bowl of Arashi Genkotsu Ramen ($12.90) ^^ this jap restaurant, tucked away in a corner of star vista, doesn't have the queues of menya musashi. i actually dined at menya musashi last year but i don't know why i didn't do a post on it. and i can't really compare now since i can't remember how that one tasted, except that it was good :P haha. anyway, Ramen Kagetsu Arashi has pretty much the full range of ramen - tonkotsu (yay!!), miso, shio, etc...but sam and i both immediately went for the tonkotsu ;) hehe same taste! i absolutely loved this broth, which had a delightfully piquant flavour, especially because of the strong garlic aroma :P but the good thing is that it didn't leave the kind of uncomfortable garlic-breath which is totally undesirable for dates :P i felt that the cha shu was a bit tooooo thin, and the egg wasn't the flowy yolk kind (need to top up for that!), but the tasty soup more than made up for these minor quibbles (:

Ramen Kagetsu Arashi

The Star Vista #01-41 

Tel.: +65 6339 0335

Mon-Thu, Sun 11.30am-10pm

Fri-Sat 11.30am-11pm

and yay i found an opportunity to wear my hot pink blazer out! :D i realised that this blazer is kind of conflicted haha. because it is one of my most formal/structured blazers (the cuffs were damn difficult to fold up -.-), and yet it's HOT PINK which i obviously can't wear for anything formal. but i'm glad i finally managed to fold up the sleeves (minimally....) which made it a little less formal. and i love how blazers can just smarten up a shorts+tank combo (: so i don't look like a kid next to my boyfriend who just came from work hahaha ;)

Top: Primark //

Blazer: H&M //

Shorts: old //

Bracelets: Thomas Sabo, Primark //

Superheroes are back :D & the famous Santouka Ramen!

it's been almost a month since i got back and finally i get to see this group of people again! ^^ photos from sk's camera cos i was lazy to take out mine :p

just half of our group! can't wait for ngan & jiayee to get back :))) 

hotties with sunnies ;) haha bhb. we had tea at kki! (: will blog about that soon ;)

Dress: Forever 21 //

Clutch: Primark //

Bangles: New Look //

Sunglasses: Ray Ban //

i love my sunglasses from Ray Ban!!!! :D you have no idea how long it took for sam & I to find a pair of aviators that suited me. super happy with my buy! ^^ although i don't think it cost any cheaper in italy. but so worth it cos i love it! (: 

we spent quite a long time deciding where to go for dinner! from tim ho wan (decided against it because of the possible queue...but i'm so gonna try it SOON), to jumbo seafood (they wanted us to clear out by 7.30pm which meant that we couldn't sit and chill :/ ), to song fa bkt (another one i have to try soon!!! also looked crowded and hot). finally settled on Ramen Santouka! :D quite happy because i've heard of this place, vaguely, and it's probably existed for quite long. but it never really occurred to me to go there. and i was craving some ramen!! so glad that we came here ;)

look at that egg!!!! it was so delicious *drools*. it's really the very well-executed japanese egg which is slightly more than half-boiled inside (maybe 3/4? haha) so that the yolk is still gooey even though the outside is hard boiled. i wanna try making this egg someday! honestly i have no idea how long to boil eggs actually. haha :p anyway, this egg costs an additional $1.50 on top of your dish, and you HAVE to get it. (after that i was kinda scared of eggs though, cos i had like 6 eggs in the past 3 days or sth like that :O) they have different soup bases for the ramen, like shio/shoyu/miso/spicy miso, and they come in three sizes! i love that. i chose the smallest size shoyu ramen ($12.50), and it was just the right size for me! (: loved the robust broth and springy noodles, and i was so full after that!

what i would really recommend though, is the pork cheek ramen! it was SO GOOD. after eating my one pathetic slice of cha shu in my ramen, i tried one slice of sam's pork cheek. and it was so melt-in-your mouth tender! absolutely delightful! this is THE perfect dish with the broth-noodles-pork cheek-egg coming together in a harmonious blend of delicious flavours and you will not regret having this ;)

Ramen Santouka

The Central #02-76

Tel.: +65 6224 0668

Daily 11am-9.45pm

my gals <3 meet up more often please! ^^ 

headed over to Esplanade after that! wanted to go to Sauce, but it was full (saturday night feverrrr...) so we hopped over to Harry's Bar instead! haha what a day of traveling around :p luckily darling had the car ^^

thad joined us for dinner onwards! (: 

and because sam parked his car at mbs, we walked all the way to esplanade. and it was soooo beautiful (: i really love singapore's skyline! after visiting europe, i do realise that we have an AMAZING night scene (: so beautiful! and finally we have a nice photo at my happy place :') we've been there so many times but never really took a photo there! so happy <3 

Tampopo Deli

tampopo has the best cream puffs in town! :D haha, or at least, so far the best i've had! xD i can't imagine what i missed out last time when i didn't use to like cream puffs. the horror! :O

encased in a crumbly crust, dusted with a fine layer of sugar. take a bite of this, and out oozes the light, sweet cream. a very generous amount of cream can be found in this palm-sized pastry. it's so lovely! (: one is $2.60, and it is $5 for two.

also tried the macha chiffon cake ($5.80) which i daresay is one of the most authentic macha cakes around. as in the taste of the green tea is really fragrant and strong, infused into the slightly dense cake. it's covered with a layer of light whipped cream, with fresh strawberries embedded within. decadent :D

Tampopo Deli

Liang Court Shopping Centre B1-16

Tel.: +65 6338 7386

Daily 11am-9pm

if you know anywhere with cream puffs to rival tampopo's, please comment and recommend to me! i would love to try them! :D

Ramen Play

Junction 8 has been one of my childhood haunts since its the neighbourhood mall which i always used to go to! before there was AMK hub, J8 was where we went while i was in stnicks. then after that i went to RJ and J8 was right there, a 15min walk from school. since then, i havent been there in awhile! and when i went there a few weeks ago, i realised there were quite a bit of changes! especially to the breadtalk/toastbox/icingroom/ramenplay chain of stores. well, there didn't use to be icing room and ramen play there, but yup, it has expanded to include these too! breadtalk/icing room looks really pretty and pink now! :D and toastbox is now combined with ramen play in a much more spacious outlet on its own, opposite the mrt station.

that's a picture of my mini sanpou shoyu ramen. i got the mini value combo ($11.80) which i think is really quite worth it! oh yeah, for the sanpou shoyu ramen must add $2 cos its special. haha. anyway, i preferred the mini size cos its more manageable? and it comes with a side dish and a drink. the original size ramen is priced at $14.80. anyway what is special about the sanpou ramen is the three types of meat in it! there is a piece of Toroniku (braised pork cheek), Cha Shu (braised pork belly in char siew sauce) and Buta Kakuni (braised pork belly in special sauce). i loved how the meat was beautiful melt-in-your-mouth softness of the meat! and the egg was done wonderfully as well, you could see the part hard-boiled, part oozy and juicy egg yolk, and even the egg white was in the nice half-done way! cool! the soup was not bad as well, i preferred this to Zhen's version. but it was nothing to shout about in my opinion.

this was my side dish, the mini dango set, which is basically baked (i think) chicken balls covered with a nice barbeque sauce and mayo. yumyum! :D

Zhen's mini tonkotsu ramen (also the set meal) was pretty much similar to mine. the thing about their ramen is that there is hardly any meat :/ like mine had one piece of each kind of meat, and i think hers just had one piece of cha shu -.- which is a pretty sad case -.-

for her side, she got the crispy dango, which is the deep fried version of my chicken balls.

mummy and papa got the unagi toji set ($14.80) which is grilled unagi (eel) wrapped in soft fluffy eggs which were really yummy and comes in a sizzling hot pot that smelled awesome! taste wise, it was not bad!

one more thing was that they had this cute sign that said "Chose your poison" in which the "poison" refers to their selection of condiments like stir-fried chili chives, chili paste and garlic chips. guess which one i chose? the GARLIC! :D haha. i sprinkled a whole spoonful in my soup, but i'm still not as extreme as Zhen who put in even more. zomg. haha it added a nice flavour to the soup (: (:

Ramen Play

Junction 8 #01-51

Tel.: +65 6258 2661

Sun-Thurs: 10.30am to 10.30pm

Fri, Sat & Even of PH: 10.30am to 12am

Aoba Hokkaido Ramen

I absolutely LOVE Hokkaido. I went there at the end of last year for a holiday, and WOW, the food there is superb!!!!!!!!! (: (: (: The list is never ending, so i shall not start on it. But when sisses and I were walking around ION Orchard on Saturday deciding on what to eat, we came across this restaurant, and obviously, we were lured in (:

This was my bowl of Shoyu Cha Shu Ramen ($13.50). I think my favourite is always Shoyu, because Japanese soy sauce is just especially nice! (: One thing i noticed about hokkaido ramen though, is that it is just limited to Shoyu, Shio and Miso ramen, which are all unfortunately very salty >.< This one was no exception, but it was really tasty, and i loved the cha shu! (: Or at least, most of them. Of the four pieces of cha shu in my bowl, three of them were delightfully soft, with the perfect melt-in-your-mouth feeling, probably due to the layer of fat between the meat (: The last piece though, did not have the fat, and it turned out to be rather hard. Overall, it was good! (:

Y and Z decided to share a bowl of ramen (I think its a conspiracy to make me look greedy :P) as they had a snack earlier on. This was their Shio cha shu ramen. It was even more salty than mine! But it was tasty too (: and their egg was really pretty! Look at it! The chef managed to achieve the hard-boiled egg white, yet runny egg yolk texture that is so delectable! (: 

Aoba Hokkaido Ramen

ION Orchard #B3-25

(other outlets at Vivocity & Tampines 1)

Tel.: +65 6509 9394

11.30am-10pm

Ippudo

I finally got the chance to visit Mandarin Gallery yesterday! :D haha, you must think i’m quite deprived…? :P It’s just too “high-end" for me, so not the kind of place i’ll usually go with friends, but I finally did go there yesterday, with K! (:

K and I braved the throngs of tai-tais slightly before high-tea time (around 2pm) for our late lunch at Mandarin Gallery. We decided to try out Ippudo since it is so well-known for its ramen in Japan. And we all love a tasty ramen that is so good for the soul ;) 

This bowl was my Shiromaru Classic ($15) which consists of the “original recipe tonkotsu soup served with thin noodles, Rosu chashu, cabbage, kikurage and scallion”. The soup base was yummily-tasty, bursting with flavor. The chashu was also delicious, but it would have been better if it had the melt-in-your-mouth feeling and if they were more generous with it!!! There was only one piece of chashu! ): how sad is that?! 

This other bowl was K’s Shoyu Ramen ($15). Shoyu Ramen is ALWAYS delicious – it can never go wrong! The soup was tasty, though a little too salty because of the soy sauce. But it was yummy! (:

One funny thing about the restaurant is that you get to chose the texture of your ramen. O.O Soft, medium or firm? We chose the medium texture since we didn’t want to go to any extremes - it was nice and springy which was good (: Overall, a satisfying lunch! But it still fell short of my expectations from what i had heard from all the reviews. 

Ippudo

Mandarin Gallery #04-02

Tel.: +65 6235 2797

Mon-Sat (11am-11pm)

Sunday (11am-10pm)

Oh yes, and one more picture for you (: The gorgeous view from the 11th floor roof garden of Orchard Central! :D :D So beautiful! I guess that is one of the few redeeming points about the mall though… :P