IPPUDO SG @ Mandarin Gallery

Makan Boy headed down to Ippudo SG at Mandarin Gallery to get a taste of their famed hakata ramen and tonkotsu soup broth. Fortunately for us, one of my friends was able to get there early and queue for us (there was a pretty long queue). But unless all of the people are present they will not let you in. Well, the rest of us got there in time so no worries. 

Within a short while after we were seated, this extremely friendly waitress came to serve us. When we ordered our ramen she asked us how we want our ramen to be: soft, medium or hard. Apparently, it's common practice to choose the hardness of the ramen in hakata style ramen. The waitress even pointed out the strips of comics on the wall (I didn't even notice that) which explains the hakata style ramen. All of us opted for the medium ramen not wanting to take too much risk.

Our orders took much faster than expected to arrive since I thought there was a lot of people in the restaurant still waiting. Apparently not. I ordered the Shiromaru Tamago ($17) (basically, Shiromaru Motoaji ramen with the flavored egg). According to their website, Ippudo was the first to refer to their broth by the color, Shiro (white) and Aka (red). The color of their bowls also corresponds accordingly.

Shiromaru Tamago ($17)

My Shiromaru Tamago tasted refreshingly good perhaps after the not so good experience over at Ramen Champion (see past post).The ramen noodles were thin and smooth and the soup broth  was flavorfull as well. Excellent. I then devoured my slice of chashu. Not too bad. But nothing really amazing. I needed to try another slice to confirm. So there I was searching for my next slice of chashu. Wait. Where were the other slices of chashu?? Then it hit me. There was only one slice of chashu. My friendly waitress confirmed that there was only one slice of chashu for Shiromaru and two slices of pork belly for the Akamaru ramen. Only one slice of chashu... Oh well, but my flavored egg didn't fail to impress me simply because the egg yolk was runny. However it seems my other friends were not so lucky as their eggs were half runny and half overcooked. So I guess the standard of the flavored egg was not consistent.

There, runny egg yolk.

My friend got the Karaka Tamago ($19). It's ramen with a spicy miso and ground pork mixed with the ramen. I tried it and it's also quite good.  Almost the same as Shiromaru ramen except that it's spicy that's all. I'm not too sure why it's more expensive than Shiromaru. Maybe because of its special spicy miso?

Karaka Tamago ($19)

The other 3 of my friends ordered the Akamaru Tamago ($17. The broth was much more flavorful than Shiromaru and there was a stronger garlic taste. Really delicious too. And it had two slices of pork belly (I didn't try them). I'm not crying about it but I mean I love pork so I had expected they would put more slices in my ramen.

Akamaru Tamago ($17)

 

Serving size wise, the ramen would not leave you feeling full. If you want more ramen you can get them if your soup broth is not finished at an extra $2. We decided that's enough for us so we all left the restaurant with our stomachs still having room for more food. Oh yeah, I finished my whole soup broth and I felt really thirsty after we left. Probably the MSG.

Verdict:

Overall, I think the ramen here were quite good. Definitely a must try. The prices might be a little steep though. And serving size small. It's quality over quantity. 

P.S.

They have another outlet over at UE Square. It's called Ippudo Tao. Tao meaning drums performance. They fused the two ideas of ramen and drums together. You can watch drums perfomances on television screens while enjoying your ramen. I'm not too sure of the whole experience of Tao and ramen but I just might drop by someday to attain some enlightenment. 

IPPUDO SG 

Mandarin Gallery

333A Orchard Road

#04-02/03/04

Singapore 238867

Mondays to Saturdays

11am-11pm, Last order at 10pm

Sundays

11am-10pm,Last order at 9pm

http://www.ippudo.com.sg