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2012-03-25
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I initially wanted to try Tamashi, but since I left work at 8:00p.m., I believe I could safely forget about any chance of getting a seat at Tamashi. After browsing Open Rice, this ramen shop looked interesting. Their "Stir Fried Pork with Kimchee ramen" caught my attention. I decided to go there from Admiralty by MTR. The restaurant was relatively easy to find. It's about 5 mins walk from Exit B of the Quarry Bay MTR station. A menu was placed outside so i had a quick look. The restaurant actual
The restaurant was relatively easy to find. It's about 5 mins walk from Exit B of the Quarry Bay MTR station. A menu was placed outside so i had a quick look. The restaurant actually had quite a lot of different dishes like curry rice, yakitori and tempura, as well as alcoholic beverages like bottled beers, sake and sochu. So it's a pretty all-rounded Japanese restaurant famous for ramen.
I arrived at about 8:20p.m. and there were still two tables left. They didn't mind me sitting at a table for 6 (it's right at the corner).
I came here with the sole purpose of trying out any spicy ramen which they might have on offer. I ordered "Stir fried Pork with Kimchee Ramen" as I was curious to see this shop's take on spicy ramen even though this was not one of their signature ramens.
I ordered the ramen dinner set with fried chicken nuggets and a bottle of Sapporo "black label" bottled beer. When it comes to ordering the ramen, it was refreshingly simple. If you're into customizing your ramen, e.g. how soft/hard you want the noodle to be, flavour, amount of sauce or miso...etc., you'd be disappointed as there is no application form to fill in. You'll just have to trust the chef.
A complimentary char sou was served together with the beer, which came as a pleasant surprise. The char sou came in small pieces and was marinated in strong soy sauce and a lot of spring onions. It's a cold appetizer. Nothing amazing, but I think it's the attention to detail that counts.
The set arrived about 5-8 minutes later. There were about 7-8 chicken nuggets. It came with a bit of mayonnaise and a small dish of sweet and sour sauce ( it tasted like HP or Worcester sauce.) I had one before trying the ramen. It was slightly soft and not as crispy as I'd like it to be. It's better to dip it into the sour sauce instead of the mayonnaise otherwise it's quite heavy.
As you could see from the photograph, it was a pretty big bowl of ramen. Just the ramen itself was very filling. First things first, the broth: it was pretty complex. Other than the kimchee, I couldn't identify initially whether it was pork bone broth , salt or miso or a mixture of three.
The pork taste was actually quite pronounced, somewhat like Tatsuya or Ippudo but with a much stronger yellow miso taste. I took sometime to really taste the soup before getting to the noodle. Eventually I figure it should be miso and I confirmed it with one of the friendly staff. Having said that, I'm pretty sure there was some pork essence inside the broth.
I have to say that the soup was actually quite salty and not really that spicy.
The kimchi the restaurant used was very interesting. I think it might be just barely preserved, which might explain why the colour was very green. It's not sour and not too spicy either, just a little bit spicy. It's quite crisp. However, the pork with the kimchee was nothing special but nothing to complaint about either. I'd certainly prefer a lot more kimchee inside the soup.
At this point I think the broth was not bad but not worth coming all the way for it, at least not for the spicy kimchee ramen.Then I finally tried the noodle. It's from what I've heard to be the really famous NishiYama 西山 noodle factory in Sapporo, Hokkaido. The other restaurant that I know served noodles from Nishiyama is "Iniri", which I've also tried.
Generally speaking, the Sapporo type ramen is curly, eggy, thick and yellowish. It's completely different from the other main type of ramen from Kyushu 九州, which is the thin, white and harder type of ramen. There are some variations between those two but that's the general idea. Hakodate served the former style of ramen. After trying the noodles, I understood why this place was so famous.
The noodles were very chewy and tasty. It's thick and very eggy. The timing was excellent. It was made al dente. I've tried quite a few ramen shops which served Sapporo style ramen, whether from Nishiyama noodle factory or not, Iniri (also using the same noodle from the same factory), Domon and Sapporo ramen. This is definitely the one shop that made an impression. The broth aside, the Sapporo noodle here is the best so far. The interior was quite cozy. It was not as big as I had initially thought before coming here - for some reason, I always thought shops at Quarry Bay are large - they had about 5 tables for four and 3-4 tables for two. It was bright and clean with a very high ceiling. I also noticed that they had a projector in the restaurant and wondered what it would be used for.
The Sherlock Holmes in me suspected that the owner must be a fan of J-League, probably a supporter of the Sapporo team. There were many recruitment posters for junior football teams as well as team photographs. So the projector should be used to show football matches!?
The service was quite good. None of the staff talked much but everyone had a smile on their face.
All in all, a pleasant dining experience. I still prefer the Shoyu Pork Cartilage Ramen at Iniri but the noodles here is better. Just comparing kimchee ramens, the kimchee ramen at Tatsuya is more complex and has more "kick" in it.
However, the very important consideration is that it hasn't got crazy queues in front of the shop. It's also quite comfortable compared with other ramen shops in Hong Kong. It's a good option for a bowl of hassle free, good quality Sapporo ramen. I'll return to try their signature ramen next time.
總結：這裡的泡菜拉麵太咸，不辣。"龍也"的泡菜拉麵湯底較好。但札幌麵條質素比同類拉麵店，如"稻亭"，"多門"及"札幌"優勝很多。沒有人龍又坐得舒服。店員態度有禮。會再試其招牌湯底。
Other Info. :
老闆應該是J-League Fans。店內有很多足球隊的照片及小型足球招募海報。天花板有大型投射機。應該是睇Ball用!?
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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