博多系拉麵湯底質素穩定。性價比似乎是眾拉麵之冠!赤丸新味= 豚骨+醬油+鰹魚+辣味噌。Good quality Hakata ramen;Authentic;.Consistent; Very good service;Possibly the best value for money.>>>>>>OT on Sunday. Luckily, Ippudo has opened. That's a significant motivation to go to work!Booking machine: This time I've finally figure out how to operate the machine1) Press the number of guests (2) Choose whether you need telephone notification (v. good by the way) (3) Collect the ticket!(4) Wait.Got in after 5 minutes wai
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博多系拉麵 湯底質素穩定。 性價比似乎是眾拉麵之冠! 赤丸新味= 豚骨+醬油+鰹魚+辣味噌。
Good quality Hakata ramen; Authentic;. Consistent; Very good service; Possibly the best value for money.
OT on Sunday. Luckily, Ippudo has opened. That's a significant motivation to go to work!
Booking machine:
This time I've finally figure out how to operate the machine:
(1) Press the number of guests (2) Choose whether you need telephone notification (v. good by the way) (3) Collect the ticket! (4) Wait.
Got in after 5 minutes wait.To be honest with you, I didn't expect there to be so many customers on a Sunday at Admiralty!
Decor:
Nice & clean. Similar style with other Ippudo branches but much smaller than the CWB & TST branch. Just about 1/3 the size of the CWB branch. Anyway, the seats were placed relatively apart.
Great service:
Even if I was allocated a seat on the large wooden table, the sensitive waiter gave me a corner seat of the table, instead of just lumping me next to another customer. I could see they try to make a effort in making customers as comfortable as space allows.
I also noticed the waiters/waitress pouring water, taking orders when kneeling down (which I find odd in a Hong Kong setting but it's a Japanese thing) and also willingly offer to help customers fetch chopsticks and napkins if it's a bit further away from them.
Orders:
I had a look at the menu, which consisted of a number of relatively new additions (since the last time I went, which was about 1 year ago): Normal White Maru, Red Maru, New Red Maru, Wasabi Tonkotsu, Spicy Tonkotsu, Tsukemen and Hiyashi Chuka (only available during summer).
This time I thought for a while. I was in two minds (three) on whether to choose Wasabi Tonkotsu, New Akamaru or Spicy Tonkotsu. Eventually, I figure I'll revisit the New Akamaru to refresh my impressions of Ippudo. Also, since I just had a Karamiso ramen at "Nagahama No.1" I would like to compare the two.
I ordered a glass of Calpis $18 (a yogurt drink very popular in Japan) to cool down just in case my spicy ramen becomes too hot.
Very good first taste, strong pork bone broth with a lot of collagen. One of the thicker tonkotsu broth in town - it seemed to be a bit thicker than ButaO but ButaO has a more pronounced pork taste.
Ippudo's is still strong, just like what a bowl of authentic Hakata ramen should be. Here, it's a bit more complex and deep. I believe the shoyu used here is a bit darker than those used at ButaO. The shoyu aftertaste was quite strong.
Furthermore, there is also a slight hint of bonito! Not as strong as menya Musashi but significant enough for me to detect it.
(I've confirmed that after I purchased Instant Ippudo Shiro Maru and Aka Maru from Narita Airport after our visit to Japan amidst the anti-Japanese/Chinese demonstration weeks ago. There is no bonito in the Aka Maru (Original taste) but there is bonito in the Aka Maru. The New Aka Maru has a lot more bonito than Aka Maru.)
My New Aka Maru had just half a teaspoon of Kara miso (more like tou ban chan). It's not spicy for me at all. I think the karamiso at Nagahama is much better.
Again, I had to put chili oil. The chili oil provided tasted a bit sharper than the normal S&B version. It's had a slight similarity with the kara miso which they used. I believe their kara miso was made of tobanchang, tonkarashi powder and this spicy oil.
Noodles:
I ordered extra hard still it wasn't hard enough. (Just harder than David Ramen and similar to the "medium" noodle at Nagahama.) I think Tatsuya is a lot better. Even the medium version was harder than the hard version here. Nagahama's noodle was also a little bit better than Ippudo. However, it's still better than David ramen.
Kuraage: Very good crunchy had taste. Very good . Better than ButaO and Nagahama.
Spring onions: pretty fresh. But not too strong. Marutama is better. It's more sharp there.
Egg: A slight disappointment. Not fluid. Just a bit of egg taste. They had another option available - onsen tamago. I initially thought that onsen tamago would be too messy for ramen but on hindsight, this might be better.
Char Siu: They seemed to have changed their char siu slightly (using a different part of the pig perhaps? Nearer to the belly) instead of the thinner version I tried at CWB, it's slightly thick cut here. It had a nice aromatic meat taste. Not super tender but I'm stil happy with it. Some may find it fat though. It's better than Nagahama No.1 and Tatsuya. It's a different style from Buta O.
As far is char siu is concerned, ButaO's seems better. Hin Shou at Jordan also serves very good char siu.
Price:
Basic noodle at about $56. Mine was $6X. Very reasonable for the quality . Possibly the best value for money amongst ramen shops!
Conclusion:
- Decent environment; - Very professional and polite service; - Reasonable price; - Consistent Hakata broth and noodles.
With quality restaurants at reasonable price swooping into Admiralty, alarm bells, in fact, cathedral bells, should start ringing for other restaurants in the area!
Time to provided better food at better price!
P.S.: Finally had a proper look at Hakata Ippudo's logo. Actually it is a Raijin (God of Thunder) and a Fujin (God of Wind) sending ramen to earthly subjects!
题外话/补充资料：
According to wiki, Admiralty used to be the location of British Military Docks. The Chinese name, "Golden Bell", refers to the bell at the docks.
The link below is to a very powerful song. The melody is from a Korean folk song about fishermen celebrating their good catch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTROVyd-wUE&feature=related
This is a great new choice for lunch in Admiralty. The only drawback is the crowds - waiting time can be up to 45 minutes even if you arrive early (e.g. on the dot at noon, which substantially decreases the waiting time at most other places). However, food is served super fast so you can finish your meal in less than 20-30 minutes.* Akamaru (赤丸) Ramen $78 - The noodles here are perfectly cooked, even more so than I may say the TST branch where I am a regular. The soup is hearty without not being
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This is a great new choice for lunch in Admiralty. The only drawback is the crowds - waiting time can be up to 45 minutes even if you arrive early (e.g. on the dot at noon, which substantially decreases the waiting time at most other places). However, food is served super fast so you can finish your meal in less than 20-30 minutes.
* Akamaru (赤丸) Ramen $78 - The noodles here are perfectly cooked, even more so than I may say the TST branch where I am a regular. The soup is hearty without not being too oily or salty - extremely drinkable! It's extremely flavourful and well complemented by the condiments available including pickled ginger, grated roasted sesame seeds. The noodles also comes with two slices of rather fatty and tender pork which are also well seasoned. The portion of the pork I think is just right - more would be heart stopping
* Soft-cooked egg (半数蛋) $10 - This is very well seasoned - my yolk was very slightly overcooked. The egg comes warm which is great. The one in TST comes cold so I have to leave it in the hot soup until pretty much I have nearly finished the noodles to warm it up.
There are a number of other condiments you can add at additional cost, including Onsen Tamago ($10), pork neck, pork loin, roasted seaweed, etc. etc.
Ambience is nice - not too noisy despite the crowds - and service is prompt and efficient, cheerful without being intrusive.
Found out about this new branch of Ippudo while going to Arome Bakery Room.Previously just tried the noodles at Ippudo in TST. The items offered at different branches seem to be slightly different.At this branch they had the Wasabi broth noodles which was not available at the TST branch so I tried that and I also tried the grilled gyozas and grilled tofu.The music and air conditioning at this branch was of slight nuisance.★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★Wasabi tonkatsuThey did not have this at the TST br
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Found out about this new branch of Ippudo while going to Arome Bakery Room.
Previously just tried the noodles at Ippudo in TST. The items offered at different branches seem to be slightly different.
At this branch they had the Wasabi broth noodles which was not available at the TST branch so I tried that and I also tried the grilled gyozas and grilled tofu.
They did not have this at the TST branch so tried it here, the wasabi in the soup was really strong and surprisingly it tasted really nice and the broth was quite thick as well. Compared to the product pictures, they could have been more generous with the wasabi leaves and spring onions. ★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★ Grilled gyozas
The gyozas were grilled just right and the skin was slighty crispy with juicy grounded meat inside. Although they were nice, I felt that the gyozas at Hide Chan are better and the sauce that came with it was nicer too. ★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★ Grilled tofu with yam and cheese
Initially the dish looked really heavy but it tasted quite nice, the yam was very viscous and slimy and went well with the tofu, however the cheese was slightly over grilled. ★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★ Picked ginger - condiments
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雖然今次開幕並沒有新拉麵款式加入，但拉麵與小食水準仍然有水準。先來一點小吃，今次的日式叉燒豆芽辣味沙律有丁點不同，辣度減少了，而麻油味則顯得過於強烈，如果可以加辣少少而將麻油味減一減，相信味道會更好。
牛油果熟蝦伴山葵醬普普通通，卻沒有什麼特別之處。雖然芥末味是比較突出，但一點也不搶鼻，可能是加入牛油果後，中和了芥末的搶鼻感覺。
元祖一風堂叉燒角包當然是要推介，來了這麼多次也是必點的。材料看似簡單，但總是有股魔力般，一次又一次地吃，如饅頭般的角包，鬆鬆軟軟又帶少許甜味，加入帶點肥，入口鬆化，加點醬汁已很美味。
煎餃子賣相不錯，皮雖薄但餡料較少，使口感不足，而且餃子上放了大量薑蓉，完全蓋過了餃子的味道，撇去後吃，倒也不錯，如可以再煎燶一點，可會更加香脆可口。
天氣炎熱，我是不會挑選熱辣辣的拉麵，所以便向那碗博多沾麵及博多冷麵埋手。早在前陣子，為了一嚐這裡的冷麵便到過其他分店享用，而博多沾麵自推出以後，不時有吃，就是喜歡那個濃郁而帶鮮味的沾麵湯底。先是沾麵，今次的麵條較為煙靱，可說成較硬身，如煮軟身一點會更佳。湯底仍然很鮮味，比較之下，覺得今敞的味道雖濃郁，但不會過咸，更勝從前。
博多冷麵擺放得非常整齊，而且顏色對比突出，未吃已被外表吸引。在切得幼細的蛋絲下，混有蕃茄件、叉燒絲、青瓜絲及紫蘇等，上面更放點點點辣的明太子，所有材料與特製的芝麻冷麵汁拌勻，清新帶點酸味的冷麵實在適合現時的天氣，更加適合我的口味，而且除了冷麵夠冰凍外，甚至盛器也是冰過的，十分細心。
最後的甜品是士多啤梨雪糕伴蛋卷，為一頓美味的晚餐劃上句號。
市場上那麼多拉麵連鎖店，一風堂是我較喜歡的一間，吃過的幾間分店，水準也不俗。
