Wednesday, January 05, 2011

[Singapore] Ramen Santouka

Ramen Santouka
Central
6 Eu Tong Sen St, SG 059817
6224 0668

Subway: Clarke Quay

Open Daily 11am-9:30pm

Ramen Santouka
Very busy at weekday lunch service. We waited for 20 minutes for a table. Some valuable time was lost looking for the restaurant which was tucked in an obscure corner of a side elevator. So we didn't manage to beat the lunch crowd :-(. It didn't help much the place is tiny, only about 20 plus seats.

View outside Santouka
The restaurant overlooked Singapore River. It will be a plus if you score the window seats.

Karaage chicken set with shio ramen
Fried chicken with shoyu (soy sauce) ramen S$23

I had the fried chicken ramen set with a regular sized ramen portion, original set is a small bowl. I was rather shocked when the fried chicken came out looking overdone and each piece the size of my palm!

I needn't have worried, the chicken pieces were well marinated and juicy. For an extra dollar, you get a komi tamago, braised egg. It's good but I wished the yolk was more runny.

Tonkotsu ramen with grilled pork neck
Tokusen Toroniku Ramen S$19.50

This was what drawn me to Santouka, grilled pork neck, limited to about 60 portions a day. I was curious about it being the restaurant's specialty and limited. Worthy of the price tag?

It didn't look much when arrived. I put a piece in my mouth (I know, extravagance much!), a wave of euphoria washed over me. Oh my gawd, the meat was soooo tender and melt in the mouth, it was so good, I wanted to swallow my tongue. I even ate the fat attached (I never ever eat fatty meat, I remove every bit of fat from meat before putting into my mouth), I don't like the taste and feel of fats in my mouth. But the fat on the grilled pork neck was so tasty, it didn't taste like fat at all. I can't believe I am talking about 'fats'.

Ooooh, I'll be back.

Mmm, on my next top ramen haunt list is Ippudo. I hope it lives up to its hype.

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