PUBLISHED December 20th, 2012 03:47 am | UPDATED April 1st, 2016 02:47 pm
If there’s anyone who knows how to make a good bowl of ramen, it’s Chef Keisuke Takeda. Crowned the Tokyo Ramen King of 2011, he has recently opened his third restaurant in Singapore following the immensely successful Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo and Keisuke Tonkotsu King. For his latest creation, Chef Keisuke has made use of chicken as the main ingredient to create the Tori King Ramen.
Located at the brand new Amara Hotel Shopping Mall, business has been so good for Ramen Keisuke Tori King that queues form even at 9pm on a weekday evening! Queues are made more bearable with free flow cold matcha tea for customers waiting outside. In fact, thankfully it did not take very long for us to get a table.
For starters, every table gets a jar of bean sprouts. It’s quite an ideal cold dish being clean tasting with just a hint of spiciness – a great combination to prepare the palette for the savoury ramen broth to come.
If you like food served fast, like really fast, you will definitely be impressed with the staff’s efficiency here, as meals are served almost within five minutes after getting a table, so it was not long before we were tucking into a bowl of deliciousness.
I have to say, I was really blown away by the Tori King Ramen (original flavour, $15.90 for all toppings). The serving portion was just massive! The entire bowl was generously filled with toppings such as Japanese seaweed, flavoured egg, black fungus, spring onions and a huge slab of pork loin. The broth that was boiled for eight hours using chicken bones, chicken feet, Japanese seaweed and an assortment of vegetables was almost perfect.
I would, however, strongly recommend diners to go easy on the chicken oil suggesting no oil or with less. You can actually customise your bowl of ramen – from the toppings you prefer, to taste of the soup and even the texture of the noodles!
The chicken thigh was really tender and grilled to perfection. It was pretty easy to manage the whole chicken thigh elegantly with a pair of chopsticks and spoon. A special chili sauce was also prepared to go with the chicken though I was not a big fan of the salty/mildly spicy sauce but others might disagree.
If you are adventurous, you could try the Black Spicy Tori King Ramen ($16.90 for all toppings) or the Green Spicy Tori King Ramen ($16.90 for all toppings). The Green Spicy Tori King Ramen is probably the first of its kind in Singapore. The wasabi complements the taste of the chicken broth very well without overpowering it.
Tori King definitely tops my list of favourite ramen restaurants in Singapore. So if you’re craving for a good bowl of ramen, do head down! I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Written over two visits – one compliments of Ramen Keisuke and the other paid for by this City Nomad.