Food, food, food...

So, the other great thing about having friends in town is that I get to go to all these restaurants/food places around Tokyo.

Yeah, it's true Tokyo has a lot of fantab food but I rarely eat at these fantab places. First of all, I'm worried about putting on weight. My work usually has me tied to a desk for hours. Sooo, I don't think it's healthy to be eating ramen and tonkatsu and onigiri all the time. Haha! Second, I'm trying to do this intermittent fasting thing that my Richie has been doing. I fail most of the time but still, I try. Haha!

Anyway, so thanks to visiting friends, I was able to enjoy loads of Japanese food including okonomiyaki, seafood at Tsukiji Market, ramen (of course!), Japanese curry, Dominique Ansel's cookie shot and cronut, omurice, and so on and so forth.

I've yet to try Barbacoa. Hopefully, the next time my best friend is in town, we will get a chance to eat at Barbacoa. Haha!

Keisuke Tonkotsu King and Group Therapy...

A stone's throw away from the Tanjong Pagar MRT is a ramen shop that always has a long queue.

The ramen place, Keisuke Tonkotsu King, located at Orchid Hotel is one of the places I've always wanted to try. There was never a time I passed by the shop and not see a queue outside the small shop. The fact that the queue is always quite long made me really curious to find out just how good the ramen at this place is.

Last Friday, PG Boy and I finally got to experience the ramen. The shop can only sit about twenty people. This is not the place to go to if you want to hang out and chitchat with friends over dinner. This is a place where you just eat your ramen and go.

Before you are given a table, there is a piece of paper where you can already indicate the ramen that you want. You have the following choices - Tonkotsu Ramen ($10.80), Black Spicy ($11.80) or Red Spicy ($11.80). You can also select your choice of toppings (seaweed, egg, char siew), how you want your soup (light, strong normal), the amount of chicken oil to be used (less oil, etc.) and the type of noodles (soft, hard, etc.)

I went for Tonkotsu Ramen Special All Toppings ($14.80) just so I can try everything. Hehe!

The ramen was quite delicious. Some may say that the soup may be too salty. Coming from a country that has dishes that are rich in flavour all the time, I found the soup to be quite good.

Overall, I would say that the ramen is oishii and enjoyable. However, I don't think I'd be queueing for thirty minutes just to satisfy my ramen craving. I could go to the other ramen shop just around the corner - Menya Sanji - and still enjoy my bowl of ramen.

After the very quick dinner, PG Boy and I headed to Duxton for dessert. I felt like dinner was too rushed. Hehe! It was a nice Friday night and it would be such a waste if we just headed back immediately after dinner.

So we decided to head Group Therapy - the cafe just above Etna Italian Restau along Duxton for some coffee and dessert.

I enjoyed it more because it wasn't that crowded, and we were able to take our time in having dessert and drinking coffee while talking. Hehe!

Good Friday night.

Keisuke Tonkotsu King
1 Tras Link, #01-19 Orchid Hotel, Singapore
Tel: 6636 0855

Group Therapy Coffee
9 Duxton Rd 089513
6222 2554

Ramen place at Tanjong Pagar...

Had dinner last night with MkSurf8 at a fairly new ramen shop at Tanjong Pagar area.

To be specific, it's at the Orchid Hotel. There are two Japanese places just outside the hotel. First is Keisuke Tonkotsu King, which has a very loooong queue. The other one is Menya Sanji.

I was intrigued by the food at Keisuke because of the queue. It's definitely a good sign. However, I think I will try it on another day and I will definitely be there vearly. Hehe!

Anyway, a few steps away from Keisuke is Menya Sanji. It's a very tiny shop. There was also a queue but it was definitely shorter than the one at Keisuke. I've never been to Japan. However, Menya Sanji looks like the shop of the guy in the documentary Jiro dreams of Sushi. The place can seat less than 20 people I think.

From what I read, the ramen served by the shop is called Kagoshima ramen aka tonkotsu style ramen. I tried the original Sanji Ramen with roasted pork topping and I liked it. The pork was a bit dry, but it was still okay. I'm glad that it didn't have any fat at all. Hehe.

The service is also good and fast. For a small shop, they have about 5 or 6 people behind the counter. One guy who knows how to smile (!!!) checks the queue and takes people's orders. Another person takes care of clearing tables. The rest are behind the counter preparing your happy bowl of ramen.

Itadakimasu.

Menya Sanji
Orchid Hotel #01-14 1 Tras Link
11:30pm – 3:00pm, 5:30pm – 11:00pm Daily