Japanese

Located alongside other Japanese eateries serving tendon, ramen and unagi dons in Suntec, Menya Kokoro was expectedly filled on a Friday night. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait very long to get our seats.

Despite being famed for their mazesoba, they offer way more than just their famous dry ramen, including soup based ramen, bento sets and katsu dons. It’s nice that they cater to smaller eaters who can request for less soba or rice, as well as big eater who can get large sized portions for the mains.

Their soft shell crab mazesoba is a summer special item, with a thick and spicy chili crab sauce coating their chewy thick noodles. Other than a nicely battered and fried soft shell crab on the side, one also gets an onsen egg (topped with fish roe), crab meat, seaweed and tempura bits to go with their noodles. Was attracted to this dish as one could top up a dollar for two pieces of deep-fried mantou that can be dipped with the rich chili crab sauce in this bowl.

If you’re famished, ordering the large portion for their mains will be sure to leave you satisfied (although food coma might hit you shortly after too). Their gyozas were nice as well. The partner ordered a karaage don, which was delicious too as the chicken pieces were fried really well.

Also as my mask snapped, one of the waitresses was really kind to offer me a new mask and service was great in general too. A highly recommended place if you’re in the Suntec area!

Located at B2 of Westgate, Suparakki Ramen is a popular spot for its more affordable than average ramen served in a casual environment. With a simple menu, diners can choose between soup-based ramen such as Tonkutsu or their only dry ramen - the truffle ramen.

The ramen came with black fungus, minced pork belly, seaweed, spring onions and also half of a ramen egg. The noodles were cooked to the perfect texture - chewy and al dente. While the meat was flavorful, I would have preferred less fatty cuts served but that is just a personal preference. The ramen egg was also rather well done. Although the yolk could have been more runny, the egg was thankfully not over cooked. As a contrasting texture, the crunchy black fungus mushrooms were a delightful addition to the dish but could be a bit bland if not mixed with the sauce.

We could smell the truffle oil from this dish when served but it wasn’t too strong after mixing the ingredients with the noodles. Not sure if it’s from the truffle oil or the sauce of the ramen but the taste of the noodles did remind me of Chinese-style braised mushrooms.

While it wasn’t extraordinary, this place is worth considering for its affordability and decent quality ramen. You can add on noodles and other sides too, especially if you’re hungry as the standard serving does run a bit small.

Note that you need to order your ramen before getting your seat and do look out for the number displayed near the kitchen as you do have to personally collect your ramen when it is ready. One can also take bottles of chili oil and chili powder available near the collection point to add some spice to the noodles. Food was also served really quickly as our order was prepared immediately after we ordered at the counter.

The Burpple set consists of 2 small-sized dons, 3 chicken skewers, 2 green tea, 2 miso soup and 2 salad. The chicken skewers were doused with sweet teriyaki sauce and were nothing to shout about. The salad, served with sweet sesame sauce (presumably from Kewpie), was nothing special too. The miso soup on the other hand had salmon pieces, kelp and tofu.

For the unagi don, the grilled eel was tender and the sauce offered a hint of sweetness that complimented the dish well. Would say that for the amount of unagi given, the price of the Burpple set was pretty worth! Apart from the fish, chewy wakame seaweed and pickled daikon pieces were also served on the side to cleanse your palette from the richness of the other ingredients. I also enjoyed breaking the onsen egg apart to have the egg yolk coat the rice grains, which offered a nice creaminess that went well with the chewy sushi rice. Apart from the onsen egg, the don also came with a small piece of tamagoyaki topped with a generous serving of mentaiko sauce. For lovers of mentaiko, consider getting the grilled salmon don in which the salmon slice would also be similarly topped with the mentaiko sauce. On the other hand, if you enjoy sashimi, the signature don is the one to go for, where a generous serving of salmon and tuna cubes, clams and fish roe would be sitting above the sushi rice served with a slice of seaweed that you can use to make a hand roll for yourself.

Have visited several Kei Kaisendon outlets lately and they did not disappoint! We also realize that they’re expanding rather quickly, with an outlet at Jewel too.

Located near Tanjong Pagar MRT, this ramen place is pretty popular and we were given a dining time limit when we visited on a Friday evening. The lobster dry ramen ($16++) features flat chewy noodles beneath spring onions, seaweed, minced lobster, an onsen egg and a claw croquette. The claw croquette was made with mashed sweet potato wrapped around a lobster claw and then breaded with Panko crumbs. The noodles were flavorful and mixing the onsen egg in gave it extra richness. However, I feel that the regular pork mazesoba may offer more satisfaction as the minced meat have more bite to it than the minced lobster given in this dish. This is nonetheless an interesting item you may want to try if you’re visiting. Water was complimentary at this establishment.

The dry Tantan Men was served with a generous serving of minced meat, a ramen egg, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts and some spinach. The chili sauce added gave the dish some kick but it wasn’t too spicy. The sauce also had a strong peanut taste to it and mixing everything together made the dish an umami bomb. The noodles were also really chewy. At $10.80++, which is inclusive of a complimentary bowl of white rice, this is pretty worth it! Water was also complimentary at this eatery.