Hiyashi Chuka Cold Ramen $14
I finally come to the end of my Ramen Rampage! These ten Ramen posts represent what I think are the top ten Ramen places to eat in Singapore based on our ieat community recommendations. Of course, there will be new Ramen-yas opening up in the future and I will certainly keep an eye out for them after a brief respite. We will run a poll next to find out which of them is the favourite amongst our readers.
For the final Ramen-ya to be featured in this series, I have selected Noodle House Ken. I think Noodle House Ken deserves the final spot because it is one of the very few places that you can eat Ramen past midnight! That and also because the Hiyashi Chuka (Cold Noodles) is rather shiok!
Ken Noodle House has some of the best noodles in my opinion and you can really appreciate it when you eat the Hiyashi Chuka. The texture of the noodles are sublime and beyond my ability to describe it in words. All I know is that when I first put it into my mouth and chewed on it, I knew immediately that they stood out from all the rest of the Ramen places I have eaten at. They are resilient, smooth and wonderfully chewy. I was told that the noodles are imported from Tokyo but unlike the other Ramen-yas who order their Ramen from major suppliers, Ken sources his Ramen from a cottage industry supplier. So his ramen is a little different from the other Ramen-yas. His ramen appear is a little more glassy and the surface is smooth. The bite is rather like the translucent mee pok which you can find at some places, but it is much more refined.
The Hiyashi Chuka is Ken-san's own invention. This is another thing I like about Noodle House Ken. In Japan, different Ramen-yas try to outdo each other by coming up with new flavours. This gives different Ramen-yas some personality. Noodle House Ken serves Ramen that Ken-san enjoys and it is his personal style of Ramen, he doesn't try to copy others. According to him, the Hiyashi Chuka can't be found in Japan since it is something that he thought up himself.
Shoyu Ramen $14
Of the "normal" soup Ramen, the one which I would recommend is the Shoyu Ramen. You are not going to Noodle House Ken specially for the Shoyu Ramen. However, if it is past 10pm and you have a Ramen craving, then it is a much better alternative to opening up a packet and boiling some water. The Shoyu Ramen is competent but it is the Hiyashi Chuka which I would order at Noodle House Ken.
Hiyashi Ramen: Noodles 4.75/5, Sauce 4.25/5, Charshu 3.5/5
Shoyu Ramen: Noodles 4.5/5, Soup 4/5, Charshu 4/5
Of the "normal" soup Ramen, the one which I would recommend is the Shoyu Ramen. You are not going to Noodle House Ken specially for the Shoyu Ramen. However, if it is past 10pm and you have a Ramen craving, then it is a much better alternative to opening up a packet and boiling some water. The Shoyu Ramen is competent but it is the Hiyashi Chuka which I would order at Noodle House Ken.
Hiyashi Ramen: Noodles 4.75/5, Sauce 4.25/5, Charshu 3.5/5
Shoyu Ramen: Noodles 4.5/5, Soup 4/5, Charshu 4/5
Conclusion
After trying the Hiyashi Chuka, the noodles at Noodle House Ken has become my gold standard to measure all other noodles. Noodle House Ken is not your usually polished Ramen joint. It is dank and dinghy and reminds me of some of the stalls in the back alleys of Shimabashi in Tokyo. Ken owns and operates the place and it exudes his personality which is what makes the place special.
Noodle House Ken
150 Orchard Road
#01-17/18 Orchard Plaza
Singapore 238841
62355540
Opens 5pm till 2am
Closed on Sundays
Posts
18 comments:
Don't like both the Hiyashi Chuka and Shoyu at all. I find this my worst ramen experience ever, more than Tampopo.
The awesome hiyashi chuka made it to top 10! This certainly is the best cold noodles.
hiyashi chuka cant be found in japan? u mean HIS version of hiyashi chuka? i have tried hiyashi chuka elsewhere...
We were there two weeks ago and we had the Shio Butter Ramen and the Hiyashi Chuka with Sasami Sauce. The Shio Butter Ramen soup was made more flavorful with the butter while the Hiyashi Chika sauce was rich and blended well with the ramen and the rest of the ingredients. Each mouthful was a delight because of the richness of the sauce blending well with the cold noodles. The ramen was smooth and more chewy compared to other ramen-yas, top grade.
Ooo awesome! Haha another of Orchard road's gem unveiled =)
Ken is one of the best ramen I had in singapore as I will say..menya shinchan is great too but I will say they both have different style..there have been so much write up bout ramen recently and Nobody have been featuring ken. Finally ken have been introduced! Great work.
Thanks for your comment! I try my best to recommend the best places rather than the most famous ones. But those recommendations come from foodies like yourself, so do write in to recommend other gems like Noodle House Ken.
Hey..
Great to see that u replied to my comments I also find the ken ramen noodle also tastier than other ramen shop... There is a slight hint of saltiness sweetness taste in his noodle. YoU can taste it if ur tounge is sharp enough.a lot of ramne shop in sgp nowdays only concentrate more in their soup and char shiu and tend to forget about concentrating about the noodle its self. Etc . Miharu got fantastic pork broth that is so flavousome but their stardard of char siew drop.. The last time I visited the char siew is bad as in not as oily as other places charsiew and it look like it have left in e fridge for a day or two.. Their ramen was cooked aldent but I don't find anything special.. So to make a good ramen, the cook cannot afford to neglact anyof this main ingrediant. GOOD SOUP BASE+GOOD RAMEN+GOOD KILLER CHARSIEW+EGG ==CHAMPION RAMEN!!.. Anyway eat more drink more!! Ole!!
Glad you agree with me that the noodles at Ken are special!
I love their Hiyashi Chuka.
I went there for their Hiyashi Chuka too. Glad to see it being featured!
I find Ken's Ramen quite inconsistent lately. Sometimes the soup is too bland without taste, sometimes it is up to standard. I do frequently the place often, but the inconsistency do turn me off sometimes. I think their gyoza is worth mentioning too.
Went there tonight and they were closed! Have updated the blog post!
Been going to Ken's for years (and I mean YEARS) now.. absolutely lurrrve their Ramen to bits.
A sign of how good they are? The Jap Chefs from the nearby restaurants have their dinners etc there. Woot!
We came by Ken's slightly after 10pm last Friday. The last time I ate there was almost a decade ago. I may be wrong, but I think the place seemed somewhat smaller, and lost another entrance (it used to have 2, I think). Thus, I think ventilation has gotten worse.
Anyway, we shared a miso charsiew ramen, and a standard sized hiyashi. The miso charsiew was passable but not remarkable, except that my partner liked the charsiew for being tasty while not fatty. I have high expectations of its hiyashi, as the wonderful taste from many years ago still lingerd on.
I was not disappointed. Memories rushed flooding back with the first bite. Another slurp, I was cursing myself for not coming back soon enough. Finishing off a hearty bowl of tonkotsu is undoubtedly always satisfying, but savouring mouthful after mouthful of the hiyashi is both refreshing and satisfying. I found myself carefully picking bits and of each ingredients (including lots of wasabi), packing them in my spoon that was already ladled with some of the sasami, before eagerly putting them in my mouth. Cold and refreshing, savory but sweet, piercingly tasteful (must have something to do with the wasabi, ha!)
Why, or why, have I forgotten this place for almost a decade!
Why no mention of Shin-saporo ramen@ suntec?
I think they are quite new, no?
Indeed they are one of the standout Ramen places in Singapore, in terms of attempting to keep it authentic at least.
Currently one of the most overrated ramen places would be Ippudo at Mandarin Gallery, as the taste and even dishes have been catered and tuned towards local tastes.
That is a problem that many ramen places have in Singapore.
Probably the ones in Japan were found to be too salty for many Singaporeans?
But I believe real foodies need to taste food at its most authentic before trying newer "adaptations".
In any case, I have realized that the particular missing element between ramen in Japan and Singapore is that many of the sauces and especially the meat used in brewing the stock cannot be found in Singapore, or being too costly to import them over (since most of our pork is imported from our SEA region)
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