I have long heard of Ippudo serving very ramen, but never had a chance to give it a try, until last Sunday. I arrived at their Westgate branch at 11am, when they just opened for the day. I was ushered in immediately and seated at a table.
The interior design is very much Japanese style. However, it is at least one class up compared to the usual ramen shops in Japan, where you find nothing more that a few seats at the counter, plus a couple of tables in a tiny shop. Ippudo at Westgate is spacious, and elegant.
While waiting for my food, I did a search of Ippudo's history. It is a shop first opened in 1985. It is very young by Japanese standard, where there are many centennial shops. They are famous for tonkutsu ramen. Tonkutsu is Japanese word for pork bone. Tonkutsu ramen means ramen served in pork bone soup which is usually boiled for hours. The original intended patrons were people who do a lot of hard labour work. Hence the tonkutsu soup tends to be heavy in salt.
I ordered the Bonito Tonkutsu, a special dish only available in Ippudo Singapore. The ramen used is not the normal Japanese ramen, rather it is a thin noodle, very much like the Chinese wanton noodle. You can choose how you like the noodle to be done, soft, medium, hard or very hard. I chose medium. It was just nice, not too hard, not too soft. Easy to chew and digest, while still retaining some toughness. Good!
The broth is made from both fish and pork bones. Comparing with broth made from pork bones alone, the soup is less thick. The fish brought out some refreshing freshness and sweetness, making it more appetizing. As a special Singapore dish, the broth is a lot less salty than the normal Japanese ramen soup. This adaptation is definitely good.
The ramen was served with one slice of pork belly, one slice of pork loin. If you top up another $4.00, you can get additional one slice of pork belly and one slice of pork loin. Other ingredients include bean sprouts, spring onion, bamboo shoot, and fried garlic.
I also ordered the matcha tiramisu as dessert. Instead of coco powder, matcha power is sprayed on top of the cake. I sometimes would choke on the coco powder, and that's reason why I don't like tiramisu so much, matcha doesn't have such a problem.
Matcha is bitter, the cake is sweet, so it is a bitter sweet experience. My Italian colleague told me that tiramisu in Italian basically means "pick me up". Whenever you are down, get a tiramisu, it will for sure life your spirit up!
At first, I thought the matcha powder is only on the top layer, but that's not the case. They actually layered it through out the cake. Thick layers of sweetness sandwiched between layers of bitterness. Hahah.... C'est la vie!
Service-wise, the staff there were generally friendly. However, the waiter who served me was a bit rough, a very serious face throughout, not even a tint of smile.
Overall, I found the experience enjoyable. The food was good, unauthentic but to my liking. You can enjoy the good taste of Japanese ramen while getting rid of some of the unpleasant part.
Ganbatte, Ippudo!
The interior design is very much Japanese style. However, it is at least one class up compared to the usual ramen shops in Japan, where you find nothing more that a few seats at the counter, plus a couple of tables in a tiny shop. Ippudo at Westgate is spacious, and elegant.
While waiting for my food, I did a search of Ippudo's history. It is a shop first opened in 1985. It is very young by Japanese standard, where there are many centennial shops. They are famous for tonkutsu ramen. Tonkutsu is Japanese word for pork bone. Tonkutsu ramen means ramen served in pork bone soup which is usually boiled for hours. The original intended patrons were people who do a lot of hard labour work. Hence the tonkutsu soup tends to be heavy in salt.
Bonito Tonkutsu, $17.00
I ordered the Bonito Tonkutsu, a special dish only available in Ippudo Singapore. The ramen used is not the normal Japanese ramen, rather it is a thin noodle, very much like the Chinese wanton noodle. You can choose how you like the noodle to be done, soft, medium, hard or very hard. I chose medium. It was just nice, not too hard, not too soft. Easy to chew and digest, while still retaining some toughness. Good!
The broth is made from both fish and pork bones. Comparing with broth made from pork bones alone, the soup is less thick. The fish brought out some refreshing freshness and sweetness, making it more appetizing. As a special Singapore dish, the broth is a lot less salty than the normal Japanese ramen soup. This adaptation is definitely good.
The ramen was served with one slice of pork belly, one slice of pork loin. If you top up another $4.00, you can get additional one slice of pork belly and one slice of pork loin. Other ingredients include bean sprouts, spring onion, bamboo shoot, and fried garlic.
Matcha Tiramisu, $7.00
I also ordered the matcha tiramisu as dessert. Instead of coco powder, matcha power is sprayed on top of the cake. I sometimes would choke on the coco powder, and that's reason why I don't like tiramisu so much, matcha doesn't have such a problem.
Matcha is bitter, the cake is sweet, so it is a bitter sweet experience. My Italian colleague told me that tiramisu in Italian basically means "pick me up". Whenever you are down, get a tiramisu, it will for sure life your spirit up!
At first, I thought the matcha powder is only on the top layer, but that's not the case. They actually layered it through out the cake. Thick layers of sweetness sandwiched between layers of bitterness. Hahah.... C'est la vie!
Service-wise, the staff there were generally friendly. However, the waiter who served me was a bit rough, a very serious face throughout, not even a tint of smile.
Overall, I found the experience enjoyable. The food was good, unauthentic but to my liking. You can enjoy the good taste of Japanese ramen while getting rid of some of the unpleasant part.
Ganbatte, Ippudo!
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