after that little trip to menya shinchan, i decided that i needed to find more good ramen. i did more online research and found this place that i thought i should try. it's called men tai ramen, and it's located on robinson road in the middle of the business district. it's only opened mon-fri, so i went down one weekday afternoon to try it out.i reached the place at about 12, then as i was walking towards the shop, i saw this huge queue that already formed up. and it only got longer after i came. the lunch crowd here is insane. all the office workers dropping by for a nice bowl of ramen. make sure that you come at 1130 or before if you intend to try it out. otherwise, you can come at night for dinner. they open till 10pm mon to fri. but i heard the air conditioning in the building is turned off after 7, so you'll have to eat without it.
this place is really efficient. if the queue gets long, a guy comes to take your order while you're still queueing up outside and then hands you the piece of paper he wrote on so you can give it to the waitstaff the moment you enter the place. then you pay on the spot and get your food. its hyper efficient, reminds me of those little curry shops in japan where you buy a little coupon from the vending machine and give your coupon to the cook.
the menu here is really simple. all they have is tonkotsu ramen (white pork bone soup), miso ramen and shoyu ramen, all spicy or non-spicy. all the noodles come with the usual charsiew, bamboo shoots and half a boiled egg. the boiled egg (tamago) is done semi hard boiled, where the white is firm but the yolk is still soft inside. i really liked it this way. their ramen is supposedly made fresh daily too and it's really firm and dense (like menya shinchan).
they took our order while we were still outside in line. we had two tonkotsu ramen, one of them spicy, and extra bamboo shoots and charsiew. i asked them if they had a large size for me, and they said they didn't, but he could give me more noodles free of charge! no kidding. i was really surprised. for once retail wasn't as profit laundering as it usually is. impressive i say.
out food came less than 5 min after we were seated. by that time i was famished. i tried some of d's original non-spicy pork bone version. mmm.. good. then i took a little more to analyze the taste. its good. you can taste the richness of the broth, but its not as good as menya shinchan. the soup isn't as thick and they just lack that little oomph that menya provides. maybe its the jap cooks at menya or maybe its just all those japanese people at the place that makes it seem better. but i doubt it.
next, on to the spicy tonkotsu version. the spicy chilli paste is supposedly made specially for this ramen dish, so it's supposed to complement it very well. i tasted mine and honestly thought that it was kinda unusual. its not spicy at all, more of a pungent type of chilli paste. additionally, it has quite an usual aroma to it which is hard for me to describe. i personally didn't like it too much.
the tamago was really nice though. but only if you like your yolk soft and mildly runny. it was timed perfectly to create that effect. the charsiew, on the other hand, isn't as good as it should be. it was a little tough to chew on, and not very flavorful. it definitely didn't taste like something hand cut and freshly made.
overall, i think this ramen place is a pretty ok place to go too if you like to eat ramen. but amongst the two, i would say that menya shinchan is definitely a better eat. men tai gives me a kind of mcdonald's type of ramen feel. very efficient, quick, good tasting, but not authentic enough. it's more mechanical and mass produced. on the other hand, menya shinchan is more authentic, and tastier too. but i guess if you're working around the area, this is a really nice place to drop by for lunch. but don't forget to reach there early.
61 Robinson Road
#01-01 Robinson Centre
Tel: 6438 4140
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