Santouka - Ramen @ Central Mall

santouka charsiew ramen - 8.5/10

honestly it has been awhile since did any food posts, and i must admit i have no reason for doing so. but thinking about it, i haven't really had much new good food recently. it's been awhile since the adventurous (and tasting food is as wild as i get) foodie in me found some place nice.

one thing i've been eating alot recently is santaoka ramen. In my continual never ending quest for singapore’s best ramen, I just had to try this place. For one, it’s rated 6 chopstix by makansutra. Now for those of you who are familiar with the bible of street food, 6 chopstix is one mean feat. It apparently signifies culinary excellence. I’ve had stuff with 4 chopstix and even 5 which I didn’t really like, but I don’t recall having ever tasted anything with 6 chopstix that I didn’t at least enjoy significantly. So that being said, I needed to try this place. Plus some of my blog readers (who I hope still read considering I’ve been MIA) have pointed out that I wasn’t being a fair ramen judge if I didn’t go try santouka. So, for the sake of impartial judgement (at least that's what i tell d when i bring her for ramen the 100th time in a row), I had to try this place out.

So I called santouka just to check that they were open at about 2pm on a weekend afternoon. It’s always a good idea to call and check to see if any restaurant is still open. After all, you wouldn’t want to go somewhere, expecting some yumyum and then get totally disappointed due to an anticlimactic turn of events. And it’s happened to me more than once, so nowadays I usually call before I go. Plus I’m just plain kiasu. Must be benjamin graham. Damn that margin of safety.

So I hoped into the batmobile and zoomed down to central. For those of you who know central, they have an amazingly winding carpark which is about 6-7 storeys high. If you think taka was bad, wait till you try this. Plus they don’t have the “200m more to go" sign which they recently implemented in taka. For those of you who nauseate easily, you might wanna consider taking a break halfway in the middle. but don’t forget to pull your handbrake!

So anyway I’m at central and I climb down the escalator, briefly passing “marutama ramen” and scoffing at the same time. Hearing it’s name just makes me wanna hurl (insert gross vomitting noises here). For those of you who’ve read my previous posts, I absolutely abhor marutama. They simply bring a bad name to ramen. Ok, I know a lot of you like it. Blah blah blah. But you CANNOT use chicken soup for ramen! It’s just culinary blasphemy. it's the equivalent of saying kate beckinsale is just "ok pretty". or that hugh jackman is "pretty hunky". hugh jackman is NOT pretty hunky. hugh jackman is the freaking hunkiest thing to walk this earth. ok wait... i think that last sentence didn't reflect too well on me.

Anyway I go down to the 2^nd floor and try to look for it. being the klutz that i am, i must have gone around the mall a couple times before i found it. For those of you going, you have to walk pass GRAINS restaurant. It’s an empty, sad looking Chinese restaurant with waitresses standing around inviting you to eat there, like a cheap hooker on the streets, motioning for you to taste the forbidden fruit (or food in this case). So just ignore them and walk straight pass. you’ll see a tiny shop at the corner, a small little ramen shop.

The menu is made up mainly of ramen. You got the regular ramen, and you have the charsiew ramen (which is basically the regular ramen with extra charsiew). you can get it in shio (salt) or shoyu (soy sauce) flavor. just for the record, i always get shio. shio is the super popular original flavor or ramen. the natural salt allows you to truly taste the richness of the stock, instead of masking it with the flavor of soy sauce. the regular ramen is about 12 bucks I think and the charsiew ramen is about 18 bucks. They even have premium fatty charsiew ramen.

In addition, they sell this ikura (salmon roe) on rice thingy which d really likes. Talk about greedy, she eats both the ikura rice AND the ramen. Now that’s my kinda girl.

So the ramen comes out. It doesn’t come with the usual half egg so you’ll have to order it on the side. It comes with a slice of pink and white Japanese fishcake, bamboo shots and char siew. nothing fantastic, but as always, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

The soup is nice and salty. Slightly oily and very tasty. somehow though, it lacks a little bit of depth. I’m not saying it’s not flavorful, but it’s not the absolute best. Pretty good nonetheless though. you can tell the stock has been simmering for a long time. The regular charsiew is firm and lean to the taste. for those of you who don't like fatty meats, you will like this. i for one, personally don't like my pork fatty. oh there's nothing i love more than a fatty steak, but somehow fatty pork doesn't really spank my monkey.

The fatty charsiew, ordered separately, doesn’t look fatty at all but is very center with a lot of intramuscular fat. It melts in your mouth. kinda akin to wagyu or any other highly marbled beef, like rib eye.

The egg is cooked very soft. It’s hard boiled but even the white is tender to the touch. The yolk is semi-molten. The taste is great for those who like their eggs done this way. d never eats the soft eggs cause it makes her nauseaus. yay. more food for me. The bamboo shoots are more natural then the regular one’s you get and quite similar to that of menya shinchan. So it’s pretty good. The noodles are nice and pretty al dente. So this may be a good or bad, depending on your preference.

They have really good gyoza too for those who like it. Small and nicely pan fried with pork and chives inside. A must to go with your ramen. petite in size and wonderfully delicious.

Overall, I kinda like the ramen here. I’ve been back quite a few times and the food is very consistent. I would rate it a 2^nd as compared to menya shinchan, but it definitely is a nice change of pace. It’s very popular and I really can see why. The ambience is nice and clean, and the food is good. But somehow, it never gives me the “wow” that menya shinchan has. Interestingly enough, it’s rated higher than menya (menya has 5 chopstix) in makansutra. Maybe it’s a good thing. Less crowds over there for me.