When I told the husband that there is this ramen shop at 100AM that serves free-flow hard-boiled eggs, I could immediately see a twinkle in his eyes. I’m sure he loves eggs more than his wife, lol. And I often feel bad for restricting his egg yolk intake because it is so not good for health especially when he consumes at least 4 eggs every morning before gym. Anyway, this time round, I didn’t nag or stop him from indulging in eggs. A treat once in a while, it’s allowed :p
Ramen Keisuke Tori King looks exactly like an authentic Japanese ramen shop. It was hard to believe we were actually out of Japan when we were here because the moment we stepped into the restaurant, the atmosphere kind of blew us away.
From the entrance area, furniture, restaurant layout, open kitchen, counter seats to the cutleries and condiments on the tables, everything spelt Japanese. The dining area wasn’t huge and all the tables were rather crammed against one another so it was quite impossible to hold a conversation without people around hearing you. We didn’t mind. In fact, we liked such concept. Anyway, I was keeping myself busy with the stuffs on our table that I was oblivious to what the neighbours were talking about.
We were given this order chit (which was their entire menu anyway) to tick off whatever we wanted. This sheet of paper was double-sided; one side was in English and the other side, Japanese. When we were ready with our orders, we just passed it to one of the service staff.
On every table, there was this mini mortar & pestle set (I bought a similar set from Daiso!) with toasted white and black sesame seeds and of course a bowl of hard-boiled brown and white eggs too (oooohh exciting!). I liked grinding the sesame seeds myself to release the nutty flavour. It just gave us something to do like some sort of entertainment while waiting for our order. The brown eggs supposedly had lower cholesterol (hence a healthier option) than the white ones. I tried both eggs. In terms of taste, I couldn’t tell any difference. As for cholesterol, I didn’t really care because I only ate one yolk. By the end of the meal, the bowl was empty and the eggs were all gone which wasn’t surprising. Ah-hem.
There was also this little pot of marinated bean sprouts on the table. While the husband was feasting on eggs, I took countless refills of these sprouts that were so crunchy, light and refreshing. It was like eating kimchi in a Korean meal. Such humble-looking sprouts but tasted so flavoursome and yummy.
I ordered the Tori King Ramen with light saltiness, no oil, hard noodle texture and no additional toppings. Normally I’d only go for ramen in pork bone broth with chashu and I just don’t remember having Japanese style chicken ramen before so I expected the broth to be sweeter. Turned out to be otherwise. I sprinkled in all the sesame seeds that I was grinding earlier which imparted a nice aroma to the dish. The broth was actually quite light in taste, in fact, I couldn’t really taste the natural sweetness of ingredients that went into it. It was really starchy as though a lot of noodles were cooked in it. In fact, my first mouthful of noodles with soup reminded me of a mee rebus. An under-seasoned mee rebus. I didn’t mind less salty broths but the fact that this didn’t have much sweetness in it and was just excessively starchy, it was really cloying for me. The noodles, on the other hand, were really firm and springy. Exactly how I liked my noodles to be.
What I truly enjoyed in this ramen was the generously sized chicken leg that was nicely grilled to perfection. The skin had a lovely golden brown hue with no burnt parts. Even though the skin wasn’t crispy or anything like that, the chicken meat was so tender, moist and succulent that I could just tear the meat apart with my chopsticks. It was like one of the best executed grilled chicken legs I’d ever eaten. Finger licking good. Two thumbs up, definitely!
I’d never seen black fungus in ramen before but there were a few ears of them in this ramen. Normally, I don’t really fancy fungus that much but somehow they worked in this ramen. Crunchy texture that just added dimension.
The husband ordered the Green Spicy Tori King Ramen with normal saltiness, no oil and hard noodle texture. I thought his broth would probably taste better because ‘normal’ level is the authentic Japanese flavour but his broth tasted the same as mine. Absolutely light in flavour. The only difference between his ramen and mine was the additional wasabi sauce on top of the chicken. I’m not a fan of wasabi so I couldn’t comment whether the sauce was considered good or not but it sure did overwhelm the chicken that already had so much flavour on its own.
Though I wasn’t wowed by such starchy ramen broth, the husband totally enjoyed it. I still prefer the hearty Sanpou Ramen from RamenPlay. I thought the chicken leg was top-notch though. And I loved the extra condiments of bean sprouts and eggs which we wouldn’t find elsewhere. Nice touch indeed.
Ramen Keisuke Tori King
#03-15, 100AM
100 Tras Street
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Opening hours: 11.30am to 10.00pm daily