For a while now, Ramen shops have started to sprout up around Singapore, and it’s hard to determine which one is the best since it depends a lot on your taste buds. Earlier last week, we were invited to Shin Sapporo at Orchard Gateway to savour their newly launched menu.
Opened since 2010, home-grown Shin-Sapporo Ramen promises a little taste of Japanese culinary heritage with different soup bases and types of noodles.
New to the menu includes the Sake Ramen ($15.80++) and the Fire Ramen ($15.80++), which are the two dishes that we were particularly excited about.
The Tonkotsu Sake Ramen (original soup version) was served with grilled cha-shu, seaweed, enoki, bamboo shoots, green onions and half ajitama seasoned egg. The thick tonkotsu broth was flavorful and not too greasy, though we found the taste of sake to be too light and subtle. On a side note, you get free top up of noodles with every ramen dish and the starches will definitely fill the big eaters up.
Another thing which we want to highlight is that there’s also a ‘dry’ version Abura Sake Soba. Unlike your usual ramen, the interestingly sweet dish cooked with sake is recommended to those who are more adventurous with their palette. A variety of ingredients, such as grilled cha-shu, enoki, bamboo shoots, green onions and half ajitama seasoned egg are arranged neatly on top of the bed of thin ramen. For garlic lovers, there are fried garlic slices found at each table to give more flavor to the noodles.
Fire Ramen Set On Flames
Initially we thought the Fire Ramen will be spicy and heavily flavour-packed. It came as a surprise to us! Why? Once your order is ready, you have to sit at the counter and the friendly waiter/waitress will hand you an apron, hair-ties and a piece of paper with their very one Fire Ramen Challenge’ rules.
Following that, a senior chef literally set your ramen on fire. Overall, a satisfying bowl of Ramen – noodles were nicely cooked and the soup tasted richer than the previous bowl. However, it seems a bit pricier than other ramen choices available with just slices of cha-shu. The broth was saltier than I preferred and the cha-shu could have be fatter.
Of course, there are great side dishes for sharing:
Butter Hotate (S$ 8.80++)
A mix of scallops and enoki mushrooms cooked with butter on hotplate. The scallops are quite intense buttery, tender and juicy.
Shin-Sapporo Gyoza ($6.80++)
These little pan-fried dumpling with pork are juicy and skin is thin. The vinegar dipping sauce complements each bite really well.
Age Kinoko ($6.80++)
These are small and crunchy shiitake mushroom stuffed with minced crab and prawn and accompanied by a wasabi mayo dip.
We finished off our meal with desserts:
Chocolate Lava Cake ($8.80++)
A dessert for all chocolate lovers. Rich chocolate cake filled with a warm center of molten chocolate and topped with vanilla ice cream and strawberries. Take a bite into the moist cake and let the cold ice cream slowly melt in your mouth.
Match Cream Cake ($8.80++)
Matcha and azuki red beans are always the perfect match. The cake is light and not overly sweet – a perfect balance between the sweetness from the red bean paste and the bittersweet matcha.
Overall, we would give the new menu a high 7 out of 10, and would definitely recommend this place to all our friends.
Sake Ramen and Fire Ramen are available exclusively at Orchard Gateway and Century Square outlets. For more details, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/shinsappororamen
Outlets
Orchard Gateway
Address: 277 Orchard Road #B2-04A/05, Orchard Gateway, Singapore 238858
Contact: +65 6702 4906
Opening Hours: Daily 1100 – 2100
Century Square
Address: 2 Tampines Central 5 #B1-10/11, Century Square, Singapore 529509
Contact: +65 6783 6304
Opening Hours: Daily 1100 – 2200
Alexandra Retail Centre
Address: 460 Alexandra Road #02-23, Singapore 119963
Contact: +65 6276 5708
Opening Hours: Daily 1100 – 2100
Thanks to Shin-Sapporo, Doris and Frederick for hosting this tasting!
This post is written by Joanne Yap and Kaylene Tan (@kaylene.tan), whom are both Discover SG’s brand ambassadors. We are looking for more brand ambassadors to grow our brands with. Email us at [email protected] to be our pioneer batch of Discover SG Brand Ambassadors just like Joanne and Kaylene!
