Post I went back a second time to try another flavour of ramen, to eat the gyoza that was sold out on my first visit, to fan off opinions that my marking for Ippudo is strict and unfair, and to reaffirm myself that I had not made the wrong judgment on the first time.
My mission is to answer the burning question, as the queue gets longer and the hype gets larger by the day, does Ippudo deserves the snaking queue every night and every weekend?
The answer, as in title is simple, and really fair enough, the restaurant does, and the ramen does not. Here's why:
Ambience & Setting
The moment I step under the draping Japanese style "curtains" at the doorway, I felt quite overwhelmed, as the place is really dim, with a huge but definitely mesmerizing chandelier hanging down the middle of the ceiling to light up the entire area. Only a place as large as Ippudo can balance the mass of light so grand (in interior designing terms).
Only the word "chi-chi" (rich wife) is befitting of the atmosphere.
I decided to take a larger picture of this table, as I find it rather cute that so many strangers would be sharing a long table. haha. Not a bad idea. And really very good if you're organizing a gathering for lots of people.
Rating: 4.75/5
Bringing in my sense of hearing, the place was in reality rather noisy due to the full house on my first night. I did not quite enjoy it as I personally prefer a more peaceful dining setting. I do not think the noise level is suitable for first dates or romance, so this is not so the place for couples, anniversaries etc, unless two people just want to go for ramen testing, and have known each other for very long.
It is also not very kid-friendly because of the chi-chi-ness, as with feedback from a couple of forumers.
Full-house on Fri and weekend nights!
This would be the place for colleagues to gather after work and reward themselves as part of T.G.I.F though. A lot of freedom for loud voices and chit-chat, sharing grouses and happiness.
Hence my point deduction.
The kitchen, noodle-cooking portion where the main chefs probably are. This is right in front of the bar-counter seats.
Service
Service was pretty different on both times because of the crowd.
On the first time, when I started queuing at around 8.30pm, and left only when the shop close at past 10pm, service was not satisfactory, as they were a little short-staffed to take care of a full house. There were so many other customers blocking me that it was a challenge to signal a waiter.
However, when they do come and serve you, the attentiveness is wonderful. The same standard of attentiveness, politeness, smiles and thank-yous was delivered on my second visit, even though I could tell that many are rather young and inexperienced in this line. So good one. =)
Nevertheless, they do have a decent SOP, which says that the table should be done this way:
First time.
Second time. LOL. I am not trying to be funny. Just wanted to show the table setting. And I thought I should take it slanting this time. :PPP
Rating: 4.5/5
There are a number of Japanese or Chinese who are not very familiar with English, so if you do come across someone who doesn't understands you, try to signal for a Singaporean.
Shiromara Classic
I ordered this on my first trip because it is the classic.
Looks
I guess you can tell from the photo. Not very impressive if I were to compare with many others, as the pork is for some reason covered under the broth. But since Ippudo was really my first, this presentation still struck me as acceptable, clean, neat and nice, in reality. So yup, at that time, I was eager to dig in actually. =)
Rating: 4/5
Pork
So I lifted the spoon and gave it a slight stir, to pick out a slice of chashu. This one looks good, and tastes really nice too! Now that I've tasted a handful of other bowls of ramen, I can safely say the pork here is really one of the best-cooked around.
It is soft, tasteful, non-fatty, non-oily. Very good balance in that piece of meat.
The disappointment came when I found it so nice, and put back my spoon to look for more. I stirred and stirred, and it ended up that there were only 1 and a half piece (s??) of chashu. So I set my spoon down in defeat and decided not to eat the bowl of noodles altogether. =( Great pity that this bowl is really not generous enough for the price.
After all the ramen eating thus far, I think 3 is a great number to put in a bowl of noodles, as this will provide the right amount of fats in a meal, not over for ladies, looks good, and also signifies "a great amount". In the Chinese tradition (unfortunately I do not know if Japanese believe in numbers and their meanings), 3 and multiples of 3 means "a lot". Using 72 rounds of battle as with Monkey God in Journey to the West, of 72 years etc, is really a lot, hence you'd always hear of 民国七十二周年. There is no other reason why people celebrate the 72nd year from the birth of a nation other than the meaning of "a lot" and "long" etc.
Rating: 4.75/5
Really a great piece of pork to savour.
Soup
The soup looks oily as with all ramen soups, but tastes rather light to my delight. It also tastes clear and well-filtered though it doesn't looks so. Very flavourful yet balanced one. I think this will not offend any, but failed to catch my tummy though. It's good and nice but there are more addictive ones around. It did get me to eat quite a lot more noodles than I had planned to. (Didn't want to eat or drink too much soup because I know I had ordered a lot even though I was alone.)
Rating: 4/5
On the scale, I like this as much as Santouka's broth, even though they fall into different catergories, one being so strong, and one being so delicate. Both I like.
Noodles
On my first visit, I had wanted to fail the noodles as they really are not Q. I do not think that you will ever get a bowl of Q noodles there. So if you are like me, who prefer a mild chew, you will not be 100% satisfied.
However, on second thought after my second visit, I've decided that Ippudo cooks the noodles very well! They use the type that is extremely straight and smooth, and oil it just right so that you can slurp, and slurp, and slurp, and slurp. Yes, that's the word.
If I am not wrong, a lot of ramen houses are what young Singaporeans would call dingy, as they really are houses of the owners, as you might have seen in movies like Handsome Suit and Ramen Girl. So ramen is like the gong zai mian you find in Hong Kong cafes, basically meant for workers. And by imagination (quite like Bangladeshi in Singapore when they eat), the workers just sort of want to eat to fill their tummy, and will slurp up the noodles one mouthful after another without stopping much, and drink the soup if light enough.
Nevertheless, in my first bowl, I got undercooked noodles (which are actually authentically Japanese, but doesn't goes well with Singaporeans) that didn't quite agree with my tummy. Quite hard.
So for this bowl, my rating is not so good.
Rating: 3.8/5
You might like to make it a point to ask for cooked noodles when ordering, just in case the chef decides to do it authentic Japanese style. Unless of course, you'd like to try undercooked noodles, and prefer it this way.
Overall rating: 8.2/10
One of the better ones around. I feel that there is still a lot of room for better ramen in Singapore.
Spicy Ramen
I didn't want to give Ippudo another chance, at least not in the short term. But I caved in when I saw the spicy ramen that has nuts on it. (My tummy almost died on me in Beijing because there is very little chili there. Really can't live without chili.)
Looks
Hmmm, I guess what's wrong with Ippudo's ramen is that the pork always gets pitifully covered up. Don't you think so?
Spicy ramen looks a little bit nicer than Shiomaru, but gave me an overly oily feeling.
Rating: 4/5
Pork
I didn't like the pork this time. I though chashu means that round piece as seen in Shiomaru above... But this time I got what Chinese call san ceng rou (3-layered pork/roast pork as in roast pork rice). This is probably the belly part, and is extremely fat. The most tasty if you use it for bak kwa (use the buttocks for mid-fat mid-tough bak kwa.)
This is okay... ...
So yucks, I don't like it. If you're a fan of zhu jiao cu (Hakka Vingarized Pork Leg), pork skin or kway chup, I think you will appreciate the "chashu" I got a lot better.
Also, I have the firm belief that chi-chi restaurants should give more meat and weed out the fats. Fats are junk (other than omega 3 and 6), when it comes to food. You only need minimal amount of good fats to maintain good skin, build lipoproteins, coat certain cell components and line your heart, so on and so forth. Moreover, all nutrients, be it carbohydrates or proteins eventually gets converted into fats if you don't need them, so you actually have a lot, a lot of fat sources without eating much fats. I shall not nag about the cholesterol, blocked arteries etc.
This is really not okay.
In any case, apart from health reasons, the "chashu" this time was really too fat to maintain the texture balance in your mouth. So yup, taste-wise, this wasn't too good.
Rating: 3/5
Soup
Okay. I don't know how else to talk about this, because it is neither nice nor not nice. All I can say is that this is not spicy at all. So don't waste your calories if you are looking for chili, like I was on that day.
I honestly can't taste the presence of secret in this soup, unlike in the Shiomaru. At least I could tell it wasn't that simple.
Rating: 3/5
Really okay lorz.
Noodles
The noodles here are like that at Tampopo's. Basically, they break extremely cleanly, with little strength, upon a light bite. Like I have described for the Shiomaru, every strand breaks together in one mouthful, and the rest all falls back into the soup. Clean.
Just to add on, the noodles from Ippudo take up the sauce rather well, so they are fragrant and tasty. But I just do not have the habit of biting and slurping noodles so quickly as if I haven't eaten in 10 years, hence the penchant for a bit chewy/QQ ones that would last a wee bit longer in my mouth. Perhaps I should revise Tampopo's rating for noodles... They are good if you do not ask for chewiness.
Rating: 4/5
I only came to appreciate Ippudo's noodles a bit more because this time, they gave me cooked ones instead of undercooked. Thus the slightly higher rating.
Egg
I ordered the egg this time.
As can be seen in the photo below, it's not bad, as the uncooked portion takes up some 30% of the egg's volume, so I could still slurp out the "juice", which would consist of some uncooked white and some just cooked but still creamy yolk.
However, this is not the best I've tasted as the taste of the "braised-ness" is lacking, so it wouldn't be full marks.
Rating: 4/5
Suddenly decided that it was not all that good as I see lots of fingerprints on my egg, and quite badly cracked. Taste-wise, I had wanted to type 4.25.
Overall Ramen Rating: 7.5/10
This type of marks means it's good, but not all that good as hyped or advertised etc.
It's really not worth your time queuing. Try to catch weekdays if you need to go at night, otherwise, go between lunch and 7pm.
I spent about 1 hour on the first time... ...
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