TAMOYA UDON JAKARTA INDONESIA

Hello! 

Let me start my writings by sharing two of my September's highlight so far. First, Auntie's Anne will open an outlet at Emporium Pluit Mall, so close to where I stay which means I'll be seeing my all time favorite cinnamon pretzel more often. Yay! 

Robata Jinya Indonesia

I rarely go to Gandaria City mainly because of two reasons. One, it's quite far from where I live. Second, I don't see any interesting thing attracts me to go there. Well at least not until I heard that Robata Jinya opens there. Robata Jinya is a Japanese restaurant originated from West Hollywood. The one in Hollywood itself has been reviewed several times by the local media, mostly for their powerful ramen. 

Nagi Ramen Jakarta

Oh that furious day...

Most of my Sunday has always been typical. Go to my parents' house & spend the day with them. A couple of Sundays ago, it got screwed up. I was on my way when mom's not picking up her phone. I knew that she must still in her Sunday morning ritual... Grocery shopping. Since I was on my way already, it will be a waste of time to drive back and I was not really keen on spending an hour or so at an empty house waiting them to come home, so I thought it will be a good idea to go to Kelapa Gading. It's 10am and I was at freeway, giving an approx 15 mins to reach there, I figure it would still be a good time for me to have a oneself breakfast before the place starts to piled up with people.

Marugame Udon

Couple weeks ago, Jakarta's weather was unpredictable. A sudden change from hot & sunny to heavy rain happened pretty often. I remember that day I was on my way for a solo late lunch while suddenly it rains heavily and I was thinking it would be good to have a hot soupy kind of lunch, so I went to Marugame Udon, a recently opened Japanese restaurant with specialty in udon and tempura. Coming from Japan, they open their first outlet at Mall Taman Anggrek. 

Hakata Ikkousha PIK

The only ramen succeeded in making me return again, and again, and again... 

When I found out Ikkousha is going to open at PIK, I was thrilled because it was so hard to find a parking spot in their Muara Karang's branch. One night, hubby and I went to check out the new shop. Occupied four ruko at the food district of PIK, Ikkousha shared the place along with Nabedouraku, Yu Yan Tang reflexology, CapiTEA, and a bread corner which I can't remember what the brand is. The first thing caught my attention when we walked in that night was how large the waiting list area is. Line of chairs were put outside the restaurant, and yet another quite large space was save inside for wait list area.

Tokyo Ramen Tabushi

The words I heard about Tokyo Ramen Tabushi practically succeed in dragging our lazy ass to Kelapa Gading. It located in the main boulevard street across Mall Kelapa Gading. The place was much more humbler than what I had in mind before visiting. The ruko is quite narrow with only few tables inside. It was on Saturday night when we visited the place, yet it was only two tables filled including ours. 

Tsurukamedou

Tsurukamedou means the hall of crane and tortoise. 

Ramen chef Masayuki Nomura founded Tsurukamedou and envisions the restaurant as a place to cultivate the great spirit of Tsuru and Kame. The crane flies gracefully and harmoniously to different continents in search of breeding grounds during its long migratory route. the tortoise  moves slowly but definitely and with all the life's energy and purpose. 

[CLOSED] Kira Ramen PIK

I personally feel these several months lately, like every week, there's a new place open focusing in Japanese ramen or Taiwanese bubble tea especially in the vast growth cafe districts of Pantai Indah Kapuk. So often that it didn't even come to surprise anymore when I noticed a freshly opened Kira Ramen, just a few steps away from the famous Ikkudo Ichi which from what I seen based on the cars lining, hasn't lost its popularity.

Sengoku Noodle

If most of the ramen in town were franchised mostly from Japan, Sengoku Noodle set their foot at the busy dining district of Pantai Indah Kapuk as the authentic Japanese ramen franchised from Seattle, USA. They opened few days earlier than Ikkudo Ichi, one of the busiest ramen shop in North Jakarta, located at the same streets, even Sengoku had a much more better location yet their crowd was nothing compare to Ikkudo. I actually found out about this place first before I got to know Ikkudo, but something about Ikkudo attracts me more, I'm not sure whether it was the line of congratulations flowers, the better marketing selling point or the fact they took more effort on the design concept. Whatever it is, it took me in a non eagerly way to finally tried Sengoku.

Ikkudo Ichi

Like it's not too many yet, another new ramen place open couple weeks ago in Jakarta, spotted in the expanding cafe districts at Pantai Indah Kapuk. This one is from Fukuoka, Japan. I passed by the place on a Sunday with my mom and cars were lining up on the parking spot, so were the congratulations flowers. As expected, bunch of people were queuing. Not in the mood of waiting, I skipped it and went back couple days after. 

Menya Musashi Ramen @Raffles City Singapore

After wandering around and took some rest back to hotel, we decided to have our lunch at Menya Musashi (means Musashi ramen shop). They are one of the most popular rated ramen in Japan and several months ago, they opened their first branch at Raffles City. Their Shinjuku branch was always packed with customers and according to words I heard, during the opening week in Spore, long queue was always spotted, so I was very excited to try. The word ‘Musashi’ actually refers to the legendary samurai Musashi, which also explains its samurai themed logo in the decor.

Japanese Ramen: Which bowl is your favorite?

Is it only me or various Japanese ramen seem to keep on coming and coming and coming?

Once upon a time, there were only Sanpachi and Ajisen when it comes to Japanese ramen. Lately, it has not been a slim pickin' when I want to indulge my self with a bowl of Japanese ramen. Japanese is one of my favorite type of cuisine, but I used to be more into sushi kind of gal rather than ramen, now I am torn...

Honestly, my fond of ramen was just started on the first day I met with Ikkousha. I fell in love with their delicious soup and since then, I am always excited on trying new ramen places or even the longer existing one which I never really bother to try before.

So, shall we? 

HAKATA IKKOUSHA
 

Strong points: Amazing most tasty full of flavor broth among others, delicious buta chasiu thick, Ocha is refillable, good service.

Price range: Ramen starts from 38k.

Recommendation: Ramen babi tam tam is a delicious pick.

Available at: Muara Karang and Kelapa Gading.

Read complete review here.

Kyushu Men

So, like it's not too many yet, another new ramen hitting Jakarta again. Couple days ago, hubby and I went for a dinner there. Located in a much humbler place at Mangga Besar area, They were recently opened on March. 

Kyushu Men carries Kumamoto soup style which is Tonkotsu (pork) soup base style, although chicken soup base is also available. According to the owner/ chef who is a Japanese, Kumamoto's style was similar with Hakata's style, a slight difference was only Kumamoto soup base was milder and often seasoned with fried garlic oil to added the aroma.

Santouka Hokkaido Ramen

 

Since the day I had my first bowl of Santouka's ramen in Spore, I have been waiting impatiently for it to be opened at Plaza Indonesia. To be honest, it might sound silly but my impatience waiting was driven more on my curiosity on how much the ramen will cost here. I paid $20 (around 140k in Rupiah) for a bowl of Tokusen toroniku ramen. I don't know about you guys, but paying 140k for a bowl of ramen was unpleasant for me. As I like the ramen quite much, I was hoping that the 140k was only due to the high exchange rate. 

Anyway, this afternoon I went there with my bestie. Bless her for always in the mood to accompany me during my silly food hunting. :) As today is the first opening day, we drove there early to avoid the queue. Stupid traffic get in the way though, calling it self highway, more like jammed way to me. So instead of arriving at 11am as planned, we reached there at almost 12. Queuing line was there already, but luckily not too long. In shorts, we were seated. The place was small and tables were limited, most of the space was taken for the kitchen. 

Ramen Play by BreadTalk @RWS Singapore

After having our fun at USS, we were walking around RWS and spotted this ramen place. Somewhere between the appealing picture of their Tonkotsu ramen in front of the store and the tickle feeling in our tummy, we went in hoping for a good lunch. 

Santouka Hokkaido Ramen @Cuppage Terrace, Singapore

Since Santouka had not open in Indonesia yet (will open on May 16th), I had put it an agenda to must try the ramen that was claimed by most Spore food bloggers as the best ramen in town. Santouka was established on 1999 at Hokkaido, Japan and throughout the years had expand to major branches in big cities in Japan including Osaka and Tokyo, also spread their wings overseas from USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Indonesia.

After indulging myself with Plum lime juice from Each a Cup and wandering around Orchard, we headed to Cuppage terrace for the famous ramen. Cuppage terrace is an open air place with several diners gathered, each of them have indoor and outdoor spot. It was just passing lunch time, so we were lucky that we came in the same time when some customers were leaving. The inside was pretty small, only few tables with dark ambiance.

Yamagoya Ramen

A week ago, Hubby and I had something to do at UOB Plaza when I spotted another new ramen place in Jakarta, located in the corner of B1. The place was humble, and like most of ramen places, dominated with red color. 

Hachimaki Ramen

Have been hearing a lot of comparison on society between several ramen places in Jakarta who served the best ramen. Being in love recently with Ikkousha's ramen led me to try Hachimaki for the first time.

Wednesday night, the place was not crowded but people were coming in continuously during our dinner. The interior was dominated with red and white color with artificial bamboo as part of the decor. Place was not spacious but they do have outdoor and second floor.

Hakata Ikkousha

 Oishii!!!

The only words can describe how good the ramen was. 

There were many reasons on why I should try Ikkousha much much earlier than just now:

1. It located not far from where I live.

2. How fast it become one of the best ramen in town.

3. The never ending queue.

4. Everyone I met and all reviews I read had claimed their ramen was superb.

5. Had been in almost blogger's post I knew of.

Then why it took me almost one year to finally eat here? I don't know!!! I am one of those very curious person about food, especially new places, but I just never really into trying Ikkousha, until last Tuesday. I was picking up my bestie around 11am and suddenly I have this urge for a bowl of the famous ramen. As her house was in the neighborhood with Ikkousha, we went there for lunch.