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2013-06-06
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Ramen Kagetsu Arashi is a three week old casual dining outlet occupying the space vacated by EspresSoup which closed end March 2013. The restaurant resembles a fast food outlet painted in black and bright orange with low white tables and stools. Be prepared to queue if you visit during lunch hours but service is fast. The cheerful, chatty and helpful crew make lunching here a pleasure.Ramen is priced from $12.90++ but for weekday lunch, you get a beverage and choice of side dish by topping up $2
Ramen is priced from $12.90++ but for weekday lunch, you get a beverage and choice of side dish by topping up $2.00 to your ramen for a set meal. Dining here is fun because you get to customize your ramen to your preferences. There is an assortment of condiments set out at every table, together with a huge jug of iced water for those who dp not wish to order any drinks. Besides the usual shoyu type sauces and Japanese chilli powder, this restaurant provides black pepper (from Fauchon, no less), yukitari (very finely shredded seaweed seasoned with table salt and red pepper) and their special pickled chives which is made in house daily by marinating freshly cut green chives in salt and a spicy chilli paste.
The specialty here is chashu ramen with a choice of tonkatsu (referred to here as 'genkotsu') broth, shoyu broth or salted tonkatsu broth. There is only one type of ramen resembling spaghetti in appearance. I ordered the Arashi Genkotsu Ramen $12.90++ ~ a big bowl of ramen in a rich soup full of residue from many hours of boiling pork bones, tendons and their secret blend of ingredients. Each bowl has a piece of seaweed, two slices of their yummy melt-in-the-mouth chashu and half a hard boiled egg. The server also brought us a saucer of peeled, fresh garlic cloves together with a garlic crusher. I added the black pepper, chilli powder, yukari, their house special of pickled chives and freshly crushed garlic to my soup.
Voila, here was my spicy tonkatsu ramen with lots of chives for fibre to make a balanced meal. However I regretted adding too much condiments and pickled chives to my soup which made it too salty for me to slurp it up after I had finished the noodles. What a waste of the collagen-rich hearty broth. So my advice is to add the condiments selectively and sparingly to avoid ending up with an oversalted soup. Would also suggest that diners opt for their signature 'genkotsu' broth ~ this is just a tad salty without adding any shoyu. I think the miso-based or shoyu-based broth would be too salty even without adding any of the condiments provided at the table. However the server did mention that native Japanese diners have a higher saltiness threshold compated to local diners who prefer a lighter taste; the restaurant is tweaking the original recipe based on customer feedback to adapt the salt level of their broth to local tastes.
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