RamenPlay

Ramen Play was packed on a Saturday night at approximately 7PM, with the queue spilling out of the main door. After we were seated, we realised that there were ample seats in the seating area on the second floor but there was a severe lack of staff. On the up side, the staff were attentive and service wasn't particularly lacking.

We ordered the Butariki Ishinabe, Hiyashii Chuka Ramen and the Chicken Toji Set.

With the Butariki Ishinabe being one of their signature dishes, we had high expectations for it and it definitely did not fail to disappoint. The sauce was drizzled on the rice contained in the hot stone bowl and the combination of the egg yolk, rice, pork strips and sauce was amazing. A plus would be the charred bits of rice at the bottom of the hot stone bowl that added crunch to the meal.

The Hiyashii Chuka Ramen was a cold dish available on the menu and the noodles were soaking in a sauce with the distinct taste of vinegar. It was topped with a generous serving of shredded ham, cucumber, egg, as well as chicken. A grinder with sesame seeds was also provided - allowing you to top your ramen with sesame seeds. Doing so really accentuates the flavours present in the noodles.

The Chicken Toji Set was a hot claypot of eggs and onions cuddling an entire chicken katsu. The set came along with a side salad, rice and miso soup. The combination of eggs and the chicken katsu was really good but this dish was not particularly outstanding, especially in comparison to the Butariki Ishinabe.

As for beverages, we ordered the Yuzu Yoghurt and Oreo Shake. The Oreo shake was topped with a biscuit and was sufficiently chocolately with generous amounts of Oreo blended into it. As for the Yuzu yoghurt, it was refreshing, had the right balance of sweetness and sourness - definitely my favourite drink from Ramen Play.

2013-01-12

My 1st visit to the place in fact. Thankfully not too crowded it was an early dinner on a Sat. The place was nonetheless buzzing with mostly younger crowd and families; staff team seemed to be quite busy too.

My friends and I ordered quite alot and below are the dishes we ordered:

Lobster Golden Bites Salad ($6.80) - deep fried (i think?) bits of the seafood coated in dressing and perched on top of lettuce pieces amidst some vermicelli. I thought it was quite a refreshing combi with the veg giving a very nice crunch. Taste good too.

Mustard Chicken Salad ($6.80) - I love the sourish dressing for this! The chicken pieces was grilled and honestly just so so, but I was distracted by the accompanying salad more.

Butariki Ishinabe ($12.80) - premium japanese niigata rice accompanied by pan fried and barbeque pork, spring onion, seaweed, and topped with a raw egg. Special sauce drizzled down the sides of the stone bowl - very good - and my spft spot for stone pot doesnt help. The pork was surprisingly tender and marinated well. The ingredients blended very well together and it was quite exciting to wait for the rice to sit and enjoy the slightly charred parts thereafter.

Toroniku Double Soup Ramen ($12.80) - A definite classic brewed to vast perfection. Indulge in this wholesome full bodied soup which is refreshingly tasty; its flavor brought forth by the pork cheek - pork cheek was good and soup was flavourful without the sometimes je lart feeling.

Yuzu Yoghurt ($5.80) - Refreshingly light and easy to take to.

Grapefruit soda ($5.80) - A bit overly tangy for me but no doubt refreshing too.

Prices were reasonable with total adding up to $70 for 3pax. Service could improve though with staff being quite unstable when serving food. The tables also have very tight elbow space - good for eavesdropping on your neighbours.

2012-10-16

SGD 25(Dinner)

Finally a decent dinner after a long week packed with workloads. This is my first time trying Ramen Play which is under the same company as Breadtalk & Toast box.My colleague ordered Chicken Katsu Ishinabe @ S$12.80.
It's the combination of the succulent chicken cutlet and tantalizing eggs in a sizzling stone pot screams wholesome delicious goodness to our stomach. It was still sizzling hot when it is served and she was satisfied with the taste.Cha Shu Shoyu Ramen S$9.80
Slices of cha shu with the shoyu base ramen soup.The shoyu base is a bit oily for me but the overall taste is nice and not too strong nor too lightAnother colleague of mine ordered Pork Curry Ramen S$13.80.
Coated with crust,crispy pork cutlet to go with spicy-sweet curry ramen.
The portion of ramen is kinda small but the big portion for the pork cutlet. We ordered appetizer while waiting for our main course to served.
Lobster Golden Bites Salad S$6.80. Simply delicious and refreshing! It is a fresh combination for me as the combination of green cabbage with lobster salad is simply splendid!Tasty Negima (Chicken & Leek) S$5.00 for 3 pcs.
Nicely grilled with the sweet sauce on the chicken and the leek.
Awesome!Spicy Shoyu Ramen S$10.80.
This is the choice of Celine aka my new colleague. It is superb fiery & spicy flavored coupled with shredded cha shu and choice vegetables. (Photos can be found from my blogpost)

We also ordered Gyoza as ala carte as well. The outer part of the gyoza skin is a bit hard at the below part but the inner ingredients are rich and tasteful. When you eat it with the layu, it gives u another taste of the beauty of gyoza.
We got this plate of gyoza for FOC as we spend the min S$60 and foot the bill using DBS debit card.

The place is nicely decorated and design. Simple, modern and classy environment. The staffs are attentive to us and follow up on the order closely.

As for the payment wise, we will need to take our order list and proceed to the cashier counter to make payment.

For more photos, do feel free to check out my blogpost : http://hazelnutlife.blogspot.sg/2012/03/ramen-play-bishan-junction-8.html

2012-03-30

The soup base here is really sweet and tasty and that is one of the main reason why my friends and myself love to patron this Japanese restaurant so much. The ramen is very chewy and portion is quite generous. The large pieces of thinly sliced pork meat is very tender and juicy, which added that extra sweetness to the soupbase. The environment here is quite comfortable except that you need to be there early to avoid the long queue outside this restaurant during daily lunch and dinner hours.

2012-06-07

The ramenplay is always crowded.
maybe of too many customer, this ramen is underated this time.
The ramen's softness is just nice.And i like the ingredients too.
But the soup is a bit too salty. the meat is also too hard,but is quite flavourful and fresh.
It not taste like what i eat last time,im quite disappointed of it.
However,as usual,i still like the egg so much.

roaming for a nice play to have my lunch at nex shopping centre , so saw this restaurant named ramen play . so decided to give it a try. the restaurant is quite crowded during lunch time ,so have to wait a while to get my order done .

The ramen here are truly great. They are not overly cooked, has a q q springy texture. My all time fav is still ramen in soyu broth. Having tried so many ramen, this still taste great!

One of the signature ramen from Ramen's Play, containing of braised pork belly in char siew sauce, braised pork belly in special sauce as well as braised pork cheek. Well, those pork pieces were very tender and tasty. yummy yummy and so do the soup base. it was tasty! I actually ate it with the garlic chips provided on the table as this actually enhanced the taste Well, to me the price is acceptable for the taste i had.

while shopping at bishan, saw this restaurant decided to give it a try.

My steaming hot bowl of ramen looked promising and the broth looks delectable... A sip reveals quite a tasty broth although the cynical me puts it down to MSG then a well-brewed stock. The noodles are the instant type that i don't really fancy but is fun once in a while.. There's 3 types of pork toppings... i do quite like e braised pork (e 3-layer pork type) which fares much better than e char siew which is pale-looking and lack e melt-in-your-mouth factor.. i simply don't remember what is the 3rd type haha... The half lava egg is overcooked hence no oozing lava egg. if you dont expect too much, this is still okay. it is abit of too noisy

2012-03-06

SGD 20

We wanted to find a good place to chat and eat. We decided to give a try at Ramenplay.
The restaurant was cosy & nice! The menu itself looks so delicious, ordered quite a few items. I order my main course Butariki Ishinabe taste so good! must taste! Dessert Green tea ice cream, creamy, strong green tea taste. Try it, if you are a green tea lover!
Now they can having Spend & Be Rewarded with $88 RamenPlay Vouchers! Great deal!

2012-03-25

RamenPlay Bishan, located near Bishan MRT Station, is a fine place for dining, with 2 levels of seating areas. The kitchen is located at the 1st level, and there are food lifts to transport the dishes to the 2nd level. I went there with my parents and grandma for dinner.

This is a memorable dining moment for me because this is the first time that we are having dinner at a Japanese restaurant during CNY period (usually we go to Chinese restaurants) and also our first time dining at RamenPlay, and grandma enjoys the food!

These were what we ordered:

Umani Ramen ($11.80)
Umani Ramen is one of RamenPlay's specialities; a bowl of ramen cooked in rich and thick gravy using shoyu soupbase, and topped with prawn, cuttlefish, pork, quail’s egg and vegetables. Its taste is similar to the hokkien noodles sold at zi char stalls, except that more tender noodles are used.

Crispy Dango ($3.80)
These deep-fried chicken meatballs are crispy, but the mayonnaise and plum sauce makes this a too sweet dish.

Miso Cheese Platter ($8.80)
This platter consists of 3 items, namely breaded cheese with cucumber, rice roll stuffed with veg in sweet sauce and takoyaki. Love the rice roll the best because it is refreshing and sweet!

Oreo Milkshake ($4.80)
Oreo milkshake, topped with cream, chocolate shavings and a love letter stick is the perfect drink for chocoholics like myself!

Yuzu Yoghurt ($4.80)
A sweet yoghurt drink with a zesty lemon flavor helps to cleanse the palate for more dishes coming along the way!

Black Sesame Fried Rice ($10.80)
The black sesame taste was just right, giving the fried rice its fragrant scent, and it's a great dish to go with other side dishes!

Butariki Ishinabe ($12.80)
Pan-fried and barbequed pork, spring onion, seaweed, and egg sit on a bed of premium Japanese Niigata rice. The pork were thinly sliced, making me crave for each mouthful and not getting sick of the taste. Love the sauce that was added to the dish; made it more flavourful!

8 Treasure Hot Stone Rice ($18.80)
8 ingredients (prawn, scallop, gingko, buta kakuni (pork belly), cha shu, toroniku (pork cheek), bamboo shoots, chestnuts and wolf berries) appear in this hot stone pot with rice, mushroom and egg added. Though there were 8 ingredients, the amount of each was very little and wasn't satisfying enough.

pork cutlet rice

Wanted to try some thing new other than ramen at Ramen Play.
Tender and crispy pork cutlet with fragrant and tasty egg on top of the Japanese rice. The gravy is very delicious that enhance the flavour of egg.
The portion is quite big so it is very filling.

2011-09-09

SGD 10(Lunch)

I headed down to Ramen Play to redeem my voucher bought on Groupon for $5 (instead of $10.80), for Shoyu, Spicy Shoyo or Oyakodon.

I chose the Oyakodon: rice with egg, chicken and green onions simmered together. I have tried this at other Japanese restaurants before and I loved it because they did it so well.
However, at Ramen Play, I can’t express my words beyond disappointment. The rice grains were lumpy, the eggs didn’t taste freshly cracked and cooked, so-so, and the chicken pieces were not just pathetic but full of fats yet tasteless.

What’s worse is that the staffs carried poor service, rude and arrogant who do not take/serve your orders promptly. To add on, they forgot to serve us water until requested.
I felt horrible enough that I paid $5(excluding gst) for this, thank god it wasn’t $10.80

I had my weekday dinner at RamenPlay. I ordered the Shoyu Ramen with 2 pieces of char siew as I'm not a fan of such char siew meat anyway. There were also bamboo shoots and half an egg.

The description stated that "The luscious stock is a recipe of quality ingredients such as pork sinew, soft pork bones and spices that have been broiled for about 12 hours, resulting in a rick, thick and delicious base used in all the ramen dishes."

But I beg to differ as I thought the soup tasted like simply MSG base, in fact it was rather watery.

Overall, it was average I'd say. I've certainly tasted better ramen noodles though, service wasn't prompt and the staff was rather rude to us, probably my first and last time here.

There was a Groupon deal for a bowl of ramen or Oyakodon at $5++, and i decided to give it a try.

I ordered spicy shoyu ramen. oyakodon and a bamboo chicken(read good review abt this chix).

1.Spicy shoyu ramen- the soup base needs more stock to make it flavourful, and the thin pork slices looked so pale with quite a bit of fats...Consolation was there were 3 condiments for u to self serve(to enhance the flavour), fried garlic, chilli and chive with chilli. The noodle is springy but i think the soup spoils the overall ramen experience. I Rate 5/10

2. Oyakodon- Me and my partner can't agree more that this taste better than the ramen. Only grouse was the chicken meat had few pieces of soft bones or tendons which i dont't like to swallow. Rate 6/10

3. Bamboo chicken- I ordered this as i was bought over by positive reviews and the presentation. I was wrong, i felt the mince chicken was under seasoned and the raw egg yolk dip did not help much. The re-useable bamboo holder looks burnt from repeated grilling but the chicken meat itself does not have the grilled taste or aroma. I would personally think that the 'Tori Q' brand 'Yakitori Chicken ball' which also uses mince meat taste so much better! Rate 4.5/10

We were there at off peak hours around 5pm so there were only four diners including us. The service staff were nice and pleasant.

2011-05-20

SGD 10(Dinner)

I am curious to see how good or bad the ramen will be.

I order the set that comes with a mini ramen, side dish and a drink, priced at $13.80++.

I am surprise that the noodle used is almost the same as the one in japanese restaurant.
The pork is tender, although only 1 slice of it.

The fried meat (with cheese inside) is so so but is also quite tender.

2011-04-27

SGD 14(Dinner)