This the oldest and most popular outlet of the Ramen Keisuke chain. It is located at the Orchid Hotel, next to the another well known Japanese restaurant Teppei. The outlet is very small with limited dine in area. Seats are very close to each other. Do take note that only cash payment is accepted here. There is no NETS or credit card payment available here.
Similar to other outlets, there was free flow hard boiled eggs and marinated bean sprouts to help yourself to. There was also sesame seeds to add flavour to the ramen. One could customize the ramen as similar to other outlets.
The table was very small, barely had enough space for the food and the condiments on it.
Tonkotsu Ramen ($10.90++)
The Red Spicy Tonkotsu King ($11.80) with the option of Special Topping ($4) comprising a flavoured egg, seaweed, and stewed pork, was just as stodgy. In contrast, the pork needed more flavour and stewing time.
The best part of the meal: the marinated beansprouts that were totally refreshing, addicting and delicious.
My search for ramen has gone on for too long to go back to the basic tried-and-tested ramen place everyone loves. Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King, also known as 'the ramen place near Tanjong Pagar MRT', 'the one at the hotel', et cetera et cetera. In any case, here I am.
I get why everyone likes it. It has the most basic of what a ramen place should have - the choice for how thick you like your broth, how hard you like your noodles, and all the add-ons you could have. Oh yes, and it is attuned to the Singaporean palate sort of ramen broth, not too thick nor salty, reaching this well-rehearsed perfection. It's your no-nonsense, reliable ramen.
Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King ('RKTK') originated from Tokyo, the birth place of Tonkotsu Ramen. The innovator of this delicious ramen is Celebrity Chef Keisuke Takeda whose culinary background not only in Japanese Cuisine but also in French Cuisine. With the idea to introduce Ramen to the world, he expanded his Ramen shop concept to Singapore.
As this is my first time here, I decided to order Tonkotsu Ramen Special (All Toppings) - $14.80. For flavour, I decided to go with the Original Japanese taste, meaning NORMAL for taste of soup, chicken oil and noodle texture.
While waiting for the ramen to be serve, you can make yourself busy by pounding the black and white sesame that you can incorporate to your soup. You can help yourself to unlimited helpings of hard boil eggs and pickled bean sprouts. For Chubby Botak Koala, the first thing he start is always snapping away with his Nikon.
The serving of the ramen is just a sight to behold. Size is huge, but the presentation simple yet appetizing. I like the enormous size of the seaweed, kind of giving you a screen to cover our greedy faces when you go on your ramen slurping rampage. I took a quick snap of of the whole bowl and lift up the ramen and started my 'ME & Ramen' only time. I can imagine that I put Do Not Disturb sign on my forehead.
The ramen has a nice thickness to it, noodle is cooked to al-dente. Each slurp of the ramen is well coated with addictive robust, milky and collagen filled broth. Some people will find it slightly salty, but it is agreeable to my tastebud. The meat is lean, but it is tender and flavourful. Although I would prefer it to be pork belly, I have to agree it might just too overwhelming here. I was bedazzled, and finished my bowl of ramen, almost to the last drop. Yum Yum, Two Thumbs Up!!
Service is warm, friendly and laud. You can consider them to be efficient and decisive when they try to turn the table for other customers in the queue.
Overall, this is definitely one of the best ramen in Singapore. I really enjoy my dining experience here. After my first visit to Japan recently, I believe Ramen is best enjoy in a confined space, where you are shoulder to shoulder with the other customers. Once you slurp the broth, you won't realise that there is someone beside you until you accidentally elbow the one sitting next to you. Cheers!!!
Similar to Keisuke Gyoza King, both have cramp sitting capacity. This outlet offers free flow of hard boiled eggs and beansprouts.
The serving speed really fast once we handover over the ordering sheet to staff. The ramen was served within 2-5minutes time after being seated in the restaurant. Before the ramen was served, each table was served with the pestle and mortar which has some black and white sesame seeds inside. We grinded it up and tossed them all into the bowl of ramen. It’s an added nice aroma in the soup broth. The soup broth tasted not too heavy and smoothing to my taste bud. Most importantly it is not too oily for me as I did not choose to add in chicken oil into my ramen bowl.
We also tried the Japanese Green Tea Cola. This is something new that caught our attention. It’s a green tea flavoured dizzy drink which I don’t really taste the green tea in it.
Tonkotsu King has unlimited serving of hard boiled eggs & really awesome bean sprouts. These appetizers add on to satisfy your ramen fix. Tonkotsu King Ramen ($10.80) + All toppings ($4), reasonably priced. Very rich and flavorful pork base soup, 2 big slices of char siew, nicely done runny egg, springy noodles, your best ramen experience.
Normal broth ramen with toppings which consisted of a large piece of seaweed, flavoured egg (which was half runny and half cooked). This costed about $20. Again, the chashu was not what I had expected from a stall this famous. The broth, as compared to the spicy one that I had tried, was saltier than average. It was packed with flavours and I could taste the pork broth. The ramen (normal) had a texture that was just nice too. There are also free flow of hard boiled eggs and marinated beansprouts which tasted much better when I mixed it inside with the soup. Orders arrive unexpectedly fast.
There were 3 levels of spiciness to choose from - Red, black and white. I tried the Black Spicy Ramen which was a peppery and spicy mix for broth. The noodles were tangy and the pork slices were soft and tender but I would have liked the yolk of the ramen egg to be a tad more underdone.
We were given papers where we could customise our orders. I chose the spicy ramen with all toppings (egg, fungus, etc). Orders arrived within 15 minutes, which was a good thing. I didnt realise till I sat inside that I was starving. Anyway on first sip, the soup was all spice without any hint of pork broth for me. It was rather disappointing.
