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Ramen Isshi (已結業)

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日本菜拉麵

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Homemade Kua Pao in Assorted Flavours

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Alamakgirl

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Today I am invited to a food tasting session by OpenRice to this ramen outlet. It is opened in the newly reopened One Raffles Place, which is quite convenient as it is connected to Raffles Place MRT. It is located just behind Three Cups Coffee Co. Cafe.The restaurant is decorated in dark tones to create a modern fusion of Japanese and Chinese looks. Menu is kept in the drawer of the dining table, which makes the table looks neat. The main menu is in a thick hard-cover notebook form, where custom

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Today I am invited to a food tasting session by OpenRice to this ramen outlet. It is opened in the newly reopened One Raffles Place, which is quite convenient as it is connected to Raffles Place MRT. It is located just behind Three Cups Coffee Co. Cafe.

The restaurant is decorated in dark tones to create a modern fusion of Japanese and Chinese looks. Menu is kept in the drawer of the dining table, which makes the table looks neat. The main menu is in a thick hard-cover notebook form, where customers can give feedback on the blank pages behind.

Ramen Isshi has been consistently ranked as the top ramen in Nakasu, the busiest street in Hakata, Kyushu. And this outlet which I am visiting today is its first outlet in Singapore. There are three kinds of ramen--KURO (Black), SHIRO (White) and AKA (Red).

Shiro (White) Tonkotsu Ramen

Shiro (White) Tonkotsu Ramen ($12)
Ramen in the standard soup Tonkotsu base, served with 1/2 half boiled egg, 2 slices of Cha-Shu
It is the basic of the all the ramen dishes. The soup tastes milky and not too salty. Quite a great combination.

Kuro (Black) Tonkotsu Ramen

Kuro (Black) Tonkotsu Ramen ($13)
Served with 1/2 half boiled egg, 2 slices of Cha-Shu
KURO RAMEN--a fragrant combination made by frying garilc and shallot in sesame oil 4 times to create multiple layers of taste.
I am expecting it to be served in black coloured soup, but it turns out not. The soup is not as flavourful as expected, as the garlic and shallot taste is quite faint.

Aka (Red) Tonkotsu Ramen

Aka (Red) Tonkotsu Ramen ($13)
Made with spicy Szechuan pepper, fresh made XO sauce loaded with scallops and seafood stock.
Served with 1/2 half boiled egg, 2 slies of Cha-Shu
It does not taste like ramen. It reminds me of Penang White Curry instant noodle with its spicy soup base and the texture of the noodle. I am expecting somthing along the china's version of mala mee, but it is not. It is quite milky. One can barely find any scallops or seafood in this dish.

The outlet's ramen chefs are hail from Japan and have been trained in Hakata-ku in Kyushu, Japan. The noodles are made fresh everyday here in a noodle-making room (The room is made of glass) in the restaurant and so is the soft and succulent chashu. You can check out the the noodle making process daily between 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Shiro Tonkotsu Ramen

For $25, you could also have the ramen for takeaway in a stainless steel lunch box and carry it in a designer thermal bag. With the noodle in one container and the soup in another, one can have ramen in Tsukemen style by dipping the ramen in the soup. Remember to wait 10 minutes before it can be eaten as the noodle used for takeaway has a harder texture than the usual served in the restaurant.

Gyoza wrapped in Homemade Skin

Gyoza wrapped in Homemade Skin ($5)
Served with vinegar and rāyu (ラー油 Japanese chilli oil 辣油).
Cooked in a pan-fried and steamed method, the gyoza tastes average and a bit too char on the base.

Homemade Kua Pao in Assorted Flavours

Besides ramen and goyozas, the place also make their own Chinese baos here in a special glass room in the restaurant and they come in 6 natural flavors : Black Sesame, Plain, Turmeric, Green Tea, Beet Root and Blueberry. Available in assorted flavours for $8 for 4 pieces. The in house made bao is soft and pillowy, as well as, tasty on its own. It is served with a slice of Cha-Shu, shredded spring onion and some hoisin sauce. It would be better if there is more sauce in it too, as one can barely taste it.

Carrot Cake with Saffron

Carrot Cake with Saffron ($8)
Round sticky rice cakes lightly flavored with saffron, stuffed with prawn and served with homemade XO sauce.
The rice cake reminds one of mochi with its QQ texture, but the filling of prawn is too little to be take note of. I think it would be better if the XO sauce is stuffed inside and become something like crystal bun.

Tuna Sashimi & Avocado Salad Asian Style

Tuna Sashimi & Avocado Salad Asian Style ($12)
It is Tuna and Avocado Tartare, served with sesame seed flavoured mayonnaise and mala pepper corn. To eat, wrap the tartare with a bit of sauces and some of the half boiled egg yolk in a seaweed sheet like a temaki. A great combination of the creamy texture of avocado and the juicy tuna, but a bit off with the mala part.

Tofu with Century Egg

Tofu with Century Egg ($6)
The plain cold tofu is served with sesame soy sauce and century egg on top. I feel that the century egg is too little to make an impression in this dish. Overall feel that there is too much shredded ginger on top which covers other tastes.

Chicken Wings Fritto (with Homemade Shichimi)

Chicken Wings Fritto (with Homemade Shichimi) ($6)
It is actually fried chicken mid joints. Marinated in a special homemade sauce, the mid joint is cut into before half before deep fried. It tastes quite salty as if the chicken mid joint is dipped in soya sauce. The black ball paste is actually shichimi, commonly known as nana-iro tōgarashi or 七味唐辛子, "seven flavor chili pepper". It is easily found in supermarket in power form. The paste form here is quite unusual.

Almond Jelly with Framboise

Almond Jelly with Framboise ($5)
This dessert serves as a palate cleanser after eating the heavy ramen dishes. It has 3 layers : almond pudding, passion fruit and raspberry puree. It tastes a bit more on the sour side.

All the drinks here at Ramen Isshi incorporate the natural approach to mixology that is pioneered at Orgo. To preserve as much of the nutrients as possible, the restaurant uses only fresh cold-pressed juice in all Pure Juices ($4.50) and Total Soy ($3.50) drinks. Total Soy is made with freshly cooked soy beans and left unstrained to retain all the fiber. There is also Soy Smoothie ($4.50) and Juice Smoothie ($5.50) too.

Lemon Yellow ($4.50/ Pure Juice)
Soursop + Pineapple
It is a tangy drink, and there is no separation in the fruit juice as per the normal fruit juice as the juicing process is done by cold-pressed.

Yellow ($3.50/ Total Soy)
Passion Fruit + Mango
The drink is quite thick and fruity in taste, but a bit grainy in texture as there is unfiltered soya bean milk in it.

Here they also served fresh fruit Makgeolli (also known as Korean rice wine) with about 5-6% alcohol content.

Strawberry Makgeolli

Strawberry Makgeolli ($9)

Pineapple Makgeolli

Pineapple Makgeolli ($9)
The drinks taste quite fruity and a bit tart with a slight alcoholic taste.

Overall the food still has hits and misses. The place seems to be suffering from an identity crisis, based on the food and decoration. It is trying to be Japanese (ramen dishes, sesame dressing), Chinese (mala pepper corns in dishes and bao, decoration in a chinese way), Korean (Makgeolli and Shochu), French (Framboise for dessert), Fusion (the Carrot Cake and the Tuna Sashimi with pepper corns) and western modern (salad bar & cold pressed fruit juice and dark modern look decoration) at the same timing which is quite confusing. Maybe it is still new and it takes time to make sure everything works out smoothly.

(以上食評乃用戶個人意見 , 並不代表OpenRice之觀點。)

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umakemehungry

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For more pictures,videos and full review, visit http://www.umakemehungry.com/2014/12/ramen-isshi.htmlLocated at 4th Floor of one raffles place, Ramen Isshi is a place where Japanese-chinese fusioned food is found. This food tasting session would not be perfect without the invitation from Openrice and Ramen Isshi's amicable host, Nick Yen.Nick is a born Taiwanese-American and had started Orgo, a chillout cocktail bar cum restaurant at the roof terrace of Esplanade and Ramen Isshi is part of his p

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For more pictures,videos and full review, visit http://www.umakemehungry.com/2014/12/ramen-isshi.html

Located at 4th Floor of one raffles place, Ramen Isshi is a place where Japanese-chinese fusioned food is found. This food tasting session would not be perfect without the invitation from Openrice and Ramen Isshi's amicable host, Nick Yen.

Nick is a born Taiwanese-American and had started Orgo, a chillout cocktail bar cum restaurant at the roof terrace of Esplanade and Ramen Isshi is part of his projects, named "Tang Tang Project".
The bespectacled Nick was dressed in fully black from top to toe. The medium built and lean frame Nick has made us very comfortable throughout the session as he shared his expertise on the menu creations.

Spotted an auspicious sign / character on the payment counter. the "Zhao Cai Mao" aka the fortune cat seems like a "must have" for every business. It is believed that by placing fortune cat on the cashier counter will bring good luck and business will prosper.

Environment was contemporary designed with soothing eye colors especially with colorful bags and lunch boxes on the racks contrasting its backgrounds.

Initially I thought these meal boxes were simply part of their design and nothing else. But later on we realized that the boxes are for sale too.

Being particular about its quality and freshness, no take away ramen is sold without the use of lunchboxes. These 2 tiers thermal isolated lunch boxes came with a designer bag and cost $20 including the ramen.

Every dining table comes with a drawer and a special color just like the lunch boxes. These drawers are good for diners to keep their stuff away from the table while dining. Not only that, menu can be found in the drawer.

As we entered into the restaurant, we saw this industrial machine kept in a glass room, separated from the dining environment. It looked cool though. A further understanding from Nick aka "the craziest one" brought up his craziness on the freshness and quality of food in which he explained that Ramen Isshi's Ramen as well as gyoza, pao skin were all homemade.

Special thanks to Nick for arranging a live demonstration on how their ramen are made from the scratch with this state of the art machine.

While the flour and other ingredients were mixing in the mid stream of the machine, the butt of the machine was throwing out freshly made noodles. Person in charge had to estimate the correct proportion and had them put into the blue tray.

Let's take a look at the videos on how this ramen were being handled!

For those who are interested in getting hands on, Ramen Isshi does offer Ramen Making courses. Check with them for the schedules.

Besides being open about the process of making their ramen, Ramen Isshi do also have a open concept kitchen whereby diners can get to see the happenings going on in the kitchen.
Take a look at the ceilling and you will find this interesting decor hanging up there.

A sweet concoction of soup sop and pineapple with soy, a refreshing welcome drink served in shot glass by the host.

Followed by Yellow, a concoction of Passion fruit, mango and soy. With Ramen Isshi belief in the freshness of food, every order of soy was prepared to order, not compromising its quality.

Our meal starts with a soft touch on the wobbly cold tofu. These plain yet nutritious tofu had an elevation in taste with the use of Japanese Soya Sauce and Chinese sesame oil.

Tofu with Century Egg - $8

A reassembly of the original carrot cake with ingredients individually standing on its own rather than mixing them all up. Mochi rice was made up in this dish, giving softer and stickier texture and XO meat sauce was placed as the base. Presentation was attractive and dish seemed delicate.

Carrot Cake with Saffron - $8

Delicious deep fried wing was fried to golden brown perfection and paired with a little ball of homemade shichimi (七味) . These finger sized wings were tasty and sweet with white sesame seeds clinging onto them.

Chicken Wings Fritto - $6

As an Asian, I would say that Tuna Sashimi and Avocado Salad was specially created with creamy sauce lending a close touch to us. Not only that it gets the diners hands on.

Tuna Sashimi & Avocado Salad Asian Style - $12

Smashed avocado jam was beautifully done up in a pancake size with cubes of fresh red tuna sashimi laid on top of them and in the middle a hard boiled egg yolk. These colors combination together with garnishing like sesame seeds, shredded scallions and english parsley aids levelling up its presentation.

Close up on the Tuna Sashimi and Avocado

Our dish was shared among 4 of us and it took us quite a bit of time to properly divided them up.And finally, scoop a portion of the yolk, avocados, tuna and salad dressing onto the flat sheet of seaweed.

Next in the menu with its Homemade Kua Pao served in Plain flavours. Other flavours like matcha, turmeric, beets, sesame and prune are available too. Mentioned earlier on, the pao skin was homemade too.

Homemade Kua Pao in Assorted Flavours

What's the verdict? They are tender and soft with a slice of lean char siew tucked into its pocket with shredded cucumber and scallions. It won't go wrong if you scrapped some yummy brown sauce from the place to go with it.

These dumpings were filled with meat and vegetables wrapped in their thin dough and pan fried to have cripsy exterior. The delicate Gyoza skin is commendable and more fillings may make it perfect for me. Enjoy them by dabbing them on the vinegar or chilli oil.

Homemade Pan-fried Gyoza - $5

Shiro (White) Tonkotsu Ramen is the basic version with the standard base. Broth was prepared with blaching the bones and it can with chewy cloud ears mushrooms, onsen egg and 2 slices of pork meat.

Tonkotsu Shiro Ramen - $12

Curious about the texture of homemade ramen? Have a try here!

Tonkotsu Shiro Ramen - $12

Kuro Ramen whereby "Kuro" literally describes "black" in the ramen. The process of creating such a dish involved shallots and garlic fried in sauce at 4 different level in order to achieve the fragrance. The bowl has a soup base layered with Sesame oil (mayu) with 2 slices of char siew and a half boiled egg.

Tonkotsu Kuro Ramen - $13

Anything that relates to soy will reduce the spiciness of the food and Nick had us well prepared for the next dish by serving us the Pineapple Makegeolli, an alcoholic beverage in milky off-white color with 6-8% alcohol content. Its my first try on the foamy beverage and it tasted good with pineapple.

Makgeolli- Pineapple - $7 / glass

"Aka" when translated from Japanese means "red" thus, its name had somehow or rather hinted its spiciness in the broth. And exactly, the preparation of the stock comes from the combination of seafood and spicy szechuan pepper , XO sauce with scallops. The bowl of ramen is different from the other two we had tried as it did not have an egg nor "char siew" (pork meat) in there.

Tonkotsu Aka Ramen - $13

We were so lucky that our friendly host Nick gave us another round of demonstration on their take away Ramen. The take away Ramen Noodles was kept in these vibrant colored boxes with ramen kept in the top layer and the soup in the second.
Air vent was required to be release to prevent excess moisture from turning the ramen soggy.

Nick also explained that a different recipe is used for take away. The noodles used are slightly harder than those used for the dine in ones. Again the reason for that is, they do not wish the quality of the noodles being compromised by the heat.

Almond Jelly with Framboise is served in an elegant glass. A close look onto the dessert and you will find that it is made up of 3 distinctive layers with the top white as almond, followed by raspberry and passionfruit .

Almond Jelly with Framboise - $5

Using a dessert spoon and cut into the wobbly top layer was real exciting to the table as the savoury rasberry flavours flowed out immediately. Taste was a combination of sour-sweet and relates close to the taste of the italian classic dessert, panna cotta.

Having addicted with Makgeolli, we requested for another shot with a different flavour. Nick was generous to offer us another toast!

The strawberry flavour makegeolli was as good as the pineapple. Just wish I can have a try on all flavours. Haha!

Makgeolli - Strawberry Flavour - $7 / glass

With the last shot of drink, our tasting came to an end. Hospitality by the host was simply too great to put them down in words. Fusion food from Japanese-Chinese always stir up the curiosity in me and I always find them an indulgence.
On the weekdays, Salad Bar is also available. The salad bar strikes a good balance to go with the ramens, catered especially for the health conscious healthy patrons out there.

(以上食評乃用戶個人意見 , 並不代表OpenRice之觀點。)

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