My event: August 25, 2010
Ramen Bar
Ground Floor,
New Eastwood Mall
Eastwood City, Libis
Quezon City
5709457
When my friends and I meet and ate at The Old Vine by Chef's Quarter on the first week of August, Ramen Bar was still under construction just beside O'sonho Portuguese restaurant. I was surprised when I received an email from the co-owner, Charles Paw, to try the newest kid in Eastwood City. They opened over a week ago. 2 Japanese and a Filipino- Chinese owned this funky ramen bar with a Japanese chef, Masa Ishikawa, manning the kitchen that's why you can be sure that you are having an authentic Japanese ramen ; p
facade
Now, Ramen Bar is not all about noodles, thank God! haha For starters, we were served with karaage, fried boneless chicken. A side salad with mayo is served along with 3 fried chicken meat.
karaage PhP155
salt with black pepper karaage dip
Karaage came with a saucer of salt mixed with black pepper. I tried dipping the chicken but cringe because it's way too salty for me. Anyway, the chicken in itself is really good.
yakiniku beef PhP195
I am more of a beef lover than a chicken lover. So, when this was served, my eyes lit up ; p From what Charles have told me, they serve only Australian beef. Some of the beef strips were hard to chew while others were not. When Charles approached my table to get my comment, I told him about the beef so that he will be able to check it.
R.B.S. #1 PhP380
I was with my parents when I went to try Ramen Bar and they both voted that R.B.S. #1 is way better than Sapporo Miso Ramen.
R.B.S. #1 is soy infused tonkotsu ramen topped with tamago, naruto, nori, negi, chasyu and kakuni.
Tamago soft boiled egg marinated for 48 hours
Tonkotsu pork bone sop boiled for 20 hours
Chasyu sliced pork
Kakuni braised pork belly
Naruto fish sticks
Nori dried seaweed
Negi spring onion
I was such a naive girl looking for the usual tamago I know from Japanese restaurant floating on my soup. Alas, I found out that the tamago was "the" soft boiled egg marinated for 48 hours and sliced into half. No wonder I didn't see tamago floating around my soup. What a blunder!
kakuni buns PhP180
You know how I fancy cuapao from Fu Chi Dumplings, right? Now, here is a Japanese version. Kakuni is braised pork belly wrapped in white bun. The white bun was not as good as the one I had in Fu Chi. From what I have learned, on the day that I went, the usually smaller white buns were not available. Maybe I should try to order this next time with the correct white bun hehe And I would opt to separate the sauce as it was kind of overwhelming to taste.
sapporo miso ramen PhP320
Now, I don't know if we ate this last and we were already full from all the other dishes that the sapporo miso ramen was not raved about as much as the R.B.S. #1.
Sapporo Miso Ramen as its name implies is miso infused tonkotsu ramen topped with tamago, naruto, negi, chasyu, butter and corn.
On my initial taste, the corn balances the taste for the whole soup and I like it. But I got to the point that I agreed with my parents about how they liked the R.B.S. #1 more because I find its soup lighter. Maybe the butter in Sapporo made the soup creamier thus making it less slurpy for me.
tempura ice cream PhP120
Tempura ice cream consists of 2 balls of fried vanilla ice cream sliced in half with chocolate dip and a choco stick! Be sure to eat it before it melts ; p
red, black and beige interior; informal seating arrangement
I find the seating arrangement on the right facing the restaurant too informal because you are sharing your long table with different people. I was brought back to the canteen style set up during my university years. But maybe it's the right set up considering the numerous diners that they have at the time of my visit.
I also noticed that there is a fast turn around of diners and that means this restaurant serves good ramen. We left the place with a full stomach to say the least!
Now, I have not been to Japan and I am not really fond of noodles. I will have to drag my DH for his final say on Ramen Bar... crossing my fingers!
