Sunday, March 25, 2007

Noodle House Ken, Orchard Plaza


I first stumbled upon this shop along the side of the Orchard Plaza a few years back. Noticed that most of the people eating here were Japanese so the natural and logical conclusion that one would arrive at would be that the food here was probably as close as it can get to without being in Japan. Thought it would be a good idea to check out their ramen. The setup did look promising. Subsequently, I have revisited a couple of other times. Until this visit, I realized that I have never paid attention to the name of the shop. 

This was the Noodle House Ken (Orchard Plaza, 150 Orchard Road #01-17/18) that I've heard people talking about. Talk about being oblivious to my surroundings.

char siew ramen

My last visit to this place was some time ago, so I can't remember much of their ramen. This visit could be construed as a clean slate in getting re-acquainted with the food here. But the first thoughts were that I recalled it being better. More delicious. Then memory can be a fickle mistress while taste and expectations do evolve. I'm not complaining about the noodles. At $12 a bowl, I thought it was fair in this part of town. For additional $2, I got the top up options of a stewed egg. Rather expensive for an egg but it was delicious. I wished that they had those straight noodles like the ones Ajisen does though.

5 comments:

D said...

Well they are one of the betters ones around and they open late on weekends as well which is useful for those midnight hunger pangs.

Anonymous said...

omg. ls u going get stoned for saying the noodles in ken is not good enuff. infact it's one of the best in sg. imo ajisen's 'ramen' for a lack of appropiate name is more like spagetti than anything like it's eastern counterpart. but then one man's meat is another's poison...

Anonymous said...

Hey there.. got ur blog from a friend. Hope u're doing well. Maybe u would like to try Ikukan at Mohammad Ali lane. Nice ambience and nice food, to me anyways. Would like to hear ur opinion on it. (Note: Somewhat pricey)

Anonymous said...

i agree! ken's ramen is one of the best ever i've tried, even better than the one at gallery hotel! it's closest rival is nanten at robertson quay. i don't mean to be rude, but after i tried some of these authentic ramen places, i left 3/4 of my bowl of ajisen ramen untouched. it's more like chinese ramen than jap ramen, if u ask me.

LiquidShaDow said...

In case this gets out of hand, I must say that noodle textures are very subjective to preferences. So before anyone gets defensive, I think Ken is ok. I don't eat ramen that much. Generally prefer soba because of the firmer texture which is more "spaghetti like" as put up. Which is precisely the reason why I like Ajisen. If you've been reading my blog, you would know what are my feelings over the word "authentic".

@ haslina
Hi, thanks for leaving a comment and dropping. Long time no see. I do intend to visit Ikukan, but I'm looking for someone who's willing to go with me. Lol.