Ippudo Singapore, Mandarin Gallery

It was the most fortunate thing that I arrived here before the queue started snaking out from the entrance at Ippudo (333A Orchard Road, #04-02/03/04 Mandarin Gallery, tel : +65 6235 2797). A few moments later, and I would have been on of those standing in line wondering why are the seated people taking so long just to finish a bowl of ramen. One of the main reasons that prompted me to try them out were that it was recommended by some friends and that Ippudo does Hakata styled ramen which was the type of tonkotsu (pork bone based) broth with straight noodles which I liked. I must admit that the owner, being dubbed Ramen King did intrigue me a little. Still I told myself to set realistic expectations of what I'd be getting.

To start off with a couple of broad strokes, the option of the hard ramen was certainly appreciated and the shoyu flavors in the egg were barely perceptible. The latter was certainly unexpectedly so since Marutama did their egg so much better.

The shiromaru with egg bowl was basically the straightforward tonkotsu based ramen with no frills. Interestingly, the soup had a depth of porkiness which is often not very noticeable and despite being so, it was not overly heavy. The sliced pork that was used also came with a stronger flavor of pork than the pork belly that was included in the akamaru bowl.

The akamaru ramen had a more interesting broth in terms of the blend of flavour. It definitely had more dimensions coming with the faint taste from the blackened garlic oil and that dollop of miso. The diced onions that came with each spoonful of broth added to that effect and it turned out to be quite balanced without any of the flavors being overwhelming. That also seemed to reduce the porkiness of the broth which the shiromaru had.

Couldn't find anything to really fault the thin slices of soy infused pork belly slices in this ramen except for the fact that they were a little small.

Interesting pork buns with delectable meat. The meat was in really small portion.

I suppose I liked Ippudo but the queue as it seemed to be still, would probably keep me away. I could always drop by places like Tampopo or Ichibantei for a quick fix of tonkotsu ramen instead. Those guys are pretty decent too.