Muchas Muchachos (as transpired end June 2026)

Surprise update on Muchachos because we came back again.

To get the double cheeseburger before we can't get it anymore.

If anyone's wondering if it's juicy...

...wonder no more.

More of their country fried steak and buttery mash.

Trying their birria ramen for the first time. Sans cilantro.

Of places, Muchachos was definitely one of the last I'd expected to find an equivalent of a kickass 红烧牛肉面. I've never had a birria before and this was what it tasted like to me with that bovine depth, spicy greasiness and salt. A much better/more satisfying rendition of Chinese 红烧 beef noodle than what we've actually had in Taiwan. This was also just like how I remembered the beef noodle broth from Lai Lai back in the day when they were the Taiwanese beef noodle shop to be eating at.

Black Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen Premium Special from Keisuke's Tonkotsu King

I didn't realize that Keisuke's Tonkotsu King has a Tonkotsu Ramen Premium Special which was an upgrade from their regular "special" bowl with a pork rib. This bowl's nicely done, much like a tonkotsu-ized bak kut teh with tender meat on said rib that easily slid off the bone. I like this better than their attempt at bak kut teh ramen but I don't think I'll get it again. 

That wasabi ginger ale doesn't have any wasabi flavour at all. I'd take the spicy ginger ale from Marks & Spencers over this any day.

Bakuton ramen and a couple of other stuff from Ippudo

Ippudo has a limited time Bakuton ramen which was a Jiro styled bowl. I was skeptical but I decided to try it anyway.

Looked pretty but there was far too much fat in that thick slice of chashu. Even after soaking in the broth, the fat wasn't melty. Far from it. For many, this doneness and texture would fall within the "gag zone". Think the base broth had the flavour of soy or dashi. This has nothing on Keisuke's Jiro bowl and Brothers Ramen's Megamen (regular or dry).

I'm leaving this at their chahan was uninspiringly mundane. Wasn't a bad fried rice. Just...ordinary. 

The tastiest thing we had were crispy fried button mushrooms with truffle mayo cheese/sauce thingy which had an infusion of truffle flavouring that wasn't overpowering. 

Mashi no Mashi, Pickering Street

Mashi no Mashi (#01-42 Nankin Row, 3 Pickering Street, tel : +65 8957 8620) relocated from their previous location at Guoco Midtown to China Square. Place downsized physically from what looked to be a full restaurant to a ramen bar. The menu kinda went the same route and streamlined. I guess a few hard lessons were learnt there.

Some refreshing lemon soda water.

A la carte orders get a complimentary serving of of their charcoal grilled edamame. Wagyu fat is apparently involved. Most of the flavour is on the pods.

Something(s) has changed with their ultra wagyu bowl. I remember the broth being better. Beefier. I'm getting mushroom elements in the broth today. Like those from the gyukotsu bowl at Ramen Makotoya. Except that Ramen Makotoya did it better. Visually, one can already tell it has changed from their previous bowl.

The hard noodles weren't that hard as well. 😮‍💨 

There's a summer truffle bowl.

It's oddly a little sweet. Maybe it's the snow peas.

I decided not to continue putting up with the sweetness. One's made with Habanero and the other, Carolina Reaper. I recommend the latter if you enjoy heat. Instant scalp prickles. But it dragged the summer truffle bowl out of the annoying in the sweetness.

Their wagyu horumon featured offal in some sweet sauce that reminded me of those from bulgogi. I recognised tripe. There was another thing in there that was super chewy. I mean, super chewy.

This was Mr Mashi. Banana sherbet according to the menu with pecans and maple that tasted like ice cream rather than sherbet.

Ramen Makotoya, Zhongshan North Road @ Zhongshan District, Taipei

Came across Ramen Makotoya (No. 142, Minsheng West Road, Datong District, Taipei) by chance and was intrigued by their gyukotsu ramen which appeared to be a specialty. From what I gathered, the ramen-ya originates from Fukushima, Osaka.

Kaki frys had a nice crispy crust which wasn't excessively oily. Oysters were pretty good quality. Wished they were bigger though. 😬 

Gyozas were ordinary and had the textbook flavours. While it meant on one hand that they were competently done, they were also kinda boring. 😅

The milky broth of their gyukotsu was intriguing. There was a discernible beefiness and butteriness in it with undertones of mushrooms. Yeah, that mushroom-y element was pretty integral to the flavour. 

Overall, nicely done bowl. Wished the noodles were harder but otherwise, enjoyed it. If anyone was wondering, those charshu disintegrated in the mouth.

Not a fan of their shoyu bowl which I found to be too sweet. All that sweetness from the cabbage made it taste Chinese.

Their charshu don looked pretty ordinary. It was delicious in that ordinary sense with the sweet caramelized cubes of tender charshu, a richness from the molten yolk of the egg and the negi to cut through all of those. 

Once you've mixed in the pureed garlic (which you can request for) and a splash of gyoza white vinegar, this became addictively moreish. Outstanding. 👍🏼

Revisiting the mazesoba from Ramen Hitoyoshi (ラーメン人吉)

Been a while since we last had the mazesoba here. The bowl's the same. Didn't change and I certainly didn't expect it to be any different. What's changed here was that the sesame seeds are now in pepper mills and not sesame seed grinders which made it a huge...I mean huge pain in the ass grinding because those pepper mills just don't work well for sesame seeds. 😓 

Japanese bak chor mee some say. Not gonna disagree with that.

Revisiting Ikkousha @ Chijmes

Back at Ikkousha. Here's the bonito tonkotsu bowl I mentioned previously.

Their Gold Fried Rice didn't look particularly golden. 😂 It's not bad tasting though. With some pepper and spicy takana/pickled mustard greens (which you can help yourself to), it noticeably improved in my opinion.

Torasho Ramen & Charcoal Bar, Tras Street

We've been wanting to try Torasho Ramen & Charcoal Bar (32 Tras Street, tel : +65 6970 5055) for quite a while.

Finally got to do so recently. Food can be pretty pricey. Decent tasting but I wouldn't say it's great value for money.

These were their uni pillow. Sea urchin on seaweed topped with shiso flower. Each piece is...a little smaller than a one biter. Maybe 66-75% of a bite for me. Decent quality but wayyyy too small for $18 a pop.

Mapo ramen spiciness level 3. Heat packed much more punch than I imagined and I was glad we didn't shoot for a higher level. This was presumably the Japanese Chinese mapo gravy and didn't have much of the fermented bean flavour compared to the Chinese renditions. Not bad tasting as a whole but I'm not big on the texture of the noodles.

Tried their cold stupid ramen. In retrospect, I felt stupid paying $69 paying for this bowl which has a pretty predictable flavour profile of truffle oil and ikura that's kinda pervasive these days. Was the quality of this bowl exceptional? I did not think so. Seafood quality's decent and that's about all the good I could think of from it. Will never happen again.

Next Shikaku, Westgate

So another oyster broth ramen has sprung up (B1-28 Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive Mall, tel : +65 6592 5060). Next Shikaku from Osaka. The place looked a lot like a local bar/karaoke/watering hole than a ramen-ya. They claim that they specialise in using the freshest oysters in their ramen broth and I'm of the opinion that superlativity smells like rats.

They've been hyped as the first experiential oyster ramen store here. What in the world does that even mean? 🤔

This was their koeru bowl. Broth's creamy, smooth and has oyster flavour. Umami is a good word. But if one is looking for oyster-ly, this has nothing on the bowl from the defunct Keisuke Plus. It's actually less oyster-ly than the paitan bowl from Konjiki Hototogisu which I thought was decent until Keisuke Plus opened my eyes. 

With expectations laid from a place that claims to be an oyster broth ramen specialist, this was kinda underwhelming. Not a bad bowl of noodles though. Just wished that there was more than a lonely sad oyster in there.

I liked their asobu tsukemen better. Noodles were wide like pappardelle and had a nice firm bite to them. They were served in chilled water to preserve said texture but it also meant a lot of drips went into the dipping broth. Which was a more intense version of their koeru broth I think. Accented with pink peppercorn for that extra bit of floral note.

Beef sushi's nice. Thin sliced, fatty and flavourful with a small mound of rice.

Brothers Ramen: why the Spicy Dry Megamen again

I topped up $1.80 for the bonito and mayo for my bowl today. Just for the experience (一, 二 , 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一). Why this one again? Because again, I was hoping to get their niboshi bowl and it was not available. I wonder if that's permanently unavailable or do I just need to get it early in the day. Anyone knows?

I didn't dislike the add ons. It was nice for a bit but the mayo sorta wore its welcome from surfeit. Got tiring after a while because of the added creaminess on top of the already flavour bomb. Bonito's nice. Pretty big bowl though. In retrospect, I'm pretty happy with the basic megamen spiked with extra garlic. That's the clean flavour that endures the entire bowl.