Grilled Fish Keisuke, Tanjong Pagar Road

 

Nice! Keisuke has opened up a (mostly) grilled fish teishoku shop on the unit (101 Tanjong Pagar Road) that used to house his tendon-ya Ginza Tendon Itsuki which ended business earlier in the month. We (also read as 'I') needed this in between bridging the crazy queue at Nakajima Suisan and the pricey Suju.

They've stepped up with the condiments in this shop featuring a briny mentaiko ika, a beefy savoury gyu shigure ni and a salty spicy karashi tanaka.

Teishoku comes with rice, miso soup and a fried egg. They're bottomless along with the condiments except for that fried egg and the protein of choice.

Which made it dangerous because the condiments were intensely flavoured and well salted to pair with rice. I had seconds.

Gratuitous molten yolk porn.

We had the gindara and akauo misozuke yaki. Grilled black cod and Pacific Ocean perch that's been marinated with miso in English. Both fishes were nicely done with crisp skin and a layer of light smoky sweetness from the marinate. I look forward to coming back - I spied gyutan and kinmedai.

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.

Takagi Ramen, Redhill

Takagi Ramen has been around for about a decade. 24 hour ramen shop with a Japanese-y name but they're local. They first sprung up after a site which shares the same initials was taken down 10 years ago...for reasons. 😏 Over the years, I've heard mentions of them which have been a mixed bag of opinions. Was never curious until recently. Anyways, this one was the branch at Redhill (#01-11 ARTRA, 12 Alexandra View).

That's the tantanmen. 担担面 inspired obviously. It's not bad. It's edible. 🌶️ The sweet spicy nuttiness was unmistakeable. But it's also not great. Broth would benefit with better flavouring. They're obviously not seeped deep enough in ramen culture to even provide a noodle doneness option. Would have been nice if the noodles were firmer. Eating here reminded me what I'm paying for going to shops like Keisuke, Brothers Ramen and...maybe not Ippudo. Ippudo is just expensive.

The lower cost here is commensurated by the quality. They are available all hours for a quick fix though.

Kaedama is free apparently. It's something I normally don't do but I guess I was hungry enough to today. The cake of noodles held its form in entirety as I stabbed my chopsticks into it to move them into the broth. 😲

The marking on the box and the yellow sign was sending mixed signals. Ramen soup in a box?! Noodles aside, room for improvement could definitely include more conscientiousness with the cleanliness of the shop. Seriously. 

The end of Keisuke Plus

Keisuke Plus is folding up. Kinda sad because there's gonna be a bunch of stuff we're gonna miss from them that isn't available anywhere else. As it was with their duck broth ramen from Ginza Kamo Soba Kyudaime Keisuke it might disappear and never be available again. We came back to get some of the stuff we liked because it might be the last time we'll ever get to.

Like their Hokkaido oyster broth ramen.

And their wagyu mazesoba.

And also their tastier than Mashi No Mashi's wagyu gyoza.

Between Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo's Jiro style ramen and Brothers Ramen's megamen......

I'm gonna go with Brothers Ramen's megamen. Especially that dry megamen. This Jiro style bowl bowl didn't even live up itself not a couple years back. Something has changed. I said I liked the megamen a bit more then. Now I think I prefer the megamen quite a bit more.

While I wouldn't claim that the bowl as fallen into the realm of mediocrity, it just didn't taste as satisfying as the first time I had it.

What was outright disappointing was the charshu which I left mostly untouched because it was dry and hard. This was just no good. I expected better out of this.

Lobster broth ramen & mentai gyoza from Ramen Hitoyoshi

Saw this at Ramen Hitoyoshi and got a bowl thinking that we'd be getting something similar to Keisuke's lobster broth ramen. We were sadly mistaken. While we didn't expect an actual lobster bisque, this was just a tonkotsu broth accented with some prawny flavour. Which would have been fine if described as such. Sticking a 'lobster broth' to the name raises expectations and this one hadn't the depth that Keisuke's has for sure. Quite disappointing.

Due to some cosmic oddity, their mentai gyoza which looked like it had pretty generous portions of mentaiko did not taste much of mentaiko at all. 🤔 It was salty, sure. Not flavoured anywhere close to what the strip of red roe suggested. Also disappointing.

Ramen Keisuke Singapore, Changi Airport Terminal 2

I've been curious about this outpost of Keisuke (#03-15 Changi Airport Terminal 2, 60 Airport Boulevard, tel : +65 6225 2235) for a while now because their menu featured a bunch of non-regular items that aren't available in the rest of the chain - local flavoured noodles/ramen. Presumably these are included in this outlet because it is the airport and they're showcase of local flavours.

This was the bak kut teh ramen. Pork ribs were slide off the bone tender and I love those roasted garlic cloves they included. That was all I liked. The broth while identifiable as bak kut teh was thin, lacking complexity from the herb/spices and felt oily. It clearly identifies itself as an interpretation and not the actual. So for the record, the actual is better than the interpretation. Noodles were too soft for my liking.

Sichuan Tianfu Restaurant (天府川菜), Grantral Mall @ Clementi

Trying another Chinese shop (#01-17/18 Grantral Mall, 3151 Commonwealth Avenue West, tel : +65 6777 1866) with a pretty extensive menu. Sichuan Tianfu Restaurant is located at the other end of Grantral Mall from where Huang Tu Di Xi’An Delights used to be.

Their mapo tofu is one of the better ones we've had. Which isn't much actually. 😂 The memorable ones that comes to mind from before were from Chen's Mapo Tofu and Keisuke's Gyoza King. What ticked the boxes here were the flavour from the Sichuan peppercorn and their prominent presence of fermented black beans. Nice bit of heat too. I could definitely come back for this. 

Love the sour from the broth in their spicy and sour beef (酸汤肥牛). Thought I detected ginger in it. Red chilli's spicy and the green ones aren't much. I'd rank Qing Hua Jiao X Jing Yue Rong a bit higher in terms of preferences but I'll be happy to have both.

Competently done stir fried cabbage with dried chilli. There're also some Sichuan peppercorns in it in case anyone wants to know and wish to avoid biting into them. What I liked about this dish was also how they had gotten the timing of the vegetables just right that they were properly cooked and yet retained a nice crunch.

This was called home style fried rice; or 农家炒饭. The names do not translate into each other. We liked it. It's much better in terms of composite and flavour than the vegetarian fried rice from 鼎泰豐. Lots of chopped greens, egg and adequate salt.

Shirinashi Tantan Men from Keisuke Plus

Trying the tantanmen (Japanese 担担面 if anyone's still wondering) at Keisuke Plus. Not much surprises here with the sesame/nutty flavour profile with a bit of heat that hummed in the sauce. A bit of extra chilli oil and discreet splashes of vinegar gives it dimension.

While there aren't surprises, I did not expect that the crushed nuts that was used in the noodles included almonds. That's the first time I'm seeing them in these noodles. Could actually taste the nut through all the flavours.

Scrambled Egg Rice Keisuke, Bugis+

This spot (#04-01 Bugis+, 201 Victoria Street) has been held by Keisuke for a while now. It was originally their omu rice shop which later became their aburi kaisendon shop. Both of which I've never eaten at. I wanted to try their kaisendon today but discovered that it has become Scrambled Egg Rice Keisuke. The concepts that gestate here appears transient not by design. 

Anyways, I liked it. It's comfort food. The base item is a bowl of scrambled egg on top of rice. One can add toppings. This bowl that I've gotten has atsugiri ham cutlet (which was the same thing I had at Keisuke Plus but smaller) and aburi mentaiko with cheese. Ham's salty and a little smoky. Don't mind coming back.

Wagyu beef broth ramen from Keisuke Plus

I did not like this bowl from Keisuke Plus as much as the other wagyu broth from Mashi no Mashi. While it did taste beefy at the start, the flavour suffered from diminishing returns. It got less beefy as we went through the bowl. Noodles were also too soft for their 'hard' option.

Wagyu's thin sliced and pretty tender.  See that lump of minced ginger camouflaged in there? I did not like it. Why would that be necessary if the key component to this bowl was the wagyu. Did not make sense to me.

There's a wonton hidden in it. I'm assuming it's beef as well but the dominant flavour that got through was sesame oil. Tasted very Chinese. Now that I've tried it, I know. Will not be getting this again.

Mt. Cheese King from Ramen Nagi

Current limited king at Ramen Nagi - the Mt. Cheese King. It looked disappointing. #disappointed

Because this picture was what got me sold. It's a lot less cheese and I did not expect the base to be the same pesto one as their Green King. My mind was prepared for tonkotsu and powdered cheese. A lot of powdered cheese. And I was definitely not looking forward to pesto in it as well.

This bowl was basically their Green King with a bit more powdered cheese and some toasted pine nuts. Cheese wasn't a dominant flavour in this bowl. I felt lied to but I have only myself to blame for thinking that Ramen Nagi would deliver. They haven't for tonkotsu ramen for a while. Chains like Keisuke and Ippudo have better tasting tonkotsu broth. It's time I had that etched in my brain.

There's cheese gyoza. These were a nicer eat. The crispy skirt tasted like the cheese flavoured version of the usual thing.

The actual gyoza were disturbingly small with mashy fillings which I had difficulty identifying. The shape and size of the gyozas brought up images of silkworm pupa.

Keisuke Plus, Funan

Keisuke Plus, or is that K+ (#01-15 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6320 3456) is the new offshoot from the Keisuke Group, themed as a ramen/gyoza/sake bar and restaurant kind of eatery. The menu sports a selection of ramen that isn't available in any of their other shops. 

Place looks a little more fancy than their usual ramen joints. The tradition of free hard boiled eggs and bean sprouts is continued here.

One of the things Keisuke Plus appears to be doing is showcasing what they can do with wagyu. Which isn't a new thing or uncommon in this era. We had an order of their wagyu gyoza.

It's delicious. Beefy gyoza kind of delicious, seeping with flavourful oils. This blows the more expensive ones from Mashi No Mashi out of the water just by the virtue that we could tell that it was beef.

This - their wagyu mazesoba.

Nice. There's a mixture of flavours from the ingredients which somehow did not overwhelm the intrinsic flavour from the meat. I'm reminded of a beefy bak chor mee.

Mazesoba was also good with the hot sauce they bring to you for it. This one was not that spicy.

The bowl that hit like a punch from Saitama was their Hokkaido oyster broth ramen.👊🏻 Umami, creamy and intensely flavoured with the shellfish. Good on its own and also good with the squeeze of lemon. I recommend some before the lemon and some after. From the point of flavour intensity as an oyster based broth, this was ahead of the oyster paitan bowl from Konjiki Hototogisu. 

Even with splashes of the Lemosco, it was good eating. If anyone was wondering,  that's a lemony/yuzu-y sauce with a bit of heat - like a lemon Tabasco.

We also came across one of the better if not best hamu katsu in town. Thick with a proper panko crust. This was so much better than the one at Hakata Yakitori Batten Yokatoh.