ronnycakes reviews: Ippudo Ramen, Pavilion KL

Being a ramen fan faced with a highly anticipated new ramen chain, I wouldn’t miss being standing in line within the first few weeks for all the world. For me, the best ramen I’ve tried so far still remains as Santouka, but I think I’ve finally met another bowl of ramen that could definitely give Santouka a run for it’s money.

Ippudo originated in 1985 from Fukuoka Japan, and claims that they were the first to refer to broth by colour which soon became a standard industry practice (as seen in Menya Musashi as well). The Shiromaru and Akamaru style of broth are still considered as Ippudo’s signature ramen. Ippudo has since expanded all over the world to Sydney, New York, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Sydney and Singapore. The founder of Ippudo, Shigemia Kawahara is no small fry either as he is considered Japan’s “Ramen King”, winning the title in a competition in 2005. As for Ippudo, it has won Tokyo’s Ramen of the Year Award for 2010-2011 and even Santouka Ramen was opened by one of his disciples.

With all that, how can I not be excited to try it out myself?

We went early to skip the queue, but even at 11.30am, the shop was already almost packed to the brim, and as we left the place, we saw a queue slowly starting to form.

The interior design is of spotlights and wooden fixtures, with white-black-red being their main colour scheme. Bowls and spoons used in serving the ramen are also utilized as modern and trendy decor.

For starters we had the Curry Cheese Harumaki (RM10). Deep-fried spring rolls with a crispy exterior and soft curry-cheesy interior. One thing definitely worth mentioning about Ippudo is that unlike the other ramen chains that make ramen the sole offering of the menu (with the exception of rice or other generic Japanese dishes), Ippudo actually has a very extended side dish menu varying from fried corn to miso tofu in a stone pot. Definitely will have to check those out some time.

I went for the Shiromaru Tamago (RM28); Ippudo’s original tonkotsu broth served with ultra thin noodles, belly chashu, bean sprouts, kikurage and spring onions. I found the soup to be lovely and flavourful and somewhat lighter than the one at Santouka. Another plus point at Ippudo is that they let the diner decide how cooked they want the ramen to be. That’s definitely something my mum would appreciate because she always complains that Santouka’s ramen is too undercooked.

Wils had the Karaka Tamago (RM30); which is tonkotsu broth flavoured with special spicy miso and ground pork with a flavoured egg. This one was definitely something I felt blew everything I’ve tried out of the water. What made this unique and different was the addition of ground pork. Absolutely yummy!

 
The chashu you get at Ippudo is slightly fattier but has a melt-in-your-mouth consistency.

Enjoying our bowl of ramen and can’t wait to go back for more!

Price-wise, Ippudo is slightly steeper than the other ramen chains we’ve reviewed but I think that the slight price increase is definitely justifiable by the taste of the broth. Don’t miss this one if you’re as big of a ramen fan as I am!

Address:
Level 4, Pavilion Shopping Mall,
Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.

Map *here*

ronnycakes reviews: Spasso Milano, Pavilion KL

We hear that Spasso Milano has moved from Jalan Ampang to the top floor at Pavilion, taking over what used to be the Angus Steakhouse. We’re suckers for non-halal Italian food so how could we miss this one out?

The executive chef at Spasso Milano is Italian, so rest assured that everything served here is authentic Italian food that some say is country-style.

For starters, we had a Pizza Aromatica (RM12.80): pizza bread topped with olive oil, oregano, salt and baked in a wood-fire oven.

This was absolutely delicious, you could taste the wood-fire aroma in every slice of the crispy pizza bread. Perfectly seasoned with salt and spices as well!

 
I had the Aglio Olio with Italian Sausage (RM28), one of my favourite styles of pastas of all time.
After such a promising starter, Wils and I had such high hopes for the main courses but I was quite disappointed with my pasta. It was bland and was slightly too oily for my palate, with the only savoury thing being the pork sausage.

 
Wils had the All’amatriciana (RM28.80); tomato, bacon, onion, chili flakes and pecorino. This went the same way as my olio: bland and flavourless. We couldn’t even taste the bacon bits and there was no tang in the tomato sauce.

After doing quick google searches after our experience at Spasso Milano, I was surprised that other food bloggers rated the food so highly after our disappointing trip. This leads me to think maybe we were just unlucky on our trip when the standard of food was slightly down?

 

We did also see the lunch antipasti buffet at a very reasonable price (RM18++ per person) so that’s something to return for!

Address:
Lot 6.44 & 6.45,
Level 6, Pavilion KL, 
168 Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur

Map *here*

ronnycakes reviews: New Shanghai 新上海, Pavilion KL

Tucked away in the farthest corner of Pavilion’s food basement floor is New Shanghai (新上海); a tiny restaurant that serves pork-free dim sum. I’m always incredibly skeptical of pork-free dim sum somehow it just never tastes as good, but because New Shanghai is constantly patronized by throngs and throngs of people we decided to check it out to see what all the fuss was about.

An olden day bicycle complete with rattan baskets – vintage posters on brick walls – takeaway boxes?

Buns steaming away – New Shanghai’s open kitchen – a very Shanghai-esque dining interior.

At New Shanghai, you help yourself to the food, i.e. you queue up at the end of the line and pick and choose what you want from the fried items, baked items, steamed buns and dessert. As for steamed dim sum, you order it at the counter and they’ll deliver it to your table freshly steamed.

Our first plate of greed, Deep Fried Prawn Roll, Deep Fried Crab Roll and Pan Fried Fish Cake. Best thing for me was the fish cake, tasted hand-made and authentic. Not like those machine-made-bleached-white fish cakes.

Nyom nyom, look at that glistening oil…

The Pan Fried Lotus Root Pancake was one of the more unique items; lotus root blended with chicken paste.

Shrimp Dumplings (or Har Gau) were one of the highlights of the trip, with huge, fresh and juicy prawns in each delicately wrapped dumpling.

The never-missed Siew Mai (Pork and Prawn Dumplings, in this case chicken) was pretty good, almost good enough to forget that it was made of chicken.

Shanghainese Dumplings were served with chili oil and spring onion. This was pretty average and tasted exactly like what it was made of: chicken.

 
I think this is Shrimp Wanton (the result of having too many backlogged reviews T.T) but I distinctly remember it as tasting quite similar to the Shanghainese Dumplings.

We finished off our meal with a refreshing Osmanthus Cake, a blend of jelly with Osmanthus flowers and wolfberries. Sadly the flowers were not aromatic enough and all we tasted was sweet jelly.

All in all, dim sum at New Shanghai has its hits and misses but our experience was generally a good one. Pork-free dim sum is done very well, sometimes one even starts to forget that everything is made with chicken…
If you’re planning to come by New Shanghai, do come a little earlier or a little after lunchtime as it can get quite packed and chaotic, not to mention service definitely drops a couple of notches during peak times.

Address:
Lot 1.02.00, Pavilion KL,
168, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel:03-2142 2833

Map *here*

Clarissane reviews: Suki-Ya & En Ginza Café, Tokyo Street Pavilion KL

A way overdue post, I’ve finally stop my procrastination. I am back!

Blogospheres spotted all around have many reviews about the still-quite new Tokyo Street in Pavilion KL which opened mid this year. I’ve read all the rave about Santouka Ramen (which Ronnycakes & Wils have reviewed) and the new Café Takahashi that I’ve both yet to try! Haven’t been there for a while now.. my food trips have been very rare these days sigh!

Anyways, if you are a fan of Shabu Shabu and Sukiyaki (like me!!) and cannot get enough of it, this is the place for you. Priced reasonably at RM 29.90++ for lunch (different prices for dinner) it’s an eat-all-you-can… literally eat till you drop.

Limitless amount of meat is made to order with beef, lamb and chicken for you to choose. I of course stuck to my usual beef. The lamb slices for that day were not available for some reason with the chicken slices being the usual.

Choose from three choices of soup: Sukiyaki, Shabu Shabu or Kimchi. I went for the Shabu Shabu and Kimchi. Needless to say, the shabu shabu was delicious but the kimchi was mediocre.. could do much better with more seasoning and taste.

Wide variety of vegetables, mushrooms and beancurd with some fishballs thrown in as well.. makes for a balanced meal.

Side orders are available as well like the above Shrimp Tempura (another crowd favourite!).

Different people have different ways of eating shabu shabu. Some just dump everything in (like the Japanese, and apparently this is the way to eat it) but I prefer dipping the meat into the hot soup, simmer for a few seconds till its half-cooked and voila, ready to eat with just the right texture and juiciness.. ahh heavenly!

Finish the meal by adding an egg, vegetables and noodles into the soup that has been used to cook the meat.. and you get a very VERY tasty meal with all the flavour leftover from the meat. Typical case of saving the best for the last! ;)

Now I know where to get my fix of limitless beef slices! Oh, and they do have desserts as well.. chocolate or green tea ice-cream.. a perfect way to end your meal!

En Ginza Café, another Japanese inspired outlet is great for chilling out sessions with the girlfriends over a cup of coffee. My cappuccino was nice, frothy and thick with the perfect taste of being sweet and bitter at the same time.. just how I like my coffee to be.

The Ice-Blended Green Tea was something out of the ordinary.. I found it a little too milky for my liking though, but if you’re a big fan of green tea and love milk.. I’m pretty sure you would enjoy this.

And of course, a café would be incomplete without the usual buns and pastries. I’m not sure if this is how Japanese breads are supposed to taste like but I found the bread texture dry and hard. A personal preference, I prefer my breads soft and fluffy :D

I would probably come back for their coffee and ambience but I’ll definitely give their buns a miss. They do serve hot main meals as well.

P/S: Forgive me for the not-so-clear photos.. haven’t downloaded a good photo-editing software since my old laptop got stolen. I promise better photos in my upcoming posts! :)

Address:
Suki-Ya and En Ginza Café,
Level 6, Tokyo Street,
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

ronnycakes and Wils reviews: Hokkaido Santouka Ramen, Pavilion KL

The first time we visited the newly opened Tokyo Street in Pavilion, we took a walk after lunch and had a look at all the restaurants there. The one that stood out was Santouka Ramen which despite being on the pricey side, was packed to the brim while other places were sparsely filled. Not to mention the incredible aroma when you get within 10m of the shop.

Look at the queue! Luckily we headed there early as the line started to form from 12.30 onwards.

Turns out that Santouka Ramen is an internationally renowned ramen chain with numerous stores in different Japanese districts, various states in the USA as well as in Canada, Singapore, and Hong Kong. This outlet in Pavilion is the first one to reach Malaysian shores.

The interior of the restaurant is bustling with movement, tables packed relatively closely and waiters rushing from table to table to take customers’ orders.
Santouka Ramen’s specialty is it’s Pork Cheek Ramen but sadly because they can’t keep up with demand, the pork cheek wasn’t available separately.

First up we had a Miso Ramen (RM 25 for a medium sized bowl) which came with slices of black fungus, Japanese fishcake, 2 slices of pork and a smattering of bamboo shoots (my favourite!). The soup is the absolute bomb! You know that the soup is made of the good stuff just by looking at it’s pearl colour. Pork bones are simmered for 20 hours before adding kelp and dried fish which intensifies the flavour of the soup. The noodles are just nicely done as well, not too hard or too overcooked. It may look small but a medium-sized bowl is more than enough for average appetites.

The Kara-Miso Ramen (RM27 for a medium portion) did not disappoint either. In my opinion, this one was actually better than the Miso Ramen. Ingredients in both bowls were the same but this one had a spicy kick (I’m a lover of everything spicy) and was more savoury compared to the miso one, which was milder in comparison. Nevertheless, both bowls certainly did not disappoint!

We also got a plate of Chicken Gyoza (RM 10) to share. Sad to say that from a place that serves pork, the gyoza was actually made from chicken meat. In my opinion, the best gyoza is always made from pork (or shrimp does the job too) and chicken gyoza just does not cut it. Bottom line: average.

All the different types of ramen displayed for the curious by passer.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and we left with our appetite fully satisfied. Although it may seem pricey for just a simple bowl of ramen, you are paying for quality ingredients and excellent food. We have yet to try the famous pork cheeks but various reviews have already been raving about them! If you’re interested in trying this place out, do come early to beat the lunch crowd as it can get extremely full during lunch time.

Address:

Tokyo Street,
Level 6 Pavilion KL 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Opening Hours; Mon – Sun: 10:00 am-10:00 pm

Map *here*