Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen - Best Ramen

Actually, I have a slight phobia of eating ramen. The oily, heavy and salty soup with a strong smell of pork, combined with the alkaline taste of ramen noodles—these usually are too strong for my tastes. I had tried the soup base of a number of famous ramen restaurants and had always ended up stopping after one sip. The one exception is the ramen in Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen.

One of the main reasons is because despite the milky appearance, the soup is light, infused with the flavours of fresh vegetables and not oily. It tastes almost like clear soup, which is what I prefer. Moreover, the soup is very flavourful due to the use of pork bones, yet there is no hint of that strong pungent smell of pork that is evident in lots of ramens—just like how the fishy smell is off-putting in fishes, if you know what I mean.

Another thing I like about the ramen here is that lots of fresh vegetables are added, so there is variation to the taste and texture instead of just downing strands of starch and carbohydrates. The noodles are a bit soggy, but I appreciate that they do not have that taste of lye that I dislike. Recommend to dip the food in the soya sauce mixed with freshly crushed garlic to up the simulating factor. Yes, you get to crush the garlics by yourself.

The tori kaarage is tasty with no hint of the smell of stale oil—I am sensitive to that. The gyoza is decent due to the fresh pork used.

The place is quite cramped and humble in terms of furnishing. At least, it is clean. The service is pretty good. Not exceptional when it comes to attentiveness and promptness, but they do give off a vibe that they enjoy what they are doing instead of executing what is expected of them. Special mention of the chef who not only handles the cooking station well in full view of the patrons, he is also very alert, responding promptly to our requests.

This is the only place I will go for ramen. Glad to find a restaurant that gets me to appreciate ramen and don't mind eating it again.

Update: Okay, the accolade of best ramen now goes to Burosu Honten Gyoza and Ramen instead.

My Thoughts: Nice!

Nearest car park: Square 2's car park

Nearest MRT: Novena

10 Sinaran Drive

Square 2 #02-68/69

Singapore

Contact No: 63976636

Twelve Cupcakes (United Square) - Light, Fluffy Cupcakes

Light, fluffy cupcakes, not only in terms of the texture of the cake, the same goes to the cream frostings, exactly how I like my cupcakes to be. I always have bad impressions of cupcakes due to extremely dense and oily nature of these confectioneries, Twelve cupcakes changed my mind.

The cake itself is great in texture though lacking in aroma, the star is more of the frosting (for non chocolate ones) which is light, not too sweet and imbued with the taste of cream cheese or strawberry. It is hard to resist finishing more than 1 at one go! Despite the rave reviews on Red Velvet, I do not find this cupcake to that fantastic at all. In fact, this applies to all the chocolate cupcakes of this place, all of them are very one dimensional in taste and the chocolately taste is not even that strong. Obviously, the chocolate used is not of premium quality. Nonetheless, the non chocolate ones are still worth trying. The service is so so.

All in all, the cupcakes are nice enough for me to buy them if I'm in the vicinity of United Square, but I'll not specially go down just to buy them, unlike what I did for Flor's cakes.

Update: Tried the cupcakes again on an occasion, I felt the cake is too dry.

My Thoughts: Pretty Okay

Nearest car park: United Square's car park

Nearest MRT: Novena

United Square
#B1-60
Singapore
Contact No: 62568130