Sunday night. Empty restaurant bar one table. And he was finishing off.

Ordered the butter ramen and the fried rce set.

The ramen came with the usual char siu and corn and a large knob of Hokkaido butter. The onions and spring onions aplenty. The soup was a white bone stock with white miso and garlic oil. It was strong, full of flavour just like the ones I've had in Sapporo. Surprised at the quality of the stock.

The ramen was the curly yellow type and with the soup and ingredients, it was quit substantial. The accompanying friend rice had egg and bits of charsiu too, so taken together this was a large enough meal even for 2.

Popped in for lunch previously for a chicken tikka kebab. Through th lettuce you can spot some chicken in there, wasn't a lot. But OK for $48 with a drink.

Saturday went for some lamb vindaloo and naan. The naan was done just right, a little crispy, not burnt. The lamb was tender and with the spicey curry it was a mouthful. Good taste. There was excess sauce, so I aked them to pack it for me to take home.

Chicken tikka was also tender, sizzling on its hotplate as it arrived. Had that with vegetable byriani. The rice, quite a large portion, was well spiced and tasted good.

If you arrive just after 6pm, you can be seated right away. At one time we arrived a little late, so it was full. We went across the road to Smart Pepperoni and ordered the curries from there. The restaurants are owned by the same people, so their food and seating can be interchangeable. And you'll get 2 differnt bills when you settle.

Good food, good service.

Arriving at 11:40, it was easy to get seated.

Ordered the white 叉燒拉麵, pork bone soup.
black 叉燒拉麵, roasted garlic soup.

The ramen was actually the thick type that you'd find in many other places and need to bite harder. The charsiu was thick cut, tender, tasty. The spring onion atop of that was plentiful and really went well with the soup.

The white soup was very tasty, quite salty too, in contrast to my black garlic soup, which had less in body. You can taste the garlic in its composition but it was quite faint.Next time I'll order the white soup.

Sunday lunch. Arrived to join the queue before they opened. Didin't get in first round to had to wait 35 mins for the next.

Haing got in, we quickly ordered the Kyushu ramen 九州拉麵、and charsiu ramen 叉燒拉麵, spicey miso. Watching the ramen chefs mix the soup and cook the ramen, I was impressed with their speed and efficiency. The ramen came very quickly and the toppings were quite generous. Having gone through most of the bowl, I found that there was still quite a bit left. This ramen shop's portions are large in comparison to others of the same quality bracket.

Extraordinary aspects
- Large servings
- charsiu burnt outside and tender inside. Very tasty, quite unique in HK.
- prices well below what you'd expect for this kind of quality

Ordinary bits
- The soup base underperformed given the craft the chef put into it. Not enough body to the taste.

There were people waiting well past 1 hour to be seated, is it worth that long a wait? Depends how hungr you are I suppose. For me, it was worth the 30 minute wait.

Have you noticed? The menu, the decor, the layout is exactly the same as Jordan Curry House aka New Dehli for some reason.

With this thought in mind, I meandered in for lunch. Lamb curry set at $60, <gulp> 60? OK lets have it, even though the place was empty, but hey! I'm game for adventure.

As it turned out, it was the usual fare. Boiled meat retrieved from a pot and covered in generic brown curry sauce. Order your meat, the curry will cover the taste. Only, the meat is so miniscule that you'd have trouble for it not to fall between your fork prongs. There were 4 small pieces in the bowl. The rice that came with it was actually to my liking. It was miniature. OK, so they're helping me with my diet.

For the price, I was very disappointed with what I got. There is something at work here. They are not promoting their heritage for excellent cuisine.

Modus Operandi
I can only think that being on the ladies street market, they are targeting tourists who for some unknown reason would want to eat indian curry in Hong Kong, the gastronomical capital of the world. One visit, one meal and that would be it, never to return.

Given the number of tourists in Mongkok, I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to survive or even thrive.