Butao Ramen     豚王  

Previously I have tried the Green King, Black King and Red King which were all nice, but I really wanted to try the off menu specials such as the Prawn King and Curry King.

This time they had the Prawn King but it was sold out, so I tried the Butao King.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Butao King:

What do you look for in a bowl of ramen?

Quality broth - yes. Not too thick. Sticks to the noodles enough to coat them well. Not too oily. Garlic just right.
Noodles - yes. Thin and not over cooked.
Pork - yes. And for me it has to be pork. Belly in this case. Very good flavour and tender. Possibly marinated?
Additions - yes. Though to be honest I could have done with more mushrooms. The egg was a little too runny but with a good taste.
Condiments - yes. Standard array here, including raw garlic. The spicy bean sprouts are a must.

All in all top quality. Worth queuing. And worth going back to work your way through their menu.

Oh, good, efficient service too.

With the rising popularity of Japanese ramen, there ought to be many shops over the buzzling districts in Hong Kong. For instance, Butao Ramen is undeniably one of the leading ramen shops over town.
Being one of the hottest ramen shops, a queue is undoubtedly necessary, especially when it is not a huge and spacious shop.
There was a queue outside the shop already when we got there. The waiters gave us the paper for ordering and a menu during our wait, so our orders can be taken immediately right after we get our seats.
There were not many choices on the menu. It basically only serves the four typical ramens: the Yellow King (豚王), the Black King (黑王), the Red King (赤王), and the Green King (翠王). There were also two off-menu options, which are the Genki King (元氣王) and the Prawn King (海老王).
We waited for about 40 minutes and we finally get to enter the long-anticipating ramen shop. As we walked in, there booms the welcoming from the staff, all giving us a loud greeting for coming to the shop. We've decided to go for the basic typical ones and ordered one Yellow King and one Black King, and picking all medium for the soup base, texture of noodles, amount of scallion, amount of garlic and so on and so forth.
Fast enough, thankfully, the ramens are ready. Starting with the Yellow King, it is actually of a classic pork bone soup base. The soup is cooked 20 hours with pork bone, resulting in a full-bodied soup base, rich in flavor and almost creamy in texture. The noodles, unlike the Tokyo variety which is more common among Hong Kong's Japanese restaurants, are thinner and way more chewy, as well as giving an al dente texture. The ramen came out perfect, with the addition of grounded sesame, it is totally exquisite.As for the Black King, the broth includes squid ink and the soup is relatively a bit more intense. The flavor is more strong and it is more savory yet it might be a bit heavy to some. This is an alluring option but you would want to mind your teeth and lips from getting black from the squid ink.The essence of ramen is the soup and it would be the stupidest thing ever to not drink it. The soup base, as mentioned above, is very rich, and msg-free. That of the Black King ramen might be a bit too heavy to down it all, but you shouldn't waste that of the classic Yellow King and drink it all. After you have drunk all the soup, you would find two big letters of 'Thank You' at the bottom of the bowl, which would quite be a delight to see.
To sum up, I think the ramen here is a tasty perfection. Not only in taste but the sincerity of the making of it. A 40-minute queue is totally worth it for such quality.

Finally, ButaO:

To make sure I do justice to this ramen shop, I've waited till I've tried a bit more ramen before commenting on Buta O. It hadn't been easy to get a place here. To be more practical, I've targeted the Causeway Bay branch instead of the main shop in Central. I have practically skived work to try ButaO (shh... don't tell my boss! )

I can't believe my eyes - I've arrived at the CWB ButaO at about 11:45 a.m. and already there was a queue. Not a long queue, luckily, only 3 persons were in front of me - a Japanese customer and a couple.

Already we were given the menu to fill in while we were waiting. As always, I came here with the sole purpose of trying the spicy ramen. It's called "Aka O" 赤王. I know the original pork bone ramen was the signature dish and it was apparently the one shop which sparked off the whole ramen fever in Hong Kong. However, in my quest to search for the lost spicy ramen broth which I've tried in Shizuoka, Japan, I would only order the spicy broth. So, without doubt: Aka O.

When I was queuing, I heard a staff asking a customer who had just finished his ramen for comments. He said that the Aka O (! ) was OK for him but might be a bit spicy for most people - I thought... really? It's getting interesting.

The ramen here was again customizable and I was given the "application form" as I was queuing. I ticked Aka O and normal for everything else other than the slightly soft noodle. I also ordered an extra portion of "kikurage きくらげ 黑木耳". This was quite a random choice and I didn't really know why I ordered this. Perhaps it's a psychological thing - having spent so much time and effort to get to this shop, it felt a bit more value for time to get something other than "just" the ramen. Furthermore, just in case the noodle was really spicy, the kikurage could lessen the spiciness. I was then led into the shop after about 8-10 minutes wait, which was quite a fast turnover of customers.

After sitting down at a pretty crowded table near the inside of ButaO, I was provided with a glass of water. I have to say the seats were really very, very crowded. Much more crowded than most restaurants in Hong Kong, akin to a really small old-school "Chaa Chaan Teng" (e.g. Laan Fong Yuen in Central) It had about 4-5 seats per table and about 4-5 tables in total. Even though I've already submitted my application form for the Aka O, the staff have been selling me and everyone in the shop a special guest ramen called Sanshyu O ( 山椒王）- literally "pepper king". After selling me twice and being refused twice ( politely, I stress ), he finally took my order for Aka O - the Red King.

I waited for another about 7-8 minutes for my Red King. It felt like a really long wait because everyone sat so near to each other without any personal space. Everything one does or say was under intense observations. Contrast this to the useful partitions of Tamashi, which was similar to the famous IchiRan in Tokyo. When partitions are used, customers will feel a lot more comfortable despite the lack of space.

Back to the most important part:

I had a taste of the broth before mixing in the "niku miso 肉味噌", that is the red circular object in the middle of the ramen, so I could try out the pork bone broth. It was really quite good. It's thicker than Ippudo (whether it's the TST or the CWB branch), which meant it had a lot of collagen in it, and very, very aromatic. There is, yet another, newcomer, it's called "Ramen Kureha". It's pork bone broth is even thicker and stronger than Buta O. But I like Buta O's more and I think the taste here should be more "user-friendly". When it comes to Pork bone soup ramen, I have to agree that Buta O is definitely one of the top three in Hong Kong, if not the top.

The 4-5 pieces of decent sized char siu were very delicious. They were quite tender and had a bit of fat on the side. 4-5 pieces could be considered as generous compared to other ramen shops around town. I'd say the quality of the char siu is definitely top three in Hong Kong as well. Definitely better than Ippudo's and many others.

I believe the spring onion is an essential part of a bowl of ramen as it adds complexity and a sense of freshness in the otherwise heavy pork bone broth. The kikurage which came with the broth was much better than the extra portion I've ordered, which came in a separate bowl. There was a very strong "grassy" taste in the extra kikurage I ordered. It was an unnecessary addition by me.

The noodles were very nice. It's the straight and white orthodox noodle type from Kyushu. I've always preferred softer noodles as it's easier on the stomach (so that I could eat more). The size of the bowl of noodle was decent. I believe the portion should be quite sufficient for most people. (On the other hand, Kureha's noodle was quite small.)

Then I began to experiment with the niku miso. It looked a bit like a scoop of red-coloured ice cream. A meat miso is basically, surprise surprise, minced pork preserved in miso, sugar, soy sauce, mirin and most importantly - Tou Ban Chang 豆板醬. This is another area where different chefs show off their secret recipes and their skills to customers. The niku miso is usually used as an ingredient in Japanese style MaPo Tofu. To give it an extra kick, ButaO marinated the niku miso with extra Korean grounded chilli powder. I believe they have also added some sesame or nuts into the mixture.

The more I mixed the meat miso into the pork bone broth, the more familiar the taste began to turn into. ......I was thinking long and hard what that taste was and it eventually dawned on me ...... It tasted very much like the Dan Dan Mien at the also very famous "Wing Lai Yuen Sze Chuen Noodle Restaurant"!

Indeed, it was unmistakably a Dan Dan Mien taste since I've chosen the soft noodles (like the normal texture of dan dan mien), plus the niku miso had quite a lot of tou ban chang and a bit of nuts inside (also essential ingredients of a dan dan mien).

So instead of queuing for Wing Lai Yuen in Wong Tai Sin or Hung Hom, I've queued for a bowl of Dan Dan Mien in Causeway Bay. Don't get me wrong - both are very good. I'm just amused by the similarity. Certainly, ButaO's broth had a stronger pork and chilli taste to it as well as the char siu and fungi, whereas the Dan Dan Mien at Wing Lai Yuen is even softer and the soup had more nuts in it. I have to say that the soup was not that spicy though. Again, the spicy level was similar to the dan dan mien level. There were some condiments placed on the table for customers. Those included sesame, fruit vinegar (like the Taiwanese apple vinegar), garlic (I think) and three different types of preserved turnip and bamboo shoots. They might look a bit spicy but actually they weren't. There were more sour instead.

Service-wise, other than the bit of hard sell at the very beginning, the service was very good. The staff knew their products well and were very efficient. Although the environment was extremely packed, they managed to clear the tables and served the ramens smoothly and not really interrupting the customers.

When I paid my bill at the counter, I noticed a box of colourful elastic "hair bands" placed next to the cashier. I wonder whether it's for the staff or for customers? Interesting!

All in all, definitely worth a try. However, similar to Ippudo, I will not queue more than 40 minutes for it. I'd definitely suggest ordering the "Pork King" (ButaO). The Red King might be for novelty value only.

Ramen Kureha also served a similar spicy ramen with meat miso. The meat miso there tasted less like a dan dan mein but I would also only suggest you order the pork bone noodle there as well. I'll write a separate comment for Kureha if possible.Loosely translated as best as I could - "Declaration/ Attention: This is a place where ramen lovers gather. Please enjoy the soup first. If you take one sip of the soup and one bite of the noodle at a time, the ramen would become even more delicious - that is, the marvelous ramen of ButaO."

Indeed.

"Butao Ramen" was long on my "to savour" list. Back when there was only the one and only in Central. The queue was discouraging. The fact that you have to queue in the open air (AND in central!... I always try to avoid central "central" when I am off work...) was even more discouraging.

Now a second branch was opened in Causeway Bay. Still cannot avoid the queue in the open air (and to be honest, to an extent even worse, in an alley) (you see, there could always be a handy "excuse"/reason for everything.) BUT the queue itself appeared to be shorter (maybe because of the bigger shop and also having this extra branch)! Time to go!



First Visit

Arrived at around 5pm (after an investment forum). As I spotted the restaurant, I had a sudden surge of excitement "why is the queue so short". Then immediately, I reminded myself (time for appreciating openrice again) that the "main body" of queue would be in the alley opposite to the restaurant. Queue in the alley. Not too bad at all. Just took us (party of 2) around 20 minutes. Staff provided us with the "order sheet". After another careful deliberation, I decided to go for 黑王!! Was slightly disappointed that eggs were not available though (when I went) :/ After making my choices, the staff noted down what I wore to ensure that the correct ramen would be served to be without hassle (nice touch !).Chef in action! As soon as we were seated, we were served with two glasses of water. I also ticked for a can of coke; that was promptly brought to me. We did not have to wait long; in around 3-4 minutes, my bowl 黑王!! So good! I had a taste of the soup first before tempering with the black lump in the middle; the soup was very flavourful and "full body" (it felt so much more substantial than pure liquid soup base, could feel a sense of weight as it warmed up my body..). I could still relate to the pork bone soup base although the squid ink was certainly much more dominating. Next, I went on to taste the ramen; I chose "super hard" for the ramen texture; personally, I found it good but with potential to be even "harder". The black lump (minced meat with black ink sauce) was very flavourful (but not too salty). Very nice to add a small lump to a spoonful of soup with ramen~ The pork slices were nice; not too fatty but tender. It was simply satisfying~ I know one should technically finish the entire bowl of soup (and enjoy the "thank you" sign at the bottom of each bowl for this branch lol) to show respect to the chef. Nonetheless, the soup base was too heavy for me to finish (super strong taste, in a good way, but too heavy for "bottoms up").

Second Visit

Good impression that the queue was not deadly afterall. And certainly very good impression of the excellent ramen. This time I arrived at around 6 and it took me around 30 minutes to get in (again, not bad at all). I decided to order something different - something off menu - the "Sea" King (海老王) ~~ No more black soup-base. But do not be mistaken, this was not the original taste one - it was not just pure pork bone soup base. "Sea" King was pork bone soup base with prawn essence. Instead of a lump of minced meat, the Chef showered a little mountain of dried shrimps. HMMMMMM It was better than I thought and totally exceeded my expectations (I mean.. dried shrimps with pork bone?). Upon being served, my lungs were already filled with the fresh, delicious and rather innovative fragrance. The aromatic prawn taste was such a compliment to the pork bone base. Neither was too dominant, neither was a waste. This was the perfect example of "what a match!". Ramen again of good texture, and same good quality of pork slices. Once again, simply blissful, simply an enjoyment!!



A superb and satisfying bowl in the winter!! When it gets too hot in Hong Kong though, I guess the queue WILL DEFINITELY be daunting. So do visit now when the weather is still kind for ramen lovers.

My friend and I waited for 40 minutes on a Sat evening, starting at 18:10pm. I ordered the Green one. The noodle tasted good, but it tasted similar to what I will get myself by cooking the noodle with pesto and pork bone soup. My friend thinks the noodle itself is way too soft. (she didn't pick "hard" for the noodle.) We found the place is a little over-rated given that the noodle's price is already about double the normal price, we didn't think it justified the wait.

Never been to the one in Central because there's always a long line, but the new one in CWB seems to be okay. I came here for lunch around 12:30 and waited for half an hour before getting seated. Once inside, I saw how small it was - only 5 round tables with around 5 ppl sitting at each table. Barely any space between you and other patrons, and barely any space for the wait staff to move around. I was handed an ordering sheet while waiting in line so all I had to do was hand the sheet to the staff once seated to expedite the ordering process. I ordered the original (豚王), and opted for a stronger flavor soup and normal noodles.First thing I did was taste the soup, which is the essence of any ramen. The soup was rich and thick, while at the same time fragrant. I had also opted for the secret miso paste, which added a hint of spiciness to the soup. The noodle's texture was just right and better than Ippudo's, though I think they could have added a bit more noodle (usually I finish the char siu before the noodles when I eat ramen, but this time I ran out of noodles before finishing the meat). The char siu (about 2 pieces) was big and thin, but nothing to rave about. There were also some spicy garnish at the table for you to add to your ramen, which was very good as well. All in all, I was a happy and full customer. I will come back again to try the other flavors but will probably wait for the crowds to die down a bit.

Side note: while mid way through the meal, one of the wait staff stopped by and offered me a rubberband to tie my hair up. I was surprised at how thoughtful she was. She even had a box full of new hair rubberbands and let me picked one out myself. Excellent customer service if you ask me!