Kakurega Ramen Factory     隠家拉麵工場  

Though I am living in the same district, I would never notice this small restaurant if I was not told by my friend.
It's like its name, really hidden in the shopping centre.

Dont expect you can sit on a nice seat. Dont expect the enviroment is lovely or beautiful. But it's neat and tidy and serving you nice food.

They have a new curry soup. Unfortunately we had curry during lunch time, we chose red soup and black soup, plus a "fireball".

What is fireball? It's actually a spicy minced meatball. The waitress said it wast food but a soup base. We were glad that we shared a fireball, otherwise, the soup would be too spicy. Well, I didnt feel the spice in the mouth but it's like Thai Tom Yam, warming the stomach.

I only dont like the noodle sticking together at the end (noodles always stick together when it becomes cold and without water). I spent some time and some efforts to seperate them. At last I just put the whole big noodle paste into the small bowl of soup. I was too tired.

Overall it's a nice try and I think I will come back for the curry soup.

沾麵質素很高．彈牙．有很香蛋味．
白伝：有濃郁的鰹節的鮮味．推介！
赤伝：很似羅宋湯．偏貴．
環境及服務一般．
但可以一試.

Very good, eggy, chewy, tsukemen noodles.
White Legend is recommended if you like strong bonito taste.
Red Legend tasted like Borscht.

>>>

We arrived at 12:45pm a few weeks before this visit and were already told they they had ran out of stock for the afternoon. (We went to Ajisen instead- but that's for another review! ). This time we arrived at 11:30 a.m and got in without any difficulties!

Decor:

Well, as you can see, it's built in the style of a "workshop". For non-Chinese readers, the name of this shop literally means "The hidden ramen workshop". This might be why the place was built like an incomplete canteen - inside a construction site. Not particularly comfortable. Different from "Hamayaki Taisho 浜焼き大將" or "Osaka Horumon 大阪好樂滿", the plastic boxes customers were sitting on were just that - plastic boxes. There is no room to put your bags and other stuff so ladies, beware.

It's an open kitchen so it can get a bit warm at times. The counter seats for customers were relatively widely spaced apart. Still better than ButaO (CWB) though.

Menu:This is a ramen shop which specialized in Tsukemen, i.e. the ramen and the soup are served separately. They serve three types of tsukemen when I tried it.

White Legend: Original bonito based sauce;
Black Legend: Garlic oil in bonito ; and
Red Legend: tomato in bonito - apparently spicy.

(I'm waiting for a Blue, Brown or Rainbow Legend in the future, I wonder how those might taste like. )

My wife ordered a White Legend. I ordered a Red Legend.

Method of eating:By now, I'm sure you don't need any introduction on how to eat tsukemen. Anyway, don't drink the soup directly. Dip the noodle into the bowl of soup/sauce and then slurp it up.

About half way when you're done, don't forget to add the Konbu vinegar placed on your table:This could really freshen the taste.

Some shops, like here and Shugetsu, will give customers some chicken soup to dilute the sauce. After diluting it, you could drink it if you wish to.

Legendary ingredients:

These are the common ingredients in the legends ~

Bean sprouts: A lot of bean sprouts in both the Red and White legend, which is a very popular ingredient for Japanese diners.

Egg: One egg in two halves came with the red & the white legend. Those were better than many ramen shops! A bit more flavourful and fluid in the centre than "Shugetsu".

Char Siu: The two pieces of char siu were not bad. Slightly grilled but not as tender as I'd like it to be. Still better than those at Kureha. Slightly lighter taste than Shugetsu or Hide-Chan.

Noodles: What was well done about this shop was the tsukemen. The egg taste was very pronounced and the noodles were very smooth and chewy!

I understand that they make their noodles themselves everyday, which is why they have rather a limited supply - like 100 noodle cake for lunch time and another 100 for dinner, something like that. So unless you really arrive early, chances are that the noodles will be sold out. (Don't worry, there is another ramen shop in the area - Ajisen. )

The noodles here were definitely better than those provided at Shugetsu, Yachio and Menya Mushashi. It's also a bit better than Hide-Chan. It's the thinner type of noodle (similar to a slight thicker version of a Chuka Soba - about 0.6 mm). It's fresh here. Nori: Only for Red Legend but not for White. The quality of the seaweed was nothing remarkable bit at lease those were crisp when you eat it. The interesting gimmick was the kanji characters printed on the seaweed. My wife found it very interesting but I'm more worried about the food colouring! ！(◎_◎;)

Red Legend:

It was made of garlic, spring onions, Korean and Japanese chili powder plus a lot of tomato & tomato sauce apparently from Italy as well as a lot of bean sprouts. Seemed really complex. However, I could barely taste any chili taste - which I've been eagerly expecting. Other than a little bit of peppery taste, it wasn't spicy at all. Actually, the soup was quite sour as well. The tomatoes and the beansprouts were very fresh, however.

The overall effect was this: A Borsch soup with some pepper and a lot of bean sprouts. ！(◎_◎;)

The good thing is, it's not as salty as Shugetsu. When I finished the noodles, the waiter gave me the chicken soup. The chicken soup here was much much better than those provided at Shugetsu. It had more chicken taste here. I enjoyed my chicken borscht soup.

Nevertheless, I think it's still a bit pricey at HK$98.

White legend :

My wife's tsukemen: The bonito inside was not as garlicky & oily as "Hide-chan". But the taste was fairly strong. Similar to those at Hide-chan. Stronger than the bonito soup provided at "Menya Mushashi". Like I mentioned about, the noodles were consistently good. The menma inside were well marinated and thus flavourful.

When compared to the Red Legend, I think the price is much more reasonable at HK$78. My wife liked it a lot. So it's a vote of confidence from her.

Service:

This was what brought this shop from Good to OK. What got to me was that when we initially wanted to sit at an empty table, we were told to sit on the other two seats in front of another couple.

This was fine but the reason for that change was this: "Because I (the waiter) want to reserve the table for a party for four persons".

He was there to serve customers , customers don't care what HE wants. They want to be served, not to serve the restaurant's purposes. Call me sensitive and troublesome but the way how one presents the message is just as important, if not more important, than the content of the message itself.

Any book on sales techniques will tell you that. It's basic stuff. I suggest the owner provide a bit more training to the staff.

Anyway, I told him that WE wanted a counter seat and we took those seats. Small detail but annoying enough for me to remember it and to write it down here.

The two male waiters at the shop front talked amongst themselves too much and fooled around generally. I find it very annoying, especially in such a small shop. They were polite - enough - when they serve the noodles, before they resumed their chit-chats.

The chefs, one definitely from Japan, Mr. 寺田惠一, Aries 白羊座, who was interested in Billiard [these were all printed on the card the chefs were wearing], were silently focused on making the noodles.

This focus on the noodles in what made the noodles delicious.

I waited for over 30 minutes to have a seat. I thought it must be very delicious!! Otherwise, it won't have this long queue. However, I ordered a noodle that costs HK98 and I did have an expectation. However, when I tasted the noodle, it was too cold and too salty. I felt disappointed. The place I sat was too crowdy. The restaurant is too small. I understand the menu is simple because the chef wants to focus on the food instead of choice. However, I guess I won't come again because the noodle is not worth HK98!!!!

But the waiter is polite! Anyway, they have to improve the food taste and please don't make it too salty!!