影片
更多
2017-09-17
276 浏览
Tsuta is pretty much famous. Awarded the first Michelin star for a ramen restaurant in Tokyo in 2016, it has a really REALLY long queue. Or as my coworker once told me, she got a ticket at 7 AM and was told to come back at 5 PM where she waited a further hour for her bowl of ramen when she tried the Tokyo branch. After this bit of fame, they expanded branches to Taiwan and Singapore, they now have their third branch in Hong Kong. Located in Causeway Bay's Tang Lung Street, a street already fill
When it first opened, there was a long queue. I waited a month later and there was no one in line. I guess hype ended quickly. But summer was way too hot for ramen so I waited until today to go try it out. I was curious. Why did the queue die down so quickly? Why did the hype end when other places (like Ichiran and Lady M) still garner long queues year after they opened? Now, I haven't tried the Tokyo branch due to the fact I really have far too many other places I plan to eat and it was just not on the top of my list. Just to let you know I cannot compare to the original branch.
The restaurant was chic in design with a red and black color combination. A bar table faced the chefs at work. When you enter, the staff presents you with the menu. The choices are identical except of the soup. You can choose shoyu or shio. After you tell the staff what you want, you pay right then and there. Cash only or you can use Octopus which they have a machine located on the wall. There is no 10% service charge. A ticket is given to you and you are told to give to the staff who will bring you to your seat. This was weird to me. The original shop (and pretty much EVERY RAMEN RESTAURANT IN JAPAN) have a vending machine where you order your ramen. Here they mimic this vending machine concept but there is no vending machine. Which goes to my next mind boggling thing about Hong Kong ramen restaurants. How come they don't install vending machines? Is it that hard to for Hong Kongers to use that they have to get rid of it? Or they just like to hire people to pretend to be vending machines?
After I was shown to my seat (which was super big and had a nice long handle to hang my purse), I waited for them to make my bowl.
I ordered the ajitama char siu shoyu soup ramen ($149). I mean, go big or go home, right? It included four slices of char siu, egg, bamboo, leek and truffle paste. Just to let you know, portion size is small. Don't expect to roll out of here with a full stomach. But we're here for the best, right? Quality over quantity, right?
The char siu is sliced when your order is received so it's not presliced and laying there like other restaurants. the char siu was pretty good. Not fat at all but still tender and soft. It was sliced very thin as well and didn't remind me of eating char siu but more like ham. Or pastrami. Interesting.
The egg was fantastic. It was lightly seasoned and the yolk. The yolk was beautiful. Runny and creamy. This was really perfection in an egg.
The noodles were good as well. They were springy and firm. Note that they had small brown specks interlaced within the strands. This is due to the use of four different types of flour used to create the noodles.
I ordered the shoyu soup as this is what the original shop's signature dish. Like the original branch, they have a cap on how many bowls they serve a day. 400 is that number here but just to let you know in a city where there are more than 400 people, I have yet to see them close early. Now, soup is what makes or breaks a good bowl of ramen. It's all in the soup. Their shoyu soup is made up of chicken, clams, dried fish and three types of shoyu. They then top it off with a small amount of truffle paste. Now, here is where it slightly failed for me. The soup was clean and light. It wasn't heavy at all and it did go well with the rest of the clean light ingredients before me. But then the truffle paste hits it and everything just disappeared. It was far too strong and suddenly the light balance of everything was gone. All that hit me was this strong pungent odor. In a way, the truffle paste ruined everything and I couldn't get rid of it. It just lingered on and on.
This made for a sad ending for me. I was not sure was it worth it? Everything was wonderful until I hit the soup. The soup, the core of everything and anything that is ramen was such a let down. Probably the most expensive ramen in Hong Kong, this seriously upset me as I should come out happy, right? But I wasn't. I was confused. I was not satisfied. I wasn't even full. I couldn't even finish drinking the soup, an insult to the chef, I'm sure. For it was the soup that let me down. I really won't be back but I end my review with an ok as I did like everything else except the soup. And it gives me pause to think, how willing am I to go queue up in Tokyo for this as well?
张贴
