Kobe Style Soy Sauce Ramen
Here’s
another ramen contender in town and it’s located at Empire Damansara. Ramen
Kanbe is one of the latest ramen players and serves Kobe style Shoyu ramen. The
restaurant is located on ground level of this quaint mall and at a discreet
area which one may need to ask around to locate it. Thanks to JKdrooling and Naohiko-san, we were invited for a taste of Kobe style ramen at
Ramen Kanbe recently. I do happen to be a ramen devotee so I was really
interested to see how Kobe ramen would fair up against other regular Japanese
styles.
Walking
into Ramen Kanbe, the restaurant is brightly lit and spacious. I like the whole
modern wood design contrasted with black and white. One can see the injections
of Japanese influences and yet there is an element of surprise with a red
modern designed hanging chandelier added color and boldness to the restaurant.
One can peek at the half open kitchen counter while waiting for your food as
well.
The
menu at Ramen Kanbe is simple and offers few signatures of ramen, rice and side
orders. The menu is pretty detailed with photos for easy references just like
other ramen places. In the menu, Ramen Kanbe also stated that their custom
blend of soy sauce if the key to all their signature ramens. The restaurant
also makes ramen from scratch and their vegetable with chicken-broth based soup
simmered for 7 hours. Shoyu ramen broth is clear with a rich brown shoyu color
and is more delicate than other tonkotsu or miso based ramens. Diners can enjoy
the aromatic and delicate broth with ramen and other condiments in the Shoyu
ramen.
Ramen
Kanbe’s drink list is minimal but sufficient with its usual Japanese Green Tea and others like Oolong Tea, Lemon Tea, Coffee, Coke and
Beer. We tried their Lemon Tea (RM5) and Red Milk Tea (RM5) which is pretty
decent.
Karaage (RM10) proved to be one of the
highlights at Ramen Kanbe. The Japanese style fried chicken is crispy with a
juicy inside. The boneless dark meat is very tender and tasty too. It was so
good, we had another order of this fried chicken served with crunchy shredded
cabbage and mayo.
Another
side order that is worth ordering is the Gyoza
(RM10). This is a super popular snack in Japan and also happens to be served at
most ramen places as well. The pan seared dumplings has a nice crisp side and a
soft one on the other side. The filling is tender and flavourful and makes
great snacks while waiting for the ramen to be served.
My little one loves fried rice and so we had an order of Ramen Kanbe’s Fried Rice (RM12). It is a flavourful plate of fried rice with a nice aroma. There are bits of meat in it and the rice is fluffy and moist. My only gripe about this dish was that the portion is a bit small for its price.
Our
ramen arrive and the first one was the Charsiu Ramen (RM21). A bowl of house
signature ramen with plenty of pieces of Charsiu nicely covering the whole bowl
also had some black fungus, bean
sprout and spring onion too. The ramen noodle is nicely cooked with tender
texture. The broth is rather delicate with good essence of meat but not heavy
or overpowering. One can taste the subtle notes of sweet and savory soy sauce
in the broth. The Charsiu pieces are also very tender and are lean as well.
Ramen Kanbe’s ramen is definitely different from
the many ramen places I have tried. There is a refine flavour to the overall
bowl of ramen. It is easy to enjoy and won’t leave you with a heavy after
taste. The price is also cheaper than most ramen places. I rather enjoy the
ramen for its refine flavour and it is pretty comforting.
There
is also another version with Wantan and Charsiu in the Wantan Ramen (RM21). This version features the same as their house
signature ramen but has the added bonus of wantan dumplings together. The
wantans are decent with thin dumpling skin and soft filling. I have never had
ramen with wantan before but this is not too bad. It certainly makes a nice
change from the usual ramen joints.
I
chose the Spicy Ramen (RM21) because
I was curious about the flavour and I also happen to love spicy flavours. My
ramen comes with a minced meat topping rather than the charsiu thought I did
wished for the charsiu. Fear not, one can put in additional orders of Charsiu (RM4 – 3 pieces) and Boiled Egg (RM3) like I did.
The
Spicy Ramen had good solid flavours
of heat and a bold and robust flavour. Its savory flavours really stand out
together with the spiciness of the chili. The sheer simplicity of this ramen
with minced meat and chives in a spicy broth showed that Ramen Kanbe can
produce bold flavours in their ramen as well as they delicate and light Shoyu
ramen.
I
discovered that I do enjoy cold ramen after tasting it few times. So when I saw
that Ramen Kanbe also has a cold ramen named
Reimen (RM21), I decided to order this to share together with my foodie
buddies. Cold ramen usually has a firm al dente ramen texture which is what I
love. Here it is the same again where the ramen noodle has a solid bite in texture
and is served with crunchy black fungus, egg, lettuce, pickled ginger and
shredded Charsiu together in a chilled soy based sauce. I liked it. I think I
ate most of this as I like how satisfying the chilled ramen tasted like.
Our
last dish of the evening was definitely comfort food. Tenshin Han-Rice (RM15) is another dish that showed off the
delicate flavours of savory with tinges of sweetness. Fluffy white rice is
nicely wrapped with an egg omelette sheet and bathed in a light soy sauce
broth.
Ramen
Kanbe is pretty
interesting. The restaurant makes a nice change from the usual heavy flavoured
ramens. I believe that this is also a first ramen joint to feature Kobe style
ramen. The evening we were there, service was also fast while the wait staff
was pretty friendly too. Here’s one place that you can enjoy a bowl of refine
and delicate Shoyu Ramen with a few extra goodies thrown in!
Check
out Ramen Kanbe’s 1st Anniversary Promotion
This set contains their
most popular dish Ramen, 2nd popular dish Tenshin-hanrice and the choice of 3
various teas together.
Promotional price at RM25
and tax (Normal price is more than RM35)
They serve this great
value set exclusively to Facebook users from april 8th until 14th. Other guest
will be able to be served this after April 15th for 2 weeks till end of April.
RAMEN
KANBE
G28, Block Empire
Retail,
Empire Damansara
No.2, Jalan PJU 8,
47820, PJ, Selangor
TEL: 016-202-5812
Business Hours:
11.30am to 10pm
Website：www.ramenkanbe.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rk.empire.damansara