Saturday, October 14, 2017

Japan's Ramen Nagi in Singapore

Butao Ramen

The chain from Japan opened up at Suntec City Tower 2 earlier this week (9 Temasek Boulevard #01-512, 6821-1601). Like Keisuke's Tonkotsu King Four Seasons, these guys had a white, black, red, and green version of tonkotsu. I assume that Keisuke-san was inspired by these guys.

It's only a half menu right now with things like gyoza and chashudon unavailable. I went for the plain butao bowl just to get a taste of the pure broth, and unfortunately that's exactly what I didn't like. It was a bit too sweet and swiney, and wasn't salty enough. I didn't even want to finish it.

Granted, the checklist menu probably would've let me crank up the saltiness, but I couldn't get it to taste good using the tabletop array of condiments. Maybe I'll like it better if I try one of the four flavors and also crank up the chili sauce, but based on this bowl, I'm not going to be rushing to come back to prove myself right.

Epilogue: whoa, whoa, whoa what the heck is this?? I just realized that these guys have the same logo as Butao Ramen in Hong Kong!! I thought Butao was a local shop up there, but the similarities are too close to be a coincidence, including the same impression that I had of their sweet broth. Butao's web page shows different branding now, but I wonder if they were somehow related in the past.

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