Menya Musashi @ Raffles City

I have passed by Menya Mushashi several times before, and there was always a long queue outside. Today, I went there at close to 330pm in order to avoid the queue. True enough, there was no queue, but even at this odd hour, the restaurant was around 80% full.

White Cha Shu Ramen, $12.90

I suppose their white broth is the original version. This was really good; the soup was rich and flavourful, but still not as salty as that from Nantsuttei! A few minutes of research helped me to realise that their soup was a mixture of pork bones and dried saury fish, something which definitely helps to differentiate themselves from all the other ramen out there.

But I found the noodles to be a little too tough. And the vegetables were obviously too old - they were extremely tough as well. The char siew was a different thing though. While they were actually slightly chewy and not the melt-in-your-mouth kind, they were still very good and I actually ate everything, fats and all. I am glad the char siew was sliced thinly; if not it would have tasted so good.

Black Kakuni Ramen, $14.90

The reason for the black colour was due to them adding fried onions and garlic into the broth. It tasted richer than the white version, but again still not too salty. The noodles and vegetables were both too tough though, similar to their white counterpart.

But the braised pork was really good too. There was a very slight tinge of sweetness in it, no doubt due to the gravy used to braise the pork. It was sliced much more thickly than their char siew, but was still very tender and almost melted in my mouth. Almost.

Menya Mushishi was a pleasant find for us. Will definitely visit here again and try their red soup base.