After reading rave reviews on this place along with a resolution to go to all top 10 ramen places in Singapore (as listed by that particular Straits Times article), I've tried my best to be fair and dined here twice as a result.

Why twice only?

Things is, the first time experience was BAAADDD..... Really. Okie, the times I can drop by is only after 6pm on weekdays. I step in and was impressed by the decor, very cosy authentic Japanese eatery feel. Then the lady came over to take my order. "Can I have the cold ramen? "(this is the recommended dish)"Miso butter? Vegetable ramen?" and the list goes on but the answer is the the same "No more". By then I was literally bleeding internally from frustration (If you can't provide what's on t he menu, dun put it on the menu then!!) and then I had to ask "So what have you left?" I ended up eating the Char Siew Shoyu Ramen which ws nice soup and regular noodles but the topping is miserable with the most miserable single thin slice of char siew. Needless to say I was upset at paying $12 for this.


Never to say die on first try, I went back to challenge again. Repeat same scenario as 1st visit (No more, no more, no more). But this time the lady boss tried her best to sell me the Tan-tan men (which I chose in the end since do I even have a choice?). Which I have to admit, was honestly the BEST tan-tan ramen so far I had. Soup was nice and savoury with the right balance of sesame paste that leaves you hungry for more. However, low points for the miserable non-existent topping. It's only average amount of minced meat ONLY with NOTHING else. And this for $18???? No matter how yummy the soup is, frankly I can get like 6-7 bowls of delicious and value for money bak chor mee with more topping than this down to boot. Or other ramen places like Osho and Kyo-nichi.

So Kadoman, you won't be seeing me again... Unless I have money to burn.

I fail to see how places like Ajisen Ramen can survive when they serve such... tripe compared to real ramen joints like Kadoman, or even Noodle Shop Ken (each tucked away in their little corners of town).

It's been awhile since I've had decent ramen so I was quite happy that there was a decent variety of soup bases - Shio (Salt), Miso, Shoyu (Soya Sauce) and on our last visit, Tori (Chicken) broth. We ordered the Miso Butter Yasai Ramen (comes with corn & veggies), my staple Miso Butter Chashu- Ramen (Slices of pork & corn), Katsu Ramen (everybody's favorite) and the Dan Dan Noodles (I guess it's about the same in every language, minced pork, spicy base). What's impressive is that Kadoman doesn't stinge on toppings or portion sizes like so many other ramen places --- and I soon found myself struggling to finish my order.

The daily special was the Kani Cream Fry (Panko (Japanese breadcrumb)-coated crab claw stuffed with cream and crab meat). At $18.50 for two ginormous claws airflown from Hokkaido, this was definitely the highlight of the meal for me. We liked it so much we ordered it again three days later!

Nattou fans (I hate Nattou!) can order up side dishes of nattou here as well. We also ordered a bowl of Miso Tonjiru (apparently they don't make this everyday), a hearty version that was almost stew-like.

I'll definitely be going back to try the Cream Stew Ramen and Nira Reba (Liver) Ramen. Apparently they only make these on Fridays. More to look forward to!

Kadoman gets my vote for serving up unpretentious good ol' Ramen the way it was meant to be. For one,it wasn't packed with hassled lunch crowds, and more importantly, the food was spot-on, and the service (well it's the same auntie both times) was pretty good.

My friends wanted to meet at Kadoman for lunch so I got a chance to revisit my review, which was less than flattering.

This time round, I opted for a non-noodle dish, the Una-ju ($18), which the lady boss tried hard to sell. So I figured to give her a chance and see if her recommendations were indeed fitting of the price-tag.

My friends, however, wrangled with the boss after being told one dish after another were unavailable. I imagine Kadoman wants to create an 'artificial demand through atmosphere and limited stock of basic food ingredients', I don't know many Singaporeans to be patient enough for that. In Japan, if they ran out of a dish, they will apologise profusely for their lack of foresight and offer another similar item usually accompanied by a free side-dish as atonement. No such luck here, of course - this is Singapore.

Anyway, after a furious National Debate, they got Tan-tan Men (my friend wanted a Jiang Men, which the boss said was similar to Tan-Tan men....then why allow the menu duplication...) and Miso charsiu men. The one who got Tan-tan men enjoyed her food, while the latter wondered rather less quietly about the disparity between the price and what she saw in her bowl; in the end, she didn't even finish her food.

The bespoken Unaju, to be fair, was above-average. The sauce didn't taste store-bought and the Unagi was moist, sweet and fragrant. It can't compare to the best I have had (in a shoe-box sized corner of Takayama), but for Singapore standards, it's pretty well done. The soup it came with was not miso, which is a nice touch as well. My only grip is the lack of a bottle of Sansho at the table, which I consider essential to the enjoyment of Unaju. Oh well.

The service, this time round, was less brusque but my first-timer friends gave me raised eyebrows since they did not understand my remarks in my first HGW review. Now they do.

Will I come back (even though I said I wouldn't)? You know what, actually I might. Reluctantly.

Yeah. So I finally got to eat ramen here today after that thwarted attempt to try even order the Hiyashi Chuka ($15). Why so? Coz I learnt my lesson and did call to reserve that one plate of coveted cold noodles. Like 2 nights before.

Oh well. It’s no biggie actually. I thought the portion was really feeble. Kado Man dresses their cold noodles with a soy-sesame seed broth, then garnish it with shredded tamago, Japanese cucumber, beni shoga (pickled ginger), wakame and ONE stingy obligatory slice of char siew. I mean really, what’s the big deal about this “hottie” ramen that only 10 coveted plates are served per day? It doesn’t take much culinary skills to put this dish together. Even kids can cook better. I even see the Chefs take pre-cut ingredients out from a compartmentalized toolbox!

Kado Man’s menu is really extensive for a ramen joint. Besides the 30 varieties of ramen *gasp*, there’re more cooked food items, stir-frys and sashimi that the lady-boss-with-the-attitude tries to hard sell to you. More like pushing her goods I would say. With 200 over items on the menu for such a small ramen joint, I wonder the quality. My advice is to stay resolute lest you find your bill inflate faster than your tummy will.

Only Tiger beer is available on draught here. Asahi comes in bottles. Ken or Kado, take your pick.

Food was only comme ci comme ça. To make a fair comparison, I say that Noodle House Ken offers a better quality and value for the same ramen I had. And I needn’t have to put up with any less-than civil attitude. She, the lady boss, was so so busy yakking on her phone she didn't want to print out my receipt. She simply told her Chef to tell me: "$17.76". wt!@#$$

*Shrug* Well, at least now I am more discerning and made aware where to spend my money on better ramen. Elsewhere...elsewhere.

Arh! The Chefs are erm…zhong guo ren! I tried to order in English and he asked me in return: ni ke yi shuo pu tong hua ma?

Hur Hur?

The last time I visited Kadoman was durings its first few months of opening. Unfortunately, it was so long ago that I do not remember how the ramen tasted back then anymore.

I decided to revisit this place after reading the reviews here. Is it really as good as it sounds, can it possibly be on par with the dozens of ramen outlets I've tried in Japan?

The answer is a flat no, and they were nowhere close. Granted, the ambience was distinctly Japanese. The spartan wooden furniture. The random banners of dish names and prices, down to NHK playing on a small TV.

What was sorely and frustratingly lacking was the Japanese-style service. By this, I mean unobstrusive and unadorned service. The lady serving us kept asking if we want sashimi when we said no. She then started speaking to us in mandarin when we were speaking to her in English. And the noodles were ordered were plonked on our table with nary a word or smile.

But service isn't everything, many ramen shops in Japan have brusque service as well. The food, however, fails to make up for it. The serving size was smaller than most ramen I've seen in Singapore and anything I have eaten in Japan. The broth smells of genuine bonito and fish, but lacks subtlety. Granted, it is less salty than most ramen I've tried, but that is not actually a plus point either. My wife commented that the shoyu ramen smells and taste like wanton noodle, which I immediately identified with. Aha! That's why it felt so familiar! Her order of butter shio ramen (the lady explained in chinese that it is salt water ramen...hey, it is not just salt water, shio ramen is the iron test of a good ramen because you need an exceptional stock base...) really tasted like salt...the butter was the same size as yakun butter, which resulted in the ramen tasting very 'half past six', with the taste being very indistinctive.

All in the all, the experience wasn't pleasant. The food was not satisfactory, even if it wasn't expensive (plain shoyu at $10 and butter shio at $12). I don't deny that the ramen here tastes different, and that includes tasting different from what you will get the better places in Japan. Thus, I wouldn't bring my Japanese friends here, unless it's for the tsumami snack foods, which looked pretty decent on the table next to ours. And I most certainly wouldn't tell them that Kadoman has ramen that tastes on par with Japanese ones.

On a side-note, I was discussing with my wife that I just paid $10 for unenjoyable ramen, but somehow I don't feel as cheated as paying $6 for Sarawak Kolo Mee, which I had enjoyed. This is clearly food-racism, which is an issue I must address with myself. At least now I am aware of where I should spend my food money.