Kyo-Nichi Japanese Ramen (China Square Central)

A group of my friends and i had ramen for lunch a weekday afternoon at kyo-nichi. I had never been there, but my friends were raving about the collagen soup base of the ramen they serve.

We had:

Spicy Charsiew Ramen with extra corn
Charsiew Ramen
Pork Ribs Soft Bone Ramen with extra thick soup and corn
Chicken Karaage Ramen with spicy soup

Essentially there were no complaints and my friends liked their ramen. Having been there before, they already know what they like.

I had the Spicy Charsiew Ramen with extra corn which i thought was decent. The ramen soup base was spicy and reasonably tasty (but i dont usually try the soup because i am conscious of my msg intake) and i liked the corn (at an additional price of like 50cents or something). The charsiew was okay, and did not have too much fat. While the addition of condiments were priced fairly, an additional piece of charsiew would cost $2 for one piece, which is ridiculous. A normal charsiew ramen would come with around 4 pieces i think.

my friend who had the pork ribs soft bone ramen with extra thick soup and corn loved her soup. but apparently the thicker (more collagen) it is, the oilier it gets. oh and even though the pork ribs are soft boned, you still have to remove the bone. I didnt try hers, but it looked like the pork ribs were stewed, like in dark brown sauce the way it normally is cooked chinese style.

my other friend had the chicken karaage ramen. they serve the chicken karaage separate from the ramen, so usually they would come direct with a plate (with the chickn karaage) and the bowl or ramen. but in her case, they nearly forgot her karaage. we had to ask for it after 15 minutes. The chicken karaage looks extremely appetising though. And alacarte it costs $5 - for the exact same platter that comes with the ramen, so it is probably better value if you buy the chicken karaage ramen, not the latter on its own. unfortunately while it looks terribly appetising, a large part of one piece of chicken karaage is made of batter and chicken fat. so just be mindful of that if you are watching your unhealthy food intake. it was nevertheless also reasonably tasty.

The restaurant doesnt charge GST, but for service charge they do.
There is a crowd at lunch time, and the queue to pay can be very long. also, because there are so many people, the waitresses take quite long to get to you. The restaurant, at its lunch hour peak is also extremely noisy.

But otherwise, i enjoyed lunch. and noodles are usually lighter than rice - so for a one dish meal this is good enough. especially if youre watching what you eat and dont want to fall asleep at work after lunch.

The title says it all!! Plus it has signs pasting all over "NO SERVICE CHARGE". that provides a lot of business otherwise gone away into next door neighbour - Sushi Tei.

I went there last friday, during our standard Shenton lunch crowd period. We reach there around 12.15pm and beat the crowd. There were tonnes of seats for us to choose, which I can only say "too bad for you" if you had stepped in 5mins after us cos it was packed with a queue right out the front door.

Let me tell u: my boi like this place cos he finds the noodles delicious when we came once on a Saturday. However, I was sick and nauseous then and couldn't tell rubber from noodles, so I never did suggest to come back again. The soup comes in standard, thick or spicy. I like a bit of kick in my soup and decided to order noodles. What's difference from the one in Marina Sq is that somehow, it taste better here! The char siew is soft and almost melt in your mouth. almost as good as the one I had at Gallery Hotel. Thes best part, they don't come with 'chong1'. which I always request to leave out.

The crew seems to be local and a few aunties but the food is generally quick. We were served and out the door before 1pm! The aunties are a bit curt though. During the weekend, maybe due to the lack of crowd, there are 2 to 3 native chinese serving, which is still fine as they are still courteous and quick, in fact, I would rat them a little better in terms of service, especially one with a smile. So head on there on a weekend where you can take your time to enjoy your noodles.

Hmmm... I was at the Pickering Street vicinity and wanted to try Satowa. Unfortunately, it was closed when I got there at around 2.40pm. So I wandered elsewhere and came across this ramen shop, Kyo Nichi ramen. It boasted of collagen based soup, so I thought why not.. every woman needs her collagen I'd say.

The shop was basically empty. Really... empty, saved for one man who went in 10 seconds before me. The waiter is polite and menu was brought to the table as soon as you're seated. He reappeared at about 5 minutes later to take the order. So I took the lunch set (that's available whole day for weekends) @$13, there's another one @16 but I forgot what was the extra item in it (or was it because you're allowed to choose higher value items? heh, can't remember). Anyway, the $13 set lets you order any ramen that's below $10 plus one side dish that's below $5, and a hot/cold drink. So I chose Kyo Nichi Ramen (with thick soup stock, so that's valued at $9.50), and a tori karaage (valued at $5) and a hot mocha (valued at $2 and that's basically nescafe + milo, yup.. that's what they wrote there...).

While waiting for the food, I was served hot green tea. So nice, 'coz at other places hot green tea might cost you a dollar or so.

Hmmm... the ramen reminds me of Ajisen. The soup tasted alright, not as thick as I expected it to be. Kyo Nichi ramen comes with half of a hard-boiled egg (the yolk is a pretty orange colour!), seaweed, bamboo shoots and a piece of char-siew. To me, the char-siew is pretty tasteless... probably boiled too long. There's 4 pieces of tori karaage (fried chicken). Plump and juicy. But it'll be better if it had been marinated with ginger prior to frying. That would be heavenly! The waiter is extremely polite because everytime he serves the food, he'll start with an 'excuse me'. Haha

Oh ya, there's no 10% service charge, only have the 7% GST and wet towel is provided free.

As ramen goes, it's all about the broth and Kyo-Nichi's collagen laden broth is really good. Utilitarian exercise with a bit extra. Service is efficient as one would expect from a decent ramen place.