Sapporo Ramen Bishamon (Raffles City Shopping Centre)

we were looking for a quick dinner before heading to our next appointment and having the craving for Ramen as its being the longest time i last had it because i am a die hard fan of Miharu @ Gallery Hotel. Since the lady boss flew in most of her ingredients from her hometown in Japan, I believe no other outlets can defeat this. I do not rave abt The Central various Ramen outlets as they arent authentic enuff.

Dinner time at 6.30pm did not render crowd to this place, only 2 couples were having their meal.
At Bishamon, i ordered the Special Miso Ramen (Sapporo) as the pic in the menu look like it holds the similar ingredient as Miharu.
Other Orders are Pork Katsu, and Tamago & Unagi Don.

Ramen holds the much needed ingredients like bamboo shoots, sprouts, corn, hot spring egg and charshu. The soup base was not boiled in pork long enuff hence taste little blend. The charshu was nt well marinated at all. Taste of pork is strongy visible.
Tamago and Unagi portion seem a little small for a don. Nothing much to rave abt.
However Pork Katsu was pretty delightful to us, with the accomompanied black sauce completes the meal.

Service was fast and pleasant too. Layout was very clamp within the dining area. had to squeeed my way out from the beach seat.

Overall, this place do not deserve all the bad reviews it has received. I hav been to worse ones.
Bishamon needs improvement on its food of course but needless to say i am willing to give it another try if i m in the area and hav e similar situation of a quick japanese meal.

I should have checked HGW ratings before I threw $20 on a Special Miso Ramen, a can of Sprite, terrible ambience and very void deck coffeeshop service at this joint. Completely agree with the earlier reviewers.

Giving a rating of 2 only because I'm kind.

I actually really like the ramen here, because I've tried a few famous ramen shops at Central and they were usually too salty.

the soup base here is really good, I always go for the Spicy Miso Ramen and i add extra Wakame for $2.

Overall, i really like the taste of the ramen.

Downside? Slow service and the ramen sucks up the soup pretty fast, so you might want to ask the service staff for an extra bowl of soup (which is free by the way)

I always come here when I'm craving for ramen and intend to have a fast dinner.

AVOID the shoyu ramen, clear soup ramen and curry rice.
Honestly speaking, the pork-base soup is the only one worth eating.

This was an afterwork dinner one weekday evening, and quite the mistake if you ask me – we should have just queued outside asian kitchen.

To cut a long story short this is what we had:

Spicy miso ramen with extra menma and corn

Pork katsu jyu

I had the spicy miso ramen with extra menma and corn. The extra menma was I think an addition $2 or so, but corn possibly be the same priced and not worth it. The menma was alright though, if not a little tasteless but that’s how I like it. My main gripe was the ramen noodles – that clumped together (think handmade noodle i.e. pieces of flour that stick together) and this is in my view unacceptable when it comes to ramen. I must say however that when I started eating the ramen I thought it was decent enough, up and until I encountered clumpy noodles. The base of the soup was average. It was spicy, but certainly not memorable. I can only give it credit for its non saltiness as well as its non oiliness. The serving of meat with the ramen was of decent portion though.

My partner had the pork katsu jyu which was probably a rendition of pork katsu don with a variation in name. The serving size looked rather small. He said it started out ok, but this tapered towards the middle and end of his meal when I think it got a little tasteless. So this dish I would say, fail.

One thing that I must say really irked me (and for this sole reason I will not come back) was that not only were patrons squeezed together canteen bench style, (even though seats and tables were individual), it was so freaking noisy. Left right front back everybody was talking and I had to exert quite substantial effort while talking in order that my partner could hear me. In the end, we just gave up, ate in silence (while everyone around us chattered on and on an on) and left in like 25 minutes. We’re fast eaters and like to cut to the chase – but by choice. The situation was such that we were forced to eat fast and get out of there. it was so unbearable i had to walk up to the counter and get my own cheque and that only served to irritate me further.

So I will not be back. For the price we paid, it was entirely not worth it either.

I ate the sapporo shoyu ramen and 1) I thought the portion was quite big and 2) I thought it tasted slightly above average, but that's after I had added several drops of chilli. It definitely beats Ajisen Ramen in terms of taste, but loses out to the ramen restaurant over at Central. The ramen at Central is, by far, still the best.

We also had gyoza, and I thought they were quite good, considering the gyoza doesn't belong to those 'fried till chao da' type.

My wife loudly proclaimed as we walked away from a meal that might be described as awful.

We have eaten at the Bishamon in Great World City a few months before, and it did not impress. On hindsight (which is possible due to our lack of foresight), we should have guessed that an improved experience at the Raffles City Branch would be improbable.

I ordered a Vegetable Miso Ramen, while she risked a Shoyu Ramen. Both orders were met with raised eyebrows when they arrived. The ramen looked undercooked and after tasted, was indeed so. My wife could offer a considerate excuse, "maybe they were aiming for al dente." Well, they missed.

My Vegetable Miso Ramen was bizaarely decorated with shaved bell peppers. While I appreciated the innovation, the raw peppers took away most of the taste of the ramen and other vegetables. That in itself may have been a blessing in disguise, but I did not order a salad.

We also ordered a side-dish, an Agedashi Tofu. The tofu was ok, but the layer of oily flour sticking to it wasn't. The texture felt confusingly trapped between dumpling skin and tempura, which wasn't pleasant.

Food aside, the ambience was non-existent. The service, however, was marginally acceptable, if a little brisk.

On the whole, I won't pay more than $5 for the ramen, because I have tasted better in food courts, and yes, instant noodles. Charging $12 for the unauthentic and underpar ramen was ridiculous. I'd rather spend that amt at Ocho, or even Din Tai Feng.

My advice is to avoid this outlet if you want good ramen.

Having visited the Great World City outlet and coming away somewhat contented this Raffles City experience leaves such a bad taste (figuratively and literally) in the mouth I can't say I will ever go back again and makes me want to rescind my other outlet's reviews.

I ordered a Shio Ramen and my japanese friend ordered a shoyu ramen. For those who don't know much about Japanese food. Shio = Salt so A Shio Ramen is a soup seasoned with salt as a basic which results a clear soup. The one i had is salty alright (damn salty if you ask me) but it is milky white in appearance. That to me is a Tonkotsu...not shio ramen. My friend's Shoyu (= soy sauce) should be a brown color some what clear soup but the Bishamon version is so murky and yellowish my Japanese friend thought they served him (miso ramen) a wrong order.

Ok so lets just say the chef has a bad day mix up the soup or their have a different interpretation to an age old Japanese dish.....i don't think so but lets give the benefit of the doubt... Now the unpardonable part: The Char Siew and the Tamago (soft boil egg) is just dumped on the ramen bowl, straight from the chiller, before serving. The meat is cold (really cold) and the egg is room temperature on the outside and chiller cold on the inside (yoke). Can I just say this is nasty? Whatever happen to professionalism? I know it is prepared before hand but at least dip the egg and meat in hot water/soup first before putting it in the customer's bowl! I know they are expecting the soup to warm up the meat and egg but hey it DID NOT cos the soup itself is lukewarm.

Service is not bad other than the server very hard sell keep pestering us to get appetizer and drinks, it got a bit annoying. I know it is his job but that wasn't done in a slick manner so minus points there.

Ambience not much different from the old Jap shop that occupied the place (Amanogawa) and the low chairs are uncomfortable for a reason (don't want you to sit too long) and tables placed too close together for comfort...any how this is not a place you come for any ambience.

The mark of a good ramen shop is the soup and Bishamon fails totally in this area - too much msg and soup that confuses even a Japanese....Plus $32 for 2 pax aint what I consider cheap from some ramen with identity crisis....

My friends and I visited this restaurant in Jan 08. 2 of us ordered the Miso Ramen (whh was a recommended item) @ S$13.50 and another ordered a Shio Ramen @S$12. The ramen was just average.

The selection of food items is also very limited. Basically, it's Ramen, Ramen & Ramen. We ordered the softshell crab @ S$6. The serving size was miserable.

The restaurant is very cramp and it gets really noisy during peak hours. (We were there during dinner time).

Overall, I would rate it as a 'below average' place.

18 January 2008 : I came here for dinner with JT.... We were intending to eat somewhere else... but we decided to have dinner here. We made such a bad choice....

We ordered :
Miso Ramen
Fried Chicken Curry Rice
Green Tea x 2
TOTAL : $32.37

SLIDE SHOW

The food was really bad... the fried chicken on my rice was discoloured. It looked so very far removed from the pictures on the menu. The whole dish of fried chicken curry rice was bland and totally unappetising. JT also had to work though the miso ramen with great difficulty because it wasn't appetising at all. The meat slices were hard and tough.

The ambience here was bad. The tables were so very cramped. The dining area was so cluttered and noisy. Navigating your way through the dining area is a hazardous experience because you may just bump into the service staff carrying food. The design of the tables here are a nightmare. The tables have an additional panel underneath and I could not tuck my legs under the table without them slanting at an awkward angle or risk getting my knees bruised.

JT & I did not like the food. So... we would not consider our meal to be of good value.

The cashier is actually at the window where food comes out of the kitchen. We handed the bill to the service staff who passed it to the man at the cashier. This same person was also in-charge of the food orders coming through the window from the kitchen. We had to wait while the man dumped our bill and money aside while he tidied his cash drawer and manage the food coming out from the kitchen. I had to tap the man on the shoulder and remind him that im waiting for my change before he got down to processing our bill.

JT & I were so relieved that this dinner experience was over and we do not want to return.