Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King

Selected by Timeout's critic as 2012 Singapore Best Ramen Bowl is Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King by chef-owner Keisuke Takeda, Tokyo's Ramen King 2011 out of about 30,000 ramen chefs. The cosy little place at a corner of Orchid Hotel is his 2nd restaurant in Singapore after Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo at Parco Marina Bay and within walking distance from the 3rd, Ramen Keisuke Tori King. With the same simple menu, a queue of people sitting on stools outside and familiar-looking seat cushions in different colours against lots of wood. Similarly, on the table were complimentary hard-boiled eggs and sweet crunchy beansprouts with a tinge of spice as well as condiments and tissue paper. Chose Original over the Black Spicy and Red (instead of Green) Spicy soup with all toppings, less oil and no spring onions. I checked the boxes for normal soup and noodle texture on the order chit, and was surprised to see the option to exclude pork chasyu.

Cold water and a little pestle-mortar of black and white sesame seeds were served. Loved how the freshly ground sesame seeds added a nice aroma to the thick, rich and creamy pork broth cooked with pork marrow bones and fat for hours. While the ramen and soft-boiled egg were done just right with pork loin neither too hard nor fat, would have preferred both the egg and pork to have a bit more flavour. Nothing to fault on the crunchy black fungus and big seaweed, except the parts soaked in soup 'til soft. Individually, every ingredient was good and they came well together to be the best ramen I have eaten in Singapore. Despite the fact that there were sinful blobs of fats floating in the tasty broth and I have tried better ramen at Marutama Ramen (reminded myself to visit again to verify) and soup at Mandarin Gallery's Ippudo, not UE Square's Ippudo Tao. Authentic and reminiscent of a hole-in-the-wall place in Sapporo's Ramen Alley if not for its high ceiling, bright lights and bigger space.