Springy Japanese Ramen At Goku Raku Mid Valley Megamall

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Springy Japanese Ramen At Goku Raku Mid Valley Megamall

Of late there have been numerous Ramen shops that have been setup in the Klang Valley. Each one boasting their uniqueness and flavors that will drives your loves for this hot slurpy meal that will guarantee to soothe your tummy.

We were invited for a Ramen food review at Goku Raku Ramen which is located at Lot S025 & Lot S026, Level 2, Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur. This restaurant amplifies the neatness and casual dining atmosphere the Japanese way. It is brightly lit and provides an open kitchen concept where you can watch your fresh Ramen been made right at the shop window or watch how they prepare your favourite Ramen. to ensure freshness of the Ramen, it is prepared fresh from this outlet.

Ramen is a very common food in Japan much like our wanton noodles in Malaysia. You can get your fix of these noodles almost anywhere in Japan. But, what makes a good Ramen and what it entails for a chef to prepare such a simple dish to arouse your senses. It boils down to every little steps and processes starting from the right quality ingredient to the timing and right up to the consistency in boiling the ramen to its perfection.

Of course, the other thing, which is of utmost important is the soup base. This is the defining moments of whether the Ramen will leave you totally satisfied or so so or yurky as they say.

Starting off the night, we had the Shanghai Fried Ramen. Frankly speaking, I had never tried Ramen cook in this style as most of the time, it is always a soup base type which I preferred. Having the first bite of this Ramen reminds me of the Hot Plate noodles that are served at the food court, although those, uses the “Yee Mee” as compared to here that uses Ramen. The Ramen mixes well with the sauce that it was cook in. What I like most is that the chef had put in a lot of vegetables in the Ramen, the only set back was that it was hard to give it a good mix so as all the sauce are at the bottom of the plate.

Next we had the Ebi Goyza. Gyoza is the Japanese dumplings and this had the vegetable and meat filling. The dumpling is pan fried so it leaves a crisp at the bottom and soft top. The complimentary sauce was the hot sesame oil with soyu. I find the filling a little too soft, i.e. when you bite it, there is no oomph of eating real meat which I favored in my dumplings.

The main course for the night is of course the Five Star Aburi Char Siew, one of the specialty Ramen served here. The Pork belly topping is cooked and lightly roasted on the top to give it the Char Siew effect. It also comes with a half of a Nitamago (soyu sauce boiled eggs).

According to the chef, these eggs are prepared using a very long and tedious process which have to be timed to perfection to ensure that the yolk are set in the middle and it should not be overcook.

The soup based was the TONKOTSU SOUP, which was prepared using fresh pork bones and secret ingredients that was added into as the base and brewed over a period of time. At the first slurp of the hot soup, which has a topping of kuro oil (black garlic oil) infused into our tongue, you will get the feeling of taking another spoonful after another.

The soup was very addictive and complimenting it with the freshly made Ramen and Pork Belly was a perfect combination. For those that do not fancy such a strong soup base, you can try out the Tokyo soup base which is milder in taste as it uses chicken as the main ingredient for the broth.

Next, we had the GRR Pork meatballs. The meatballs are first fried and then cooked with a sweet and sour sauce. Taking my first bite, the crust was nice and blended well with the sauce but the inside filling, the meat was a little too soft for me, I always enjoy meatballs that are firm and which are of the bouncy type when you bite into it.

Specially Just For You - Goku Raku is offering a 50% off for you to try out this GRR meatball from 9th May 2014 to 30th June 2014. You can print out the voucher to redeem it. Voucher is at the end of this blog. Enjoy Yourself and let me know your comments.

GET YOUR 50% OFF VOUCHER FOR GRR MEATBALL

(Details Below)

Lastly, we were served a Set Dish Meal called Set C, which has a combination of more than 10 separate dishes cook in small portion which you can share with friends. My advice is to eat these with either plain white rice or plain Ramen as it can be a little salty if you were to eat it as it is.

My personal favorite are the Crispy Mayo Shrimp. The prawn was very fresh and you can taste the crunchy and succulent prawn feeling with every bite of it.