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.

Pork Loin Rei Shabu. 

Here are the dishes served as part of Set C

Edamame

Aburi Char Siew

Chef Salad

Pork Loin Rei Shabu

Tori Momo Karaage

Crispy Mayo Shrimp

Siew Mai

Ebi Chilli

Sweet and Sour Pork

Utsunomiya Sui Gyoza

Garlic Fried Rice/Mini Ramen

Today's Dessert

Sesame Ball

SPECIAL GRR Pork Ball VOUCHER

Original Homemade Japanese Udon at Manmaru Restaurant Mid Valley By Best Restaurant To Eat.

What is a good UDON? How do you know whether the UDON is freshly made? With all this question in mind, we venture into Manmaru Japanese Udon Restaurant located at S-045A, Second Floor, Mid Valley City Megamall, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The entrance was brightly lit with Japanese lanterns.

The concept is simple. It is a Japanese Fast Food Udon Restaurant much like in Japan. You decide the type of noodles (10 types) and choose your add on tempura (ranging from shrimp tempura to mix vegetables tempura or side dishes and move to pay at the payment station followed by cutleries and tempura sauce. This self service concept is similar in Japan but in Japan there are no sitting space, you virtually slurp your Udon standing.

So, what makes a good Udon? The ingredient to make the Udon is very important, secondly timing is everything. According to Richard, the manager, brief us that Udon, once cooked have to be consume within 15 minutes, after which it loses the firm bouncy texture.

At Manmaru, this becomes a very critical stage as it takes another 10 minutes just to cook the Udon. So, in order not to have too much slack time, it is very critical to ensure that there are Udon ready to serve but still able to maintain the texture. At Manmaru, if they are not able to serve and consume by the customers within the 15 minutes, the cooked Udon will be disposed off. Kind of waste but this is how Udon are to be served for the freshest and the best of quality when eaten.

There are 2 main types of Udon i.e. Cold and Hot, depending on your preference, probably depends on the time you eat it. On a hot day, you might want to take the Cold Udon, while on a cool night you might want to slurp up a hot Udon.

 For the night, we started off with the Kimchi Udon follow by Curry Udon, Kamaage Udon, Niku Udon, Bukake Udon, Kake Udon, Kamo Seiro Udon, Ume Udon, Zaru Udon and Cream Corn Udon. All in all, we had the privileged to try all 10 of it.

My personal favourite are Niku Udon, I love the beef slice and the springy Udon and it complimented well with the broth. One thing about Beef Slice, you have to consume it quickly as the beef slice will be a little overcook if not eaten quickly.

 

My next favourite is the Cream Corn Udon, a cream based which looks quite similar to carbonara sauce, but here the cream is of a light cream which is very nice. This dish is a very simple looking and delicious Udon.

For Tempura, we were served the Enoki Tempura (golden needle mushroom), Ebi Tempura (Prawn), Yasai Kakiage Tempura (Crispy Mix Vegetable), White Fish Tempura, Kabocha tempura (Pumpkin), Satsuma-Imo Tempura (Sweet Potato), Renkon Tempura (Lotus Root), Nasu Tempura (Brinjal) and Green Pepper Tempura.

My personal favourite was the Enoki and Yasai Kakiage, as it was not too oily and as usual, you have to consume it as quickly as possible failing which it tends to loose it crispiness and become soggy.

And for the Karaage, they have the Ika Karaage (Squid) and Tori Karaage (Chicken). I personally find the Karaage to be a little too salty, but if you are eating with plain Udon, I suppose should be able to neutralized the saltiness.

Finally, is the side order dish of the Hanjuku Tamago (Soft boiled eggs marinated with soya sauce). This side order to me is a comfort food as I love to eat stewed eggs of all types, but personally, it lacks the kick compared to the Taiwanese version that I had previously.

The parting experience from this Udon expedition, the keyword is FAST, i.e. is you really have to eat fast to enjoy a real Udon meal in Manmaru. No time for chit chat during meal.