I’m a huge ramen fan. Whenever I stop over at Narita Airport–never been to Japan but stopover countless times–I will eat ramen at the airport. On the HGW’s top 10 Ramen, I’ve tried the top 4 restaurants, so naturally I went on to #5, Yoshimaru Ramen Bar at Playground @ Big Splash. If you’re as sotong as me, it’s just beside Starbucks. Opens till 11pm everyday, except for Friday, Saturday and PH, till 1am.
When I walked in, I waited for some time and no servers offered to show me to a table. An angmoh walked in from the other side (not the main entrance) and no way was I going to give him the colonial preferential treatment our servers are so famous for. So I, very kiasu, grabbed a dirty table. And I waited a long while but no one cleaned my table. But the service wasn’t bad; They were just under-staffed. 3 servers to maintain the place. They were actually quite friendly, especially the cheerful Chinese panda bear. Eh, Big Boss of restaurant, don’t be so cheap leh. Hire more people.
At this time, the servers had cleared other tables (but not my table!) and a group of 4 gay men walked in, asking for a table. Since the other clean tables were for 2, I offered my big table to them (one of them very hot!). Call me!
While waiting for my date, another gay (Singaporean) man walked in, and met the angmoh. Wow, this place was infested by fags and my fallen expectation (because of the service) had raised again. You can trust a restaurant full of fags because gay men never waste their calories. So if they are willing to eat fat pork and spend another 4 hours on the treadmill, then it must be good.
When my date arrived, I asked him if the gay men are his friends whom he got to check me out, to quality-control me. Other people I dated have done it before.
We ordered quickly and the servers were prompt and the food came within minutes. Faster than McDonald’s, well done.
I ordered a Pepsi, and the glass was iced and frosted, very cool.
Seriously, did you think I would order Pepsi and not Pepsi Light? I’m not a typical fag but I’m still a fag.
I love eggs. Note the irony of a gay man liking eggs. I ordered the Garlic Ramen and honestly, I don’t know what shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce), miso, pork or chicken-based soups are and I don’t give a flying f…ox. All I want to know is whether the ramen is ho chiak or bo ho chiak, YUMS or DUMPS. The broth is really #5 in ranking, after the top 4 ramen restaurants. Not rich enough, although easily consumed. I don’t know what people mean by the springiness of noodles because come on lah, noodles is noodles. So long as they are not soggy, or undercooked, it’s fine with me. The pork slices (only two!) were alright, nothing to boast about, didn’t melt in my mouth but my teeth didn’t work very hard either. But the combination of the seaweeds with tau gay (bean sprouts, got to love this plant for its gayness) with noodles was killer; It was the taste of sea-salt and crunch of plant and sunshine-gold of wheat all rolled into one. But I’d like to ask: WHERE IS THE GARLIC?
Nicely decorated with yellow lights and more modern Japanese feel, rather than cheap woodwork at other ramen restaurants.
About $20/pax.
Rating: 3/5 stars (said my date)
2.98342/5 stars (said I)
Categories: $0-$20, East Coast, Japanese
Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow 