Ramen @ Marutama Ra-Men

I'm not usually a ramen person. But when I first tried the ramen @ Marutama, I was impressed! Marutama only offers three kind of ramen. One - the normal ramen. Two - the normal ramen in spicy broth. Three - the normal ramen in a 7-mixed nuts broth. I've tried all three and my personal preference is still the spicy one. So far, I've been there with different people and they all preferred the spicy ramen.



This is how it looks like. You might be surprised to find that the spicy broth looks very much like the normal broth, the difference is only in the taste. Be warned not to slurp your first mouthful of soup! You'll probably choke on the spicy-ness!

The ramen itself, comes with some wakame (seaweed), some negi (green onion), and... was it one piece or two pieces of the pork you see in the picture. Very humble yes. At $12 with such little offering, it might seem a bit expensive. If you find that it is not enough, you might want to order your ramen with a seasoned hard boiled egg, or more negi. There are several options to "enhance" your ramen, but all come at a price.

Nowadays I always order my ramen as is. It is filling and satisfying enough without me even having to order any side dishes.

Other than ramen, they also offer around six or seven side dishes. I would suggest sharing the side dishes if there's only two of you. You'll be especially full after the ramen, the most you can do is two side dishes. That is unless you have a very big appetite.



Here's one of the side dishes, daikon (simmered radish), a very common Japanese side dish. Very soft and slightly sweet, it is very good on the stomach. If you're ordering your daikon with the spicy ramen, you might end up finding the daikon a bit too bland.



Here's one of my favourite side dish, fatty meat. Grilled to perfection, it goes very well with the ramen! Of course, after eating this, you feel like you'll need to go the extra mile at the gym, literally! But of all the side dishes, this is definitely on my must-try list. At least once! You'll find the extra hours put in at the gym will be worth it!



The other day, I was in the mood for something different, so I tried the pickled radish. It tasted slightly like kimchi, kind of sour-ish. And it helps to whet your appetite. It gets quite addictive after a while.

Marutama Ra-Men has no website and is only available at these two places - The Central (the one located just above the Clarke Quay MRT station) #03-90/91, sort of diagonally opposite Waraku; and at Liang Court #02-01/02 where the nearest MRT station is also Clarke Quay. But because during peak hours there can be quite a long queue, the one at Liang Court would be a quieter location, especially you're not prepared to wait, or you're damn hungry.



Do note that they do not take reservations, and you can't go and queue in advance for your friends either. They'll only seat people with everyone there. This is also because of the super long queue during peak hours. Imagine when I first went there in 2007, there were already long queues. It's 2010 now and the long queues are still there. Says a lot doesn't it?

This is definitely a must-try place, especially for ramen fans!