thanks to YH dear, i’m suddenly obsessed with hunting down the best ramen in sg
i’ve been eating quite a fair bit of ramen over the past few mths, and i’m convinced that baikohken @ boat quay, where she brought me to ytd cld be pretty near the top.
the ramen at baikohken is asahikawa style, in either miso, shoyu or shio flavours and they come in two sizes – half (great for ladies or pple who want multiple toppings) and regular. we ordered 2 flavours to share, before K joined us. a half-sized shio ramen and a half-sized shoyu ramen ($9 each). we each added extra butter and corn ($2) and ajitama ($1) toppings – that’s the half boiled egg.
the noodles were short and curly (easy to eat!). they’re not springy as some other food bloggers have pointed out, but that’s not my #1 criteria in ramen. to me, it’s all about the soup and the shio soup here rocks my socks!! it’s not too porkish in taste but light yet flavourful. they probably used a mixture of pork and fish bones (but not boiled until tonkotsu-milky consistency). while the shio soup was significantly saltier than the shoyu soup, i didn’t really enjoy the shoyu one as it pretty much masked the flavour of the original stock and just tasted like…diluted shoyu. i felt tt the butter didn’t do much for the soup except make it oilier, so i reccomend tt you skip that topping.
the proof here however, is in the charsiew. i don’t usually eat the charsiew in my ramen but i assure you that the charsiew here is show-stoppin’! it has just the right tenderness and amount of fat (not too much) and melted in my mouth, piece after piece
we also ordered a plate of gyozas ($5.5) but i don’t have much of an impression of it, other than the skin was quite crispy.
i didn’t have enough of the shio ramen so i actually came back here tdy for more with the bf in town. he ordered a half-sized miso ramen ($9)with extra char siew ($2.3) and while the miso soup was the heaviest of the lot, it’s actually still very light compared to misos elsewhere. they added some minced meat which i felt cut through the nuttiness and creaminess of the soup. interesting.
the ramen also comes loaded with a heap of negi (scallions) – almost too sharp for me, and menma (bamboo shoots) – which were tough. i usually gobble up my menma but this was a let-down.
the other thing i adore abt this place is the free flow of mugicha (roasted barley tea), served in a huge jug on your table. it actually tasts like coffee-water, except tt it has no caffeine. the bittersweet aftertaste is so thirst quenching although i’m sure this is an acquired taste
i think i probably drank like half a jug myself (loved it since i first tried it in TO)! in a country where prices are gg up faster than wages, and where asking for tap water is unheard of at some f&b outlets, this gesture comes as a breath of fresh air
don’t expect much for ambience, and if you come during peak hrs you probably can’t linger and talk with friends. but come for the ramen and its affordable prices!
overall:8/10
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baikohken
7 north canal road
tel: 6534 3808







