Having seen an intriguing Facebook photo of a bowl of ramen topped with an enormous piece of chicken, I trooped to the newly-opened Ramen Keisuke Tori King in BGC on its fourth day of soft opening. Apparently, Ramen Keisuke is a huge chain in Japan and Singapore, with many different concepts that has specific offerings: Tori King has tori (chicken broth) ramen, Tonkotsu King has tonkotsu, and so on. With every ramen shop in Manila putting pork broth front and center, I was extremely curious what Ramen Keisuke has to offer.
I dined with friends and we ordered everything in the menu except for one (which I think, could've been my favorite, ugggh). Here are some notes on my dining experience:
1 | All ramen options come with their signature grilled quarter chicken instead of pork chashu, as well as a chicken broth made with bones, feet, seaweed, and vegetables. For something with chicken as base, the broth is surprisingly rich and creamy—if you love ramen styles like Mendokoro, you will like it. Unfortunately, I was craving for something lighter; I found the Tori King Ramen Rich Soup Special (PhP550) (with nori, mushroom, flavored egg, and pork chashu) delicious but a little too overwhelming (nakakaumay) after several spoonfuls. I was wondering if it was purely chicken or some pork was added to it. I wanted to put some citrus in it or maybe more green onions. And so, this brings me to #2.
2 | I should've ordered the Tori King Ramen Clear Soup. Nobody did from the group, but I probably would've liked this one better. Actually, everybody felt light-headed and SUPER sleepy after our meal.
(Side comment/question: DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND A GOOD TORI RAMEN WITH YUZU IN MANILA? Because I'm still dreaming of this.)
3 | The grilled chicken was incredibly tender that a poke of the chopstick separates the meat from the bone. The insides are pretty flavorful as well, with hints of seaweed even. But I would imagine that those who don't like nori will NOT appreciate it. The chashu was really soft as well, with the same nuances of seaweed (I like).
4 | Like other ramen places, you can choose the richness of your broth as well as the hardness of the noodles. I ordered my broth "normal" (I wonder if "light" meant the clear soup), with less chicken oil (#signsofaging), and hard noodles. The noodles were still quite soft for my preference. Also, I wonder it it was just me but I found that there were not enough noodles because the chicken took up most of the space of the bowl, so you better order extra (or baka matakaw lang ako hahahaha)!
5 | The Black Spicy Tori King and Red Spicy Tori King (both at PhP420 with chicken, PhP480 with chicken and egg, PhP570 special with pork chashu and nori) were, sadly, not spicy at all. I don't know if I just have high tolerance for heat, but ... for something with Sichuan peppers and chilies, they were not spicy. The Black King has sesame oil so you might want to request them to go easy with that. For the Red King, I think the added elements somehow make the broth less overwhelming, so for that aspect, I would probably recommend getting that out of the three.
6 | They offer pork gyoza (PhP150, 3 pcs/PhP250, 6 pcs) and karaage (PhP200, 4 pcs) as sides. With everything on the ramen made of chicken, I went for the gyoza. They were juicy. Also, each table has complimentary bean sprouts and hard-boiled eggs (to munch on while waiting for your ramen, according to the server). The bean sprouts were bland though mildly spicy—nice to add to your soup, for some texture and spice, as well as to counter the overpowering broth.
~*~
Ramen Keisuke Tori King
Unit 1&2 Ground Floor Tower 1, Corporate Plaza, Taguig City
+63917.320.8879
Budget: PhP500 up
What do you think of Ramen Keisuke Tori King? Let me know in the comments below!
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