Japanese Chef Opens S’pore Outlet For His Mensho Tokyo Ramen Chain, Chilli Crab Ramen On Menu
Only 200 bowls of ramen will be served a day during the restaurant’s soft opening period, with customers limited to one bowl each.
Mensho Tokyo is a ramen chain that has 18 outlets worldwide, including San Francisco, where the Michelin Guide-approved branch there has long queues and a one-hour dining time for its ramen in a rich, creamy chicken broth.
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The chain’s latest 18th outlet is opening on July 20 in Singapore at Raffles City Shopping Centre, right beside cafe Surrey Hills Grocer (it’s brought in by the same parent company).
For its soft opening period, the restaurant will only offer dinner service from 6pm to 10pm, and serve 200 bowls a day with customers limited to one bowl each. From around Aug 1, Mensho Tokyo will offer both lunch and dinner service.
Founded by “perfectionist” Japanese chef
Mensho Tokyo was founded in 2005 by ramen master chef Tomoharu Shono, whose restaurant won awards like Tokyo Ramen of the Year and the Ramen Walker Grand Prix (yes it’s a very legit competition in Japan for serious ramen masters).
According to chef Shono, a good bowl of ramen balances five key elements: sauce, soup, noodles, oil and toppings. His restaurant outlets use seasonal Japanese ingredients, and proprietary ‘wavy’ noodles freshly made on-site in a dedicated ‘noodle room’, where whole wheat grains are ground into wheat flour and formed into noodle strands. Customers can ogle at the noodle-making in the noodle room, which is just beside the restaurant’s entrance.
What to expect for the menu
There are some very interesting ramen flavours at Mensho Tokyo, including Duck Matcha ($34), which is served with a creamy chicken bone-boiled broth spiked with matcha and topped with duck cha shu and… whipped cream.
If you like garlic, you can have it done five different ways in a bowl of Garlic Knock Out ($28), which comes with the same rich chicken broth and fresh garlic cloves, chips, flakes, roasted garlic and blackened garlic oil, plus pork chashu, roasted tomatos and fried burdock root.
For not-so adventurous eaters, there is a classic hearty bowl of Signature Toripaitan ($38) with A5 wagyu, duck and chicken chashu, seasoned king oyster mushroom stems, truffle sauce, an ajitama egg and fried burdock root.
Both vegan and non-vegan ramen options are available.
Exclusive chilli crab ramen
And ’cos his latest outlet is in Singapore, chef Shono has also given his noodles a local twist by creating an atas Chili Crab Ramen ($32).
A base of wheat flour noodles and cloudy chicken soup is zhng-ed with chilli crab rempah, kombu, shiitake and porcini mushrooms. There’s an actual chilli crab topping too, marinated with shio koji (a traditional fermented rice-based marinade), and paired with iconic El Bulli chef Ferran Adrià-invented espuma (vegetable foam; though chef Shono has his own egg version here).
Other than ramen, you can also go for sides like vegan ‘fried chicken’ made with king oyster mushrooms, fried Japanese horse mackerel, and Kurozu Fried Chicken, battered chicken and eggplant slices served with a house-made black vinegar dip.
While Mensho Tokyo outlets don’t serve desserts, the Singapore outpost is the only one that offers sweet treats. These were jointly created by chef Shono and cafe Antoinette’s founder-chef Pang Kok Keong, who is also the man behind Surrey Hills Grocer’s desserts.
Mensho Tokyo opens Jul 20 at #03-43 Raffles City Shopping Centre, 252 North Bridge Rd, S179103. Soft opening period (till circa Aug 1), 6pm-10pm daily. Regular operating hours 10am-10pm daily. www.instagram.com/menshotokyo.sg
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