Today is a casual shopping day in Manila after church and for lunch we’ve gone to the SM Megamall. This place is truly huge with a grocery store connected and too many floors and wings for me to keep track. SM is a huge family corporation in the Philippines and every time we’re driving around Christel points out all the stores they own and also the fact that she went to school with kids from that family. Manila is a small place with very very rich asians.
Once in SM Megamall we tried to go to Din Tai Fung, a very famous global soup dumpling restaurant that I’ve had the opportunity to try in Hong Kong (it’s delicious and the best soup dumplings I’ve never had) but the line was so long we put our name down on the waiting list for fun and walked around. During out lap we landed in front of Ippudo and the wait was much much shorter for the four of us (Me, Christel, and her parents) so we ended up eating there instead.
LOCATION: 3F Mega Fashion Hall, SM Megamall, Ortigas, Pasig City
As you may remember from a trip to NYC, I’ve been to Ippudo before and after a long ramen battle decided that I preferred Totto Ramen but we’re here and I like noodles so I’m not complaining.
Ippudo here in the Philippines is pretty similar to the one in NYC. Obviously the layout is different but it’s got the same feeling to it. This location is more open and brighter but NYC is NYC so that’s not surprising since there’s more space here in this giant Megamall.
While in NYC I tried the Shiromaru Hakata Classic Ramen but I thought this time around I’d try something new and a little different.
Ippudo Tantanmen Ramen is something that ippudo brought back within the last year and it’s their tonkotsu broth with tantanmen oil added to it that makes it a medium spiciness. The noddles are their chewy wavy version and its topped with ground pork, chashu, cilantro, onions, parmesan cheese, and onsen tamago.
It was such a surprise to me to have parmesan cheese in an asian ramen so I had to try it. This dish was pretty special and I did enjoy it more than the Shiromaru Classic from my previous visit. The egg was so perfectly par cooked and when split open and stirred into the broth it helped mellow out the spice but give it a really rich creamy flavor. What also surprised me was the ground pork. It’s prepared in a way that makes it fall apart in the broth when mixed, very rare in texture as in not cooked long. It was an odd thing to have this ground pork that didn’t really want to be eaten and instead much of it sunk to the bottom or swam in the broth. I wish it stuck to my noddles more so that it would be easier to get some of that flavor while I was chewing instead of in the broth while I drank that. Of course the chashu was very good and the broth was very flavorful. It’s a medium spice but I can say it cleared out my sinuses and pores well enough in a very great way. I couldn’t drink all of the broth but that’s something I rarely do anyways.
Though it was a fun experience, I’m not sure that I would go back for this again. I think it was exciting to try something so different and it tasted delicious but at the end of the day I may have been happier with an order of soup dumplings.