Santouka Ramen

Santouka Ramen hails from Hokkaido and has many outlets spread across Japan. I remembered reading about this place, but have never came here until today, but this is probably the best place thus far for tonkotsu ramen.

I took the Tokusen Toroniku Ramen, which supposedly had limited orders available per day. I have no idea why the ingredients are all served separately here, but who cares so long as the food is great, right? The egg was an extra side order and not included in the default set.

I love these eggs, and would always order one when I can. This one passes my taste test. It was well marinated, and the yolk is certainly still gooey-liciously good!

For soup base, you can choose the usual Shio, Shoyu or Miso. I took the miso which was great and the pork taste was not too overbearing. My partner took the Shio and while he liked his, the porky taste was too much for my personal preference. The texture of the ramen was close to that of Marutama's - al dente and springy - and I liked it.

This is why I consider this place to have the best tonkotsu ramen (Marutama's in a different league as I always order the seven nuts soup base there.). I usually avoid Char Siu because I dislike the layers of fat. But these are apparently made from the cheeks of a pig, which is why there are limited orders a day. A connoisseur who knows his fish would probably go for the meat around a fish's cheek because it is the most tender. I guess the same goes for a pig.

These innocent looking pieces of meat have only a thin layer of fat, are extremely tender and pull apart easily as you bite into them. They are well marinated although might be a little too salty for some palates.

All taken into account, this place joins Marutama in my list of places worth returning to.