Restaurant #30: Kurume Ramen 魁龍拉麵, Taipei

I often see Japanese Ramen restaurants in Taipei, but most of the restaurants look different than the actual Japanese style. I am not looking for a real Japanese ramen, because I don’t think Taiwan people like Japanese ramen, especially Hokkaido style. Hokkaido ramen use seafood, Miso and the soup is oily, rich flavor. I heard from my Taiwanese friends who went to Japan, especially Hokkaido, that they felt the Ramen soup in Hokkaido was very salty. So, here in Taipei, many Japanese-style Ramen restaurants use light, Tonkotsu soup, like Kyushu style.

魁龍拉麵, located in the basement of Caesar Park Hotel in Taipei Station area. Easy to access, and there are some other restaurants in the basement. I accidentally found this new Kyushu-style Ramen restaurant. My friend and I already ate dinner, but I really wanted to try… So I asked them if it was okay to order one dish and shared… They usually set a minimum charge, but this time they allowed us to order one dish. So I ordered simple Tonkotsu Ramen (NT$ 160).

Tonkotsu Ramen

Tonkotsu Ramen contained thin noodle, sprout, corn, Chashu, egg, seaweed, bamboo and green onion. Ingredients were all fresh, and I liked it especially chashu. It was so tender… You may want to add more slices of Chashu as an extra topping. The soup was white, pork based soup called Tonkotsu. To be honest, I am not a huge fun of white Tokotsu soup because the taste is too light. However, this soup was appropriate. I guess I got used to Taiwan flavor, or I eat too oily stuff everyday… The noodle was served with pretty noodle ball. I liked it!

I might come back here again to try some other items. I hope I would find an authentic Hokkaido Ramen restaurant in Taipei soon.

Thank you for reading! (Report: Jan. 23, 2010)

Total: NT$ 176 ($160 + 10% service charge)

魁龍拉麵: Kurume Ramen
Caesar Park Hotel B1
Jhongsiao W. Rd., Jhongjheng Dist.
Taipei, TAIWAN