Daikokuya - our favourite new ramen place

We only happened to chance upon this place at Robertson Quay because it was almost 2.30pm and almost every other Japanese restaurant in the area was already closed. We used to eat at Menya Shinchan - the previous tenant - quite a bit, but had not ventured much to Robertson Quay in the past couple of years. Until now, with the discovery of Daikokuya drawing us back.

It was only after doing some searching on the internet did we realise that there are other branches of this ramen chain, which wasn't all that new to Singapore. Although I've never been to the Paragon or Raffles City branches, I think this particular shop is slightly different, since I can't find the things we ate on their menu listed in their website. 

I can't recall what the dish is called, but there are 2 main types of ramen being sold at the Robertson Quay outlet - the Tsukemen that you dip into a very thick soup, and another more conventional type that is served in soup. 

We had the gyoza to start with - this was pretty good. Hot and crispy on the base, and soft and juicy inside.

On my first visit, I had the conventional noodles-in-soup version with all the extra toppings - I think this cost almost $15. The soup stock was fantastic - described as pork and fish stock in the menu, it was really rich, flavourful and best of all, not too oily.The chashu was very tender, and came in thick meaty slices. The tamago was perfect, with the soy flavour infused in the white and a perfect molten yolk.

 The noodles were firm, chewy and cooked just right.

My next trip, I went for the Tsukemen - this was even better than I expected. Somehow, having the noodles out of the hot soup probably helped to retain the chewy texture so much better.

The soup was extra rich since it wasn't entirely for drinking, but they also had plain broth on standby in case we felt like diluting the soup.

Highly, highly recommended. Better than any other ramen restaurant in Singapore, methinks, and second best ramen experience we've had all year, losing out only to Ippudo in Tokyo. 

Website: http://www.daikokuya.com.sg/index.html