[CLOSED] Ramen & Tonkatsu Ma Maison

Another one of the weekday lunch promotions offered by the restaurant, the Standard Ramen Set comes with one bowl of Standard Ramen (choice of Shio, Shoyu or Miso soup base), one side order (choice of Chicken Karaage or Gyoza) and one beverage, all at a price of S$19.80.

The Shio flavour, indicated by the blue rimmings, was tasty, albeit a little mediocre in flavours, but at least the noodles stayed springy from the broth. Though it was also not a value-for-money bargain as compared to some other Ramen establishments, at least this did not hit me as an overpriced meal.

finally tried the Ma Maison Hokkaido Cheese Ramen! located in the basement of the relatively new Capitol Piazza, it is on the same level as the City Hall MRT exit. this bowl of ramen costs $16.80++, does not come with a ramen egg (additional $1.50++) and only contains one slice of char siew. pretty expensive considering most other ramen shops (read: NOT ippudo) serve bigger bowls with more toppings at a cheaper price. guess you gotta pay more for their supposed "special Hokkaido cheese"... it comes in 4 soup bases: shio, shoyu, miso and spicy (additional $0.50++) i ordered the shio.

the ramen looked really appetising with that mountain of cheese in a creamy bowl of soup. i was told that the cheese mixes better with hot soup, meaning i should mix the cheese in ASAP (and STOP taking 48727294 photos first) so i did. unfortunately i think the cheese did not mix well anyway. i was expecting the cheese to be of a thicker consistency so that it could kind of wrap around the noodles but that did not happen. instead it either dissolved into the soup, which did not make the already-creamy soup taste much more different, or it clumped and collected at the bottom of the bowl (i found quite a few pieces only at the end of my meal)

the noodles were ok; the thicker Hokkaido style ramen noodles were not really to my liking.. i prefer the thinner Hakata style noodles anyway (Ippudo has the best noodles i've tried so far). the soup was creamy and not too salty and it reminded me of a Chabuton kind of milky broth.

special shoutout to the side dish of cheesy pork cutlet. that was better than the ramen.. i guess Ma Maison should just stick to their tonkatsu. haha.

overall i would give the bowl of ramen a 2.5/5 for its taste and rather high cost. if you fancy a nice bowl of cheese ramen i would recommend either the Spring Ramen from Ramen Keisuke Four Seasons (still my #1 ramen shop in Singapore) or the Emerald Green Ramen from Ramen Bar Suzuki. both contain basil + cheese.

if you do visit this ramen shop, get their tonkatsu sets instead (and the HEAVENLY cheesy pork cutlet as a side dish). do yourself a favour and skip the ramen.

I am not exactly a fan of Tonkatsu and one who rarely can appreciate the art behind a good one, but I thought that the Tonkatsu here is pretty crisp despite the thin batter and the lean meat was pretty tender and juicy. The set comes with rice, miso soup and a small starter. (PS: finally got to know the difference between Rosu Katsu and Hire Katsu — we learn new things everyday indeed)

Pair a bowl of ramen with a piece of tonkatsu and you get a "can't-go-wrong" combination that's a genuine tummy-filler. The serving of ramen is quite large and comes in a soup base made from Japanese pork bones that have been boiled for many hours to achieve its smooth, almost-creamy texture. As I had chosen the Spicy Miso version with medium level of spiciness (they offer three levels), the usually whitish soup was coloured a warm gold with swirls of reddish-orange. Lavished with cabbage, bean sprouts and sweet corn, there was no lack of fresh crunchiness either. The shining stars of the meal though were the tender chashu (one of the more flavourful I've had) and the deep-fried katsu. Initially, I felt the latter was a bit small at 120gms but as I ate, it turned out to be acceptable given how filling the ramen was. Do note the Rosu cut has a strip of fat down one side. Therefore, go for the Hire Katsu if you prefer your meat lean. Another plus point is the availability of Ma Maison's condiments for tonkatsu which includes the tangy and sweet dark, thick sauce, hot yellow mustard, grind-on-the-spot sesame seeds and salt flakes. Each enhances the pork so darn well in a different way.

Not bad! Found the grated Gouda a good complement to the tonkotsu soup. Somewhat pricey at $17.80++ though.

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Didn't try their signature cheese ramen. Perhaps it's better?