Sanpoutei Ramen (Holland Village)

Dipping broth was thick but find that it lacks the rich sardine taste. Noodles were al dente though and portion was generous.

Dried sardine seafood flavored Niigata SHOYU Ramen topped with hearty 4 slices of tenderly stewed aburi chashu, flavored soft boiled egg, dried seaweed and bamboo shoot, all-in-one special NIIGATA SHOYU Ramen.

Sanpoutei is one of my go to places for good ramen. Soul nourishing for a cold wet rainy day 🤤Expect a queue especially during peak hours though. Also, they don't do reservations. But plus points for being located right smack outside Holland v station exit B. Much convenience for someone lazy like me 😛😛

🥢 Spiffed up with chunks of aburi Chashu, flavoured Egg, Nori, Bamboo Shoots and Leek

🧾 SGD$14.00

✍🏻 ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆〘6/10〙

💬 I love Sanpoutei's noodles. Their consistency is always spot on; perfectly chewy and al dente with the right noodle thickness. I always go for their tsukemen but I figured I might finally give something else on their menu a try. I ordered the mazesoba and it came slicked in a slightly spicy dried sardine oil x shoyu sauce blend. After a thorough mix, my ramen was still pretty dry and with the sauce being slightly oily and on the heavier side, it can get "jelak" very quickly. After a few slurps, I felt like I had lip balm applied all over my lips. The spice here was essential to cut through all that. I was kinda disappointed at the sauce though as I could barely taste the sardine; which is a polar opposite to their tsukemen's dipping broth. However, they made up for it with the generous serving of aburi chashu cubes. They were very well seasoned and tender. Now here comes a twist: I tend to disregard soups that comes with dry dishes, but this chicken soup served exclusively with the mazesoba was astonishingly good. I would even go as far as saying it tasted better than the ramen itself. I finally get what people mean by a good soup warms the heart and soul! It was rich, flavourful and just simply delicious. Oh the irony; the star of the show was not the sardine x shoyu sauce but everything else on the bowl instead. Sanpoutei needs to open a sister restaurant selling tori paitan (chicken broth) ramen, it would be an easy 8/10! (Also oops I forgot to snap a pic of the soup)

[ Food Review — Going to a ramen shop for its non-ramen dishes! ] Anyone else completely flummoxed by what to eat given the constantly dithering weather? After deliberating, we came to a conclusion: We want agedashi tofu. But because Sushi Tei’s version leaves a lot to be desired, and we weren’t looking to travel too far, we found ourselves at the closest alternative: Sanpoutei at Holland!

So no, we didn’t go to a ramen shop for its ramen. We went there primarily because they’ve agedashi tofu, and also because we could pair hot and cold items from their menu. (Onigiri and tsukemen are technically not h o t food, right?)

Since I already did an in-depth review of Sanpoutei’s ramen in an earlier post, I’m just going to summarise my Nikumori Spicy-Rich Miso Ramen as deeply flavourful and smooth, and great for equalising the fat bits in the broth.

A certain someone’s Dried Sardine Tsukemen was honestly more enticing than my order. (Fun fact, it ranks in my top 3 items from SPT!) Pairing its Niigata heritage with contemporary Tokyo sensibilities, this allows you to enjoy the best of both worlds: You get to taste the intense resonant flavours of the concentrated sardine dip without committing to a large bowl’s worth, and you can enjoy SPT’s sprightly noodles without investing in a hot bowl of soup in SG’s heat. Our only complaint was (and is) how small the dip bowl was, heh.

Onto the main reason for our visit: the agedashi tofu! For folks who love textural contrasts without wanting tempura batter, this is a great alternative. By covering tofu cubes in a light dusting of potato starch, you end up with a diaphanous layer that is more crisp than crunchy. Served in tentsuyu — or tempura dipping sauce — it is a light and easy dish that’s fun to eat and pairs well with most mains.

SPT’s covered all traditional aspects, and even elevated the mild flavours with a generous dollop of tarako (cod/pollock roe). The tofu was delicate and the broth was pleasantly mellow. My biggest gripe with it however, was how the nearly soup-like amount of tentsuyu melted away most of the crisp, turning the skin into a sticky web of starch. Shame, because the flavouring was pretty good!

Hard boiled egg, daikon radish, chikuwa, fried fish cake with burdock, konjac, mochi kinchaku, horseradish, kombu seaweed

I love oden and have been wanting to try the one at Sanpoutei Ramen [$11.80++] for the longest time (the quest to find delicious oden is never-ending) 🍢

Queued up for > half an hour just to get a table (not sure why the restaurant is so crowded on a weekday evening but I guess due to social distancing measures, there are fewer tables) and then I waited another half an hour or more for my dinner 😓 Feel like the staff could have at least told me how long I would have to wait for my meal to arrive. My dad finished eating his dinner long before my food appeared. I’m guessing all the ingredients are frozen in their respective packets and so they had to defrost / heat up / boil all the ingredients etc.

The ‘mustard’ is actually horseradish and it’s extremely strong. I could feel it in not just my nose/sinus but also my brain (LEGIT NOT KIDDING YOU CAN GOOGLE THIS IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME!!) 😓 It actually also fell into the broth so it was kind of like consuming wasabi soup. But otherwise, the broth was delicious. I also enjoyed the chikuwa and daikon and fishcake with burdock. The moneybag wasn’t so amazing and didn’t have any veggies. It hd mochi inside I believe, but I’m not a big fan of the texture of the fishcake/tofu(?)

I would say this oden is good, not bad, well priced. But the waiting time is quite long, so that’s something to consider! Personally I would say the best oden I’ve had so far in SG would be at Shukuu Izakaya. This is only the 2nd restaurant in Singapore where I’ve had oden. I believe another Japanese restaurant in Tanjong Pagar also specialises in oden but I’ve yet to visit - it’s called The Public Izakaya. Will try that out next time!