Finally,
this is it, I finally paid a visit to the hottest ramen house in Jakarta that
people’s been raving about these past weeks. Yes, I’m talking about Ippudo
Indonesia! Quoting what Ippudo Indonesia’s website explains about the story
behind this legendary ramen chain, it is said that Ippudo was founded in 1985
in Japan’s ramen capital of Hakata by Shigemi Kawahara, the well-known Ramen
King who won TV Champion Ramen Chef for three consecutive years. Ippudo already
have more than 80 restaurants in Japan and 40 more global chain in New York,
Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Seoul, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Guangzhou,
Shenzhen, Beijing, Chendu, Manila, London, Bangkok, and last but not least,
Jakarta!
Ippudo
has three kinds of ramen as their main course, they’re the Shiromaru Motoaji
Ramen, Akamaru Shinaji Ramen, and Karaka-Men Ramen. Shiromaru Motoaji is more
like a classic Hakata-style ramen while Motoaji Ramen and Karaka-Men is an
enhanced version of that classic ramen. Of all three kinds of ramen listed in
the menu, Akamaru Shinaji Ramen was the one that caught my attention the most
so I ordered this ramen. And to accompany this ramen, my friend and I decided to
order a side and we finally ordered Seared Salmon with Mentaiko sauce. (FYI, I
am a sucker for anything with Mentaiko sauce in it, but Salmon with Mentaiko
sauce is like a match made in heaven and a MUST ORDER everytime I come to the
place that has it on their menu, so I kinda persuaded my mentaiko-virgin friend
to try this menu, lol).
Before
the waiter came up with our giant bowls of ramen, he first placed a bowlful of
cold-water soaked garlic with a garlic mincer at our place. I was kinda
confused at first, but then it turned out that we’re supposed to add the minced
garlic to our ramen later. And since not everyone is a big fan of garlic (and
their smell), the restaurant kinda gives us the option to adjust the strength
of the garlic tasted in each of our bowls based on our own preferences
 |
| cold-water-soaked garlic |
It
didn’t take too long before finally another waiter came with our Seared Salmon
Mentaiko and the star of the table, our Akamaru Shinaji Ramen (with soft boiled
egg)!!
The
first thing that sparked my eyes at the time was how huge the bowl was.
Seriously, that was like the first time I saw a ramen bowl that huge!
 |
| Akamaru Shinaji Ramen - arround 70K (exclude tax) |
The
tonkotsu broth fits my taste preference right away after the very first sip. It
is said that Ippudo’s tonotsu broth takes more than 15 hours to cook in order
to extract the clean and not-too-heavy broth and yeah, that was exactly what I
tasted when I dig into that holy bowl. The broth may look a bit thick and milky
but the taste somehow didn’t really overpowering and complements the ramen
noodle perfectly.
I
ended up adding like one and a half cloves of minced-garlic to my ramen to
adjust the taste and sprinkled some roasted sesame seeds on top. The chasiu was
cooked to perfection to the point you didn’t even have to try hard to tear it. The
veggies, bean sprouts and kikurage (ear fungus), were also cooked to perfection.
The bean sprouts were cooked perfectly to my liking, it was still crispy yet
not too raw, and the kikurage weren’t overcooked too. But one thing that kinda
disappointed me was the soft-boiled egg, the yolk was kinda overcooked that the
texture wasn’t perfectly runny anymore.
But
despite that tiny mistake, this ramen is still a top-notch in my list. I still
would like to go back to Ippudo to try their other ramen(s).
The
next menu is the Seared Salmon with Mentaiko Sauce.
 |
| Seared Salmon Mentaiko - IDR 78k |
Man,
I don’t even know how to explain this super godly dish. I mean come on, even
just by looking at the pictures, it makes you feel like drooling, right ? The
beautifully seared salmon, the mentaiko sauce, the ikura on top, E-VE-RY-THING!
The
lightly-seared salmon was still so juicy, it almost tasted like it actually
melted in your mouth when the salmon and the mentaiko sauce mixed in your
mouth. Even the most romantic sonnets in the entire universe wouldn’t be enough
to describe how much I love this Salmon Mentai (sorry if I’m being too
annoying, lol). And I now proclaim Ippudo’s salmon mentai to be my most
favorite salmon mentai ever! I AM DEFINITELY COMING BACK TO IPPUDO AND ORDER
THIS BABY AGAIN.
After
tasting those dishes above, now I know why people’s been raving about this
place. The taste of their dish really lives-up the ‘legendary ramen place’
title dubbed for this place.
A little tip for you who want to come and visit this place, come before lunch time because the queue at this place during and after lunch time is really no joke.
Ippudo Indonesia
Pacific Place Level 5 Unit #37
JL. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 52-53
Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD)
South Jakarta
www.ippudo.co.id
