Ippudo

The pork buns and shrimp buns came out first. Both were far from subtle and absolutely saturated with flavour. Pork was cooked beautifully and tasted more like a traditional Chinese pork bun than Chang/momofuku’s Peking Duck flavoured pork bun.

Gyoza was nothing at all special, will give them a miss next time.

I got pretty excited when I saw the broth and how it wasn’t at all transparent. It reminded me of the best bowl of ramen I had in Japan many years ago. The broth tasted fishy, really complex. I kinda liked it as it was refreshingly different to everything else I’ve been eating since. The noodles were pretty thin, again different, but didn’t quite feel right. The pork was delish!

So I finally got to try Ippudo. I’ve heard so much hype about this place, lots of it has suggested that the pork buns are similar in style to momofuku, only better.

First I was surprised to find it in the food court (and not on the level above). There was no queue at all which was a surprise (it was a Monday, lunch) and inside it was very much a casual dining restaurant which took me by surprise too (with all the hype I thought it was going to be a fine dining affair).

The menu was a little confusing (which ramen to try!) and the waitress asked how we liked our noodles. Huh?! How do you suggest?! She suggested to have them hard as people often complained that they were too soft!

All in all I thought it was alright and I might go back to try the 2nd ramen on the menu of 3. Lils and I both had upset tummies afterwards though, perhaps it was the gyoza (we overheard the waitress say that there is msg in them to the table next to us).