For all the ramen lovers out there, this guide serves to teach you all you need to know about these soup noodles. We first break down our list into the five main types of ramen and then offer our favourite Hong Kong shop in each category.
We hope you love our ramen recommendations as much as we do!
Ramen 101
Did you know that ramen means “pulled noodle”? In the olden days, a single lump of dough was manually pulled and folded many times until it formed a bunch of thin noodles. Today, the noodles can easily be crafted by a machine, but the dough is still made from the same basic ingredients: flour, salt, normal water, and kansui (alkaline water).
There are two main types of noodles: low-alkaline noodles that are thin and straight and high-alkaline noodles that are wavy and springy. Some say that thin noodles go well with a thinner broth, whilst wavy noodles go well with a thicker broth, but surely restaurants will try to create the perfect bowl of ramen that’s just right for diners.
What are the five main types of ramen?
Hakodate-style shio ramen
Shio (salt) ramen originates in Hokkaido, with its distinct feature of flavouring the chicken broth with just salt, resulting in a golden-coloured soup. A simple rule of thumb in order to gauge the quality of your shio broth is through its opacity; the clearer the broth, the more sophisticated the cooking techniques used to create it.
Top pick: GOGYO
GOGYO’s tanrei shio (HKD108) is a refreshing getaway from the usual thick flavour punch of pork broth that we’re so used to in Hong Kong. It’s light, savoury, slightly sweet… and we just can’t stop slurping. Topped with a mélange of onion, spring onion, menma (fermented bamboo shoot), and melt-in-the-mouth pork, this bowl of shio ramen is beautifully executed and a definite recommend.
GOGYO, Shop B2, B/F, LANDMARK ALEXANDRA, 16–20 Chater Road, Central, 3568 5833, book here
Asahikawa-style shoyu ramen
Asahikawa-style ramen also originates from Hokkaido and is synonymous with shoyu (soy) broth. Shoyu-based broth is made by fermenting soybeans to create a sauce. It is usually a bit sweeter than the shio style.
Top pick: RAMEN CUBISM
Landing in Hong Kong in 2019, Osaka brand RAMEN CUBISM is the brainchild of young Japanese chefs Hayashi Takao and Matsumura Takahiro. Master Hayashi is responsible for our preferred shoyu ramen in Hong Kong. The eatery’s premium soy sauce ramen (HKD108) showcases an umami-heavy broth made with shellfish, bonito, and nine different Japanese soy sauces. On the side, the noodles are complemented by an extra-thick slice of luscious slow-cooked pork belly.
RAMEN CUBISM, B/F, Yuen Yick Building, 27–29 Wellington Street, Central, 2399 0811
Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen
Originating in Fukuoka, Hakata-style ramen is the most common type of ramen in Hong Kong. This style is distinctive because of its pork-bone broth and thin, al-dente noodles. Tonkotsu broth is a thick soup made from boiling pork bones for 12 or more hours until the collagen dissolves into the stock as gelatine – a labour of love that’s worth the wait.
Top pick: Kamitora Tonkotsu
Kamitora Tonkotsu’s tonkotsu ramen remains one of our must-try noodle dishes in Hong Kong, Japanese or otherwise. The eatery’s signature noods come in an incredibly rich, creamy pork-bone broth with a depth of flavour that only hours of slow-cooking can achieve. The standard bowl contains homemade meatballs and tender slices of roast pork, but it’s the upgraded pork belly version – the Kamitora ramen special (HKD140) – that gets us drooling each and every time, crowned with a thick, juicy slab of seared and caramelised pork belly.
Kamitora Tonkotsu, G/F, 6–16 Tai Wong Street East, Wan Chai, 2811 0338
Kamitora Tonkotsu, G/F, Block H, Tai Shing Building, Cosmopolitan Estates, 74 Ivy Street, Tai Kok Tsui, 2316 2830
Sapporo-style miso ramen
Another recipe born in Hokkaido, miso ramen is rich, hearty, and nutty owing to the copious amounts of miso paste added to the broth. Traditionally, the noodles used in this style of ramen are thick, curly, and chewy.
Top pick: Kikanbo
Tokyo import Kikanbo debuted in Causeway Bay in 2019 and has since expanded with two more shops in Mong Kok and Tsim Sha Tsui, proving its popularity in Hong Kong. The brand is beloved for its spicy (or not) karashibi miso ramen (from HKD95), offering five levels of heat. The spice factor comes from a blend of various kinds of chilli peppers and tongue-numbing Japanese sansho pepper, with the spiciest ONI level (+HKD15) featuring the notorious Carolina Reaper chilli. We stand firmly in the middle with the “medium” level of spiciness in this robust miso broth that’s slow-cooked with pork and chicken bones and topped with braised pork belly, baby corn, and bean sprouts.
Kikanbo, multiple locations across Hong Kong
Tsukemen
With tsukemen, the noodles and soup are served separately. The soup is usually very thick and heavy with seasoning. In Japan, you can choose to have your noodles hot or cold, but the soup is usually warm. The idea is to dip the noodles into the dense, flavourful broth.
Top pick: Shugetsu
Nowadays, a lot of tsukemen restaurants have come up with gimmicky miscellanies on their menus, like adding a mound of uni on top of your noodles. These fads undoubtedly add more people at the front door, but sometimes all we want is a classic dunk-and-eat bowl of tsukemen (HKD116), which Shugetsu does really well. Awarded a Bib Gourmand for the past several years, Shugetsu is known for its broth base, using a soy sauce fermented for 18 months in a 100-year-old wooden basket. However, we think the star of the show is the noodles, which are made in-house and are thick and chewy enough to soak up the intense flavour of the chicken broth simmered with sardine and mackerel powder, kombu, and mirin.
