Eating Out: Ajisen Ramen [Glen Waverley]

85 Kingsway
Glen Waverley, 3150

This post is about a month late =S Been soo caught up in other things (*ahem* tetris addiction).
If you haven't heard Ajisen has also decided to join the Asian empires in Glen Waverley. Has anyone else realised that every restaurant has more than one location in Melbourne? (Petaling Street, Ampang Tofu, RaRamen, Claypot King, Crazy Wing, Monga Dessert)

Like usual all the floor staff speak Chinese, it's incredibly cramped and noisy.

Ajisen Ramen+Corn
For some reason it's cheaper to get the Ajisen Ramen and add corn for $0.50 than to get the Corn Ramen which is a $1 more than the Ajisen Ramen, it applies to all the additional topping and it's just the exact same thing.

Likes:
+ Springy noodles
+ Large serving
+ Decent soup, I think better than Ramen Ya but still not a good tonkotsu.

Dislikes:
- Barely any meat
- No menma (my favourite)


Gyoza Ramen
Nothing special, very average gyozas.


Kari-age
Massive chunks of chicken with a weirdly yellow batter. Nothing special yet nothing bad either.

Food: 7/10 Can't really say anything bad about it (except for generous msg use), but also nothing particularly special. Standard ajisen.
Service/Environment: 7/10 Very cramped but decent renovation.
Value: 7/10 The most basic ramen is under $10 so it's alright however it is the only shop that does it in the area so that must be accounted for. They have entree+ramen deals for around $15 which is what I got. Be warned that it is quite a bit of food. The 2 of us had a bowl of ramen each and shared an entree and left quite full (and we went after an afternoon of badminton and ultimate frisbee)

Verdict? I wouldn't go out of my way for it, if I happened to be in the area and felt like ramen then I would go, otherwise I'd probably pass. Remember it is the only place in the area that does tonkotsu ramen.

Drinks at Old Town Mamak and Ramen Ya revisted

Sorry I haven't posted in almost a month.
Because of this awesome time of the semester called EXAMSSSS
I still have one more to go but I want to just post this stuff before I forget.

Last Friday I went out with my friends which I only saw a few times all semester due to the fact that we all go to different unis/campuses.

We went to Ramen Ya for lunch. I first visited Ramen-Ya about nine months ago. I wasn't completely blown away by it but it was pretty good for the standard of Melbourne ramen. Fastforward nine months later...in my opinion it has gotten worse. The tonkotsu base was lacked depth, no gelatinous-ness whatsoever, tasted like a cheats broth of msg. All the other components were about the same and of a relatively good standard.

September 2010


June 2011


You can see from these two pictures that the soup from the first one was a lot more milky (which is good as it means the bones in the soup have been boiled for long enough for the marrow to break down).

Later in the afternoon we decided to get some drinks because of the msg overload from lunch. We went to Old Town Kopitiam Mamak at QV.

Left: Bandung Cincau which is a rose syrup milk with grass jelly
Right: Cham which is milk tea and coffee mixed together.

I absolutely love the mugs and the great atmosphere of Old Town Mamak.

Both drinks were around $3.50-$4.

Eating Out: Ramen Ya [Shop 25G Melbourne GPO 350 Bourke St Melbourne, 3000]

This place proves that you don't need to have a prime location to have good business. It's one of those places you will walk past and not even realise that it exists. However at No. 9 on Urbanspoon, it's doing quite well. Why? Because it serves good authentic food.
I never realised how ramen obsessed David Chang was until I started reading his book, and boy is he dedicated to ramen. And now he's made me somewhat addicted. If you give me a choice of soup bases for ramen I will always choose tonkotsu, always always always. Not saying the other ones aren't nice but I just love tonkotsu.

Charshu Tonkotsu Ramen $10

I always think $10 is starting to get pricey for a bowl of asian noodles. But here, that $10 is cheap and so worth it. Of course I chose the house specialty. Comes with four thinner than thin slices of charshu. Nothing particularly special, tasted a tad like the one I attempted to make, a slice of naruto of the same thinness =[, BAMBOO!! (Never realised ramen is supposed to have bamboo until I read Momofuku  and this stuff isn't that random canned stiff crunchy stuff, it was actually floppy), sprinkle of spring onions, seaweed sheets, picked alarming red ginger and half a boiled egg (unfortunately not the awesome soft boiled ones).

It was sooooo nice. Lots of soup to go with the large serving of noodles which were thick and chewy in a good way. Sure the soup was salty but it was delicious, so delicious you forget about it's saltiness which you are reminded of 30 mins later when you're thirsty as hell. 

Probably be a long time before I'll get to eat tonkotsu ramen again =[

Seafood Gyoza Ramen-Shoyu base $10

Essentially the same except the charshu become gyozas. The gyozas aren't bad but I don't particular like any sort of dumpling which has a mushy/puree texture for the filling. Still like tonkotsu base better than shoyu/soya base. Nothing will change me. I know I'm stubborn.

Love the feel of Ramen Ya which apparently means ramen shop. Their spoons are even cooler, although it is a little awkward to use since it's so big. Reminded me of year 7 when we made wooden spoons for woodwork at school. Mum never used my spoon as she didn't know whether it was safe to use with food. 

Food: 9/10 Based purely on ramen. They've got everything that should be in ramen in ramen I think. 

Service: 8/10 Speak up when you order so the guy can hear you. Otherwise no problems with service.

Environment: 7.5/10 Nothing glamorous. Quite cramped. Only let down was since it was raining many of the chairs were wet although the place is covered water drips down the side.

Verdict? Cold rainy day + hot bowl of delicious ramen = comfort. 

Did you know ramen noodles don't actually contain any eggs?

David Chang you have taught me so much =]

Shopping :)

Today I went shopping with some friends at Mongkok. But before shopping I had to fill myself up with lunch. We went to a small honkie cafe and I ordered a bowl of Chicken Wings with Noodles in Hot and Sour Soup. Not the usual hot and sour soup, it was a clear broth that looked like chicken stock but was sour and spicy. HK$24 (AUD$3.50) with a drink.

Shopped at Argle Centre for about 4-5 hours. Managed to buy 2 tshirts, a jumper, a jacket, socks and some snacks.
Was very hungry after shopping so we had dinner. RAMEN!!!! Ajisen ramen.....cheaper than Melbourne but taste is about the same. I had the sweetcorn ramen and it was sooooooo salty, so much msg it was crazy. At $40 a bowl it's decent. Noodles were nice though, the pork was small but fatty and there was a lot of other ingredients to mix with the noodles. The sweetcorn was a good addition and made the salty soup more tolerable. It also came with an egg but I don't eat hard boiled eggs so dad ate my one.

Vedict? If you have a choice, avoid Ajisen, they use a lot of msg but their ramen isn't too bad but there is DEFINITELY better ramen out there, just whether you can find it.

After dinner I wanted to go ice skating but people had ice hockey training so we couldn't ice skate. Just watched them train for a while, now I want to learn to play ice hockey. It incorporates two of my favourite sports, skating and hockey. I reallllllllyyyyy want to try it.