Ramen House - Daruma 達磨らめん

Dad is a big Japanese ramen fan. But he and mum often find shops operated out of Hong Kong lacked the real gist of Japanese ramen, ie a bowl of soup oozing aroma of pork bones and pieces of charshu which literally melt in your mouth. Mum went to Wakayama in IFC and Sapporo Ramen in Exchange Square recently, they were disappointing and acceptable respectively.

One fine evening, they decided to give the new ramen shop in Tai Hang a try. Since it's located in the neighborhood of Sushi Shin, mum's favorite Sushi place, they witnessed the birth of the shop!!

ADDRESS

Shop E, G/F, Ming Sun Building, 92, Tung Lo Wan Road, Tai Hang, HK
大杭銅鑼灣道92號E地下

Call for reservation - 2565 6600

After a brief wait outside, they were seated along one of the benches. The shop space is small, but the seats are spacious enough. The lighting and the color scheme are similar to some small shops in Tokyo. They ordered two Daruma special ramen to share with grand-dad and a few other snacks. The special ramen has a dollop of Mentaiko 明太子. After the first mouthful of soup oozing aroma of pork bones, the noodles were springy and the charshu really melted in their mouth.

The shop manager, Annie was sitting behind the counter and made a good effort to tell mum why Daruma's ramen is special. The tonkotsu soup is cooked daily in the morning once and once in the afternoon. They stop serving as soon as the soup base runs out. The noodles are specially ordered from Japan and the pork is from Holland. The resulting product is perhaps the best that they have tried in Hong Kong and comparable to some of the better ones in Japan. For HK$58 for the most basic bowl of ramen and no 10% service charge, the margin must be razor thin. Some things got to give eventually, either the price needs to go up or the quality deteriorates. So you should go now before either things happen. We are sure mum and dad will go again and take some pictures!!