sadly....the best ramen in town?

There are times when I get a bit of ramen craving. Just something about a simple bowl of noodles that makes me satisfy. And since ramen was the only food I could afford back in my trip to Tokyo, I guess Me and ramen bonded during that 5 day tour.

Here back in HK, ramen selection is a little....lacking. There is the Ajisen Ramen chain....which throws in odd mixes of ingredients and invents a new flavor of ramen every week. It really lacks the authenticity and the tradition of Japanese Ramen.

蔡瀾 recommended Domon, a small ramen store located inside Granville Circuit. Of course, Domon is already a large food chain with stores all around HK, but he recommend people trying its first original store, where the main chef still works. Apparently him and the chef go wayy back, and the chef spent 10 years in japan learning how to cook ramen, and decided to set up a shop in a quiet little alleyway, just like all good japanese restaurants. Of course, granville now blew up into a fashion street...so not so quiet anymore.
When you first enter the store, you already smell a very strong tonkotsu/Pork Bone Soup in the air, its bubbling from the ramen soup that is cooking in the open kitchen. On the counter was a row of shochou leftover from past customers. It is a tradition in some japanese restaurant to keep the unfinished bottles of rice wine for their customers, so that they could finish it for their next meal, I guess it is to build customer loyalty and a sense of community. Most japanese wannabe restaurants in town don't even offer such service due to the lack of shelf space, I guess seeing this shows that this place serves quite a few local japanese customers already. And by listening to the chatter around the restaurant, I could hear someone speaking japanese.
Anyways, I got myself a Butter Ramen in their famous tonkotsu soup, a 蔡瀾 recommendation. The butter slowly melts into the soup, bringing out the soup flavor even more. The soup base was a little bit milder than the ones in japan, I guess its to cater towards the chinese taste buds, but its nice and thick with a good pork taste to it, alot better than any crappy ramen joints out there. The ramen itself was alright, very chewy and was not overcooked, and it had a nice mix of ingredients of corn and bbq pork. But overall, it was the well cooked soup base that was the defining factor in the whole dish. Surprisingly, it was the amazing scrimp gyoza that stole the show. It is voted as the one of the best dumplings in HK by 飲食男女 magazine. The skin was finely crafted, thin enough so you could see the ingredients inside, but thick enough to hold the fillings inside. The filling was a mix of onions, minced pork and bits of pig fat...that slowly dissolves, giving a swirl of flavors in your mouth. Wow.....they should specialize in making dumplings...

Final Verdict: It's a little pricy, weighting in around $80 for a ramen plus the gyoza side. But IMO best ramen in town so far.....Sure, its not Japan good...but its sadly the best we got :(

NOTE: MUST TRY THEIR GYOZA
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=5301