I blame my lack of ramen-house savvy to the sheer amount of work I need to do. If I'm not doing schoolwork, I'm busy beauty blogging. If not both, I'm busy cleaning up a mess in the house or busy making stuff for my clay art business or beading. I really like going out and all, but with the kind of schedule I have, I can't afford to live like the people who go out weekly and eat out almost daily.
So this is why in all the years, months, or whatever time frame Hokkaido Ramen Santouka has been open in TriNoma, I have never gotten to eat at the place yet.
We spent a good time looking at the set menu and all, but we decided that we'd prolly be better off with the lunch special as these set menus have too much stuff that if we ordered two sets it'd be waaaaayyy too much food for three people.
I was eyeing the spicy ramen, but since momma and I were to share ramen (and she hates spicy food), I didn't go for this supposedly very delicious looking bowl.
I am really amused that the owner of this establishment was able to use the former arcade space into a space where Santouka, a tonkatsu place and Mochi Cream cafe fit altogether.
We got ice tea shakes courtesy of taking the lunch special, but for the BDO folks out there, there's a promo for it, too.
This is the set that my mom and I shared. We basically got shio ramen, salmon onigiri and fried salmon.
My brother also got shio ramen and salmon onigiri, but instead chose fried chicken as his fried entree.
I love how photogenic these lunch sets are...
Since this is a ramen place, I made it a point to judge the ramen that they have. And weeeelll, I'd say that it's good ramen, but probably not as mindblowing as Ramen Nagi's or Hanamaruken's. When it arrived, it wasn't very very hot (I usually like to eat food that's very very hot, especially ramen, so this kinda made me sad). In terms of the broth, it tastes fine, but probably not as flavorful as what I had hoped for. I mean it's tasty, but I think there's some umami that can still be added to it. The noodles are good as it's resilient and the opposite of soggy. The pork tastes nice and is flavorful, however it's a bit dry and tough though. I'm not sure if this is their formula to keeping it that tasty, or what I got was a tad little bit overcooked.
For a place that prides in ramen, basing on this first impression I think it can really do much better. However, I also do think that my ramen experience could change if I order another flavor next time.
I honestly liked the fried salmon as it was reaaaally crunchy, and for the thinness of the slices that they had, I admire them that they were able to deep fry the slices without sacrificing the moisture of the salmon. It may look dry in the photos, but when you eat it, especially with the sweet chilli sauce provided, it's moist and juicy.
I personally liked the rice balls as it was filling, tasty, and had a genuinely good proportion of salmon flakes in it. Momma was not a fan though as she got used to my version or onigiri wherein I season the rice like sushi rice and make potato/tuna salad as the filling. The way they did it here, they mixed salmon flakes and sesame seeds with rice and made them into these triangles. I, on the other hand, put some rice on the mold to make a wall, stuff salad on it, and put some more rice to cover it up. It ends up that a person is literally eating salad with rice when they're eating my rice balls...
Last thing special from this meal is my brother's fried chicken. I didn't want to eat so much of his share so I only took a bite, and I think that it tastes fine. This must be good because this is the thing he looks for whenever he makes a visit to this place with his girlfriend.
Overall, I think I'd call this a moderately good meal. As in it's definitely far from horrible or awful, but there are probably some things still missing for it to become a supercalifragilistic fantabulous spectacular kind of meal.
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