Ramen lunch at Ippudo, Queensway Plaza, Admiralty, Hong Kong
After exploring the Fortune Metropolis mall, the rain still didn't stop, but we were able to avoid getting wet, by traveling by metro from the attached Hung Hom MTR station. We took the purple line to East Tsim Sha Tsui and walked to the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station. It is fully covered and it also connects to K11 shopping mall, K11 atelier shopping mall, Sogo Tsim Sha Tsui department store, and Wing On PLUS department store. I do have to warn you that it is quite a walk and it can get crowded, so it may not be that recommended if you are with elderly and children.
From the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station, we took the red line in the direction of Central and got out at the Admiralty MTR station. It is directly connected to all the major shopping malls and department stores in Admiralty and in the Queensway plaza mall, there is a Ippudo Hong Kong ramen restaurant (part of Lab Concept).
Ippudo is a famous, Japanese ramen restaurant with many restaurants in Japan and in the rest of the world too. You can see in which cities you can find them in the large world map that they hung on the wall.
On every table, you can find a big jug of cold rooibos tea from South Africa. It is free and you can fill your own glasses as much as you want.
On the table, you can also find chopsticks, paper napkins, and condiments such as chili oil, garlic oil, pepper, chili pepper, and sesame seeds. You also get seasoned garlic, bean sprouts, and scallions to add to your ramen.
This is the Special Akamaru Shinaji ramen (HK$88). It has ultra thin noodles with normal noodle texture, a tonkotsu broth, and a dollop of the special, Ippudo secret spicy miso in the middle. The black sauce sprinkled on top of the cha siu is their famous garlic oil. As toppings, you get four slices of cha siu, half of a soft boiled egg, two sheets of nori, thinly sliced black fungus, and a handful of scallions and bean sprouts.
Hakata style ramen with ultra thin noodles and a tonkotsu broth is their specialty. The noodles reminds me a bit of the Chinese shrimp roe noodles, but these are chewier.
I got the Special kuro ramen (HK$92). It has thick noodles (thickest on the scale) with a normal noodle texture, and a tonkotsu broth. The toppings is the same as the previous ramen. The only difference is the pitch black soup, which got the color from black garlic. I really like garlic, so the ramen was perfect for me. I also really like the chewy, thick noodles. The cha siu slices were soft and there was a good fat-meat ratio. The soft boiled egg was perfectly made and still a bit runny. The bean sprouts and black fungus were crunchy and added different textures to the ramen. While the red miso sauce was very spicy in the previous ramen, it wasn't spicy at all with my ramen. Maybe, I didn't mix it in the soup enough or the strong, black garlic flavor overpowered it.
There was a limited edition ramen at the time we were there and that's what the other two got, the Cool uni ramen (HK$138). It has medium thick noodles (a little bit thinner than mine), a cold soup base made from French clear stock and Japanese broth, a sprinkle of rich sea urchin (uni) based sauce, some fresh uni, ikura (salmon roe), cha siu cubes, half a soft boiled egg, scallions, and nori strips.
With our ramen, we got one serving of 6 Ippudo gyoza with truffle sauce (HK$48) to share, as we aren't big eaters and we might be too full for more. They were nice one-bite sized and there wasn't too much filling. It is a light snack flown in from Ippudo Japan. The gyoza weren't super impressive, but the sauce had a great, strong truffle flavor. It lifted the normal gyoza to another level.
It was better for us to take the hotel shuttle bus that stops at the opposite street of a Tsim Sha Tsui MTR exit, but we would have gotten wet by the rain. It would have not been such a big issue if we weren't feeling a bit under the weather already due to the jet lag and the large difference in the outside temperature (super warm!) and the indoor air-conditioned temperature. I seriously didn't want to walk around in an air-conditioned shopping mall in a soaking wet t-shirt and in that state too.
From the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station, we took the red line in the direction of Central and got out at the Admiralty MTR station. It is directly connected to all the major shopping malls and department stores in Admiralty and in the Queensway plaza mall, there is a Ippudo Hong Kong ramen restaurant (part of Lab Concept).
Ippudo is a famous, Japanese ramen restaurant with many restaurants in Japan and in the rest of the world too. You can see in which cities you can find them in the large world map that they hung on the wall.
On every table, you can find a big jug of cold rooibos tea from South Africa. It is free and you can fill your own glasses as much as you want.
On the table, you can also find chopsticks, paper napkins, and condiments such as chili oil, garlic oil, pepper, chili pepper, and sesame seeds. You also get seasoned garlic, bean sprouts, and scallions to add to your ramen.
I really like the cool wooden menu. It gives off an authentic feel.
This is the Special Akamaru Shinaji ramen (HK$88). It has ultra thin noodles with normal noodle texture, a tonkotsu broth, and a dollop of the special, Ippudo secret spicy miso in the middle. The black sauce sprinkled on top of the cha siu is their famous garlic oil. As toppings, you get four slices of cha siu, half of a soft boiled egg, two sheets of nori, thinly sliced black fungus, and a handful of scallions and bean sprouts.
Hakata style ramen with ultra thin noodles and a tonkotsu broth is their specialty. The noodles reminds me a bit of the Chinese shrimp roe noodles, but these are chewier.
I didn't add the "special" in front of the name of the ramen, just because they are special. But by adding "special", you get four slices of slow-cooked Rosu (pork loin), half a soft boiled egg, and two sheets of nori added to your ramen. A normal ramen doesn't have all the additions, and you only get two slices of Maki Bara & Rosu (rolled pork belly and pork loin).
There was a limited edition ramen at the time we were there and that's what the other two got, the Cool uni ramen (HK$138). It has medium thick noodles (a little bit thinner than mine), a cold soup base made from French clear stock and Japanese broth, a sprinkle of rich sea urchin (uni) based sauce, some fresh uni, ikura (salmon roe), cha siu cubes, half a soft boiled egg, scallions, and nori strips.
With our ramen, we got one serving of 6 Ippudo gyoza with truffle sauce (HK$48) to share, as we aren't big eaters and we might be too full for more. They were nice one-bite sized and there wasn't too much filling. It is a light snack flown in from Ippudo Japan. The gyoza weren't super impressive, but the sauce had a great, strong truffle flavor. It lifted the normal gyoza to another level.
Note: the prices are without the 10% service fee that is automatically added to the bill.
If you haven't had enough, you can get extra noodles for HK$2. This is called kaedama and you can continue adding noodles, if you still have soup left in your bowl. It is a good way to try out different thickness (thick/medium thick/thin/ultra thin) and hardness (extra hard/hard/normal/soft) of the noodles. But I was too full, so I did not get to do this.
