Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin - Ion Orchard

This week's ramen expedition brings me to Ginza Bairin at Ion Orchard.

"Ginza Bairin? Isn't it a tonkatsu shop?" Some of you might say. I thought so too!

But when I walked past it today, I saw this banner outside their shop, with a new item on the menu.. tonkotsu ramen!

Of course I have to try it.

Extended Menu!

A little about Bairin - a well-known tonkatsu restaurant with a long history, Bairin was founded some 80 years ago in 1927. The founder established its name by breaking new grounds in for tonkatsu, such as "hitoguch (bite-size) katsu", tonkatsu sauce and katsu-sandwich. It has 3 outlets in Japan, 1 in Hawaii, and Singapore is its 2nd overseas location.

brightly-lit and neat

There are 2 ramen items on their menu - Tonkotsu Ramen ($10.8) or Tonkotsu Char Siew Ramen ($14.8). Bairin seems to have thought of expanding their menu along the theme of "pork". Its interesting to note that only this Singapore outlet serves ramen!

I ordered the latter to try.

Tonkotsu Char Siew Ramen

The ramen is topped with 3 pieces of char siew, a whole seasoned egg, black fungus and some spring onion. The noodle used is the normal straight noodles.

What stood out of this ramen is its char siew. It has to be good if they are running a tonkatsu restaurant, and they lived up to the expectation. The char siew was tender, juicy and tasty. They were big too, which makes it quite satisfying. The rest, e.g. soup and noodle, were not too bad.

All in all, I think I still prefer some of the other tonkostu ramen such as Menya Shinchan or Ippudo. But for those who likes char siew, this might be suitable too.

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Ramen Data - Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin @ Ion Orchard
Address: 2 Orchard Turn, B4-39/40/41/42 Ion Orchard
Types: Tonkotsu
Price: S$10.8-14.8
Rating: 6.5/10