Crab Ramen - Keisuke Tokyo (けいすけ東京)

Visited Keisuke Tokyo a while ago, and found that they have updated their menu with a few new items - the basic-styles of Shio Ramen and Shoyu Ramen.

But what caught my eyes among the new edition is the Crab Ramen (S$15.8)!

This should be the only place in Singapore that is serving this ramen (except for the $30+ ramen at Aoba and Kaiko that has half a crab on top of it... not sure how many bowls of those do they actually sold), so I gotta try it out.

Kani Ramen

Topped with a large piece of char siew, 2 halves of an egg, naruto, menma, onion, shreds of chilli and seaweed, the ramen is arranged in the usual keisuke aesthetics. The aroma of the crab can be smelled immediately when the ramen is dished in front of me. The soup stock is very thick and dense, which I guess was meant for it to serve as more of the sauce of the "dry noodle", for it to hang onto the noodles.

According to an interview that owner-chef Takeda had with Zaobao, the soup is made by first frying the crab. The fried crab is crushed and blended with onion and carrot, and the mixture is again fried. Chicken broth is the mixed with the paste to create the soup.

I also noticed that for the Crab ramen, the flat noodles is used instead of the usual rounded ones.

All in all, its another good bowl of ramen. It will be suitable for those who likes it rich and thick.

In the interview, Takeda-san also shared that he will be releasing new items on his menu every 2-3 months for this Singapore outlet. Looking forward to his new creations for Singapore.

Keisuke Tokyo (けいすけ東京) - Parco Marina Bay

This week's ramen expedition brings me to Keisuke Tokyo at Parco Marina Bay.

I have written about its background in my previous blog, so I will jump into the experience and the ramen.

Keisuke has a posh interior, giving it a sophisticated feel. It has a dark color theme, with beige and red chairs, and a shelf of ramen bowls that it uses decorating the wall. In the background plays the music of Japanese shamisen, giving the shop a more "和" (Wa, or Japanese) atmosphere.

Interior of Keisuke Tokyo

I ordered the standard prawn stock ramen (海老ラーメン, $14.8++).

Even the bowl is posh!

It was explained that the bowl is chosen so that it will trap the fragrance of the prawn broth, giving customer a better experience. I did smell the prawn very well, but the only issue was that I'll spill the soup over the front of the bowl where it is shallow.

According to the poster in front of the store, all the ingredients used to make the soup, such as prawn heads, kelp, white soy sauce and dried mackerel are imported from Japan. The prawn heads are roasted in a frying pan for 1 hour, before it is boiled for another 8 hours to extract the broth.

Took a sip of this soup. It is indeed sophisticated and deep, that you can taste a variety of flavours in it. The prawn and seafood flavour is pretty strong too.

The ramen is topped with a variety of ingredients: naruto, cabbage, leek, yuzu slices, shredded chili, a type of vegetable call 山くらげ (yama-kurage, and maybe its called mountain jelly vegetable in english...), and last but not least a piece of chicken char-siew.

The presentation and color mix is very well done, and the ingredients makes the ramen interesting too. But the chicken char siew was a bit too soft and didn't have much taste. It might have been better if they top it with prawns.

I ordered a plate of prawn gyoza too ($7.5++). Pretty decent.

All in all, the experience at Keisuke Tokyo was good. The ramen was sophisticated, delicious, and I was impressed with the attention to details to this bowl of ramen. In terms of price, it is higher than most other stores too, most probably because of the ingredients used.

Personally I prefer pork bone soup in general, so I might come back less frequently. Nonetheless, for those who like seafood, its definitely worth a try!

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Ramen Data - Keisuke Tokyo, Parco Marina Bay

Address: P3-02, Parco Marina Bay

Types: Prawn Soup

Price: S$14.8-20

Rating: 8/10