The recent bouts of heavy rain and colder weather gave rise to a craving for a bowl of hot, steaming and hearty ramen. There really is something about slurping on some thick hot broth that drives the rainy day blues away.
During a recent back-to-school shopping trip at SM City Marikina, the fam joined me in giving in to my ramen craving when we decided to have lunch at the newly opened branch of Ramen Kuroda.
The place seems to be a hit as there was a line of people waiting to get in. To help facilitate faster service, the hostess already facilitated the orders of the waiting patrons so that waiting will be minimal once the diners are seated in the dining area.
This restaurant’s mantra is to “make Real Ramen part of your everyday.” This is central to its promise to its customers to provide:
- carefully selected ingredients such as home-made noodles, soup and seasoned garlic oil that provide their distinctive flavor
- speedy service to satisfy busy people
- ramen that is affordable enough that you can enjoy it everyday
- culinary supervision by an expert ramen chef
- Japanese-quality ramen made accessible to more Filipinos
For the family’s lunch, we ordered:
- Ramen Chahan sets that already include ramen, rice and fruits such as:
-
- Katsudon (Php380) with Aka Ramen. As Hubby likes spicy food, he ordered the ramen with a spicy bent.
- Gyoza (Php320) with Shiro Ramen. I ended up splitting the gyoza with my daughter and giving my rice to my son as the ramen was hearty and filling enough, albeit a little bit too garlicky.
- Karaage (Php360) with Shiro Ramen. My daughter found the chicken pieces a bit small but she was able to get her fill of the ramen.
- Tonkatsu (Php240) plus Rice (Php40) for my son.
Still, we found the resto’s mantra to have its fair share of overpromising. The resto would do well to settle on one or two propositions (such as affordability and fresh ingredients) and build from those, rather than have such lofty goals and be found lacking in some of them.
This branch is located at Ground Floor, SM City Marikina, Marcos Highway, Calumpang, Marikina City. For reservations and other queries, call + 63 2 7772839.
Other branches of Ramen Kuroda are located at:
- SM FAIRVIEW: Annex 2 Lower Ground Floor Quirino Highway Cor.Regalado Avenue Quezon City
- TV5: LaunchPad Reliance Corner Sherdian St. Mandaluyong City (Tel: + 63 2 6370220)
- SM MANILA: 2/F SM Manila Conception Street Corner Arroceros and San Marcelino Streets, Manila (Tel: + 63 2 2438665)
- CYBER & FASHION MALL EASTWOOD: 3/F Cyber and Fashion Mall Eastwood City Bagumbayan, Quezon City (Tel: + 63 2 5343414)
- MEZZA RESIDENCES STA MESA: G/F The Strip at Mezza, Aurora Blvd. Araneta Avenue Quezon City (Tel: + 63 2 2417449)
- VENICE GRAND CANAL MALL: 2/F Venice Grand Canal Mall, McKinley Hill, Upper McKinley Road Taguig City (Tel: + 63 2 5521170)
- LUCKY CHINA TOWN MALL: 3/F Lucky China Town Mall, Reina Regente corner Dela Reina Streets, Binondo, Manila (Tel: + 63 2 2418157)
- ASEANA II: Ground Floor Aseana II BRADCO Avenue Aseana City Paranaque City (Tel: + 63 2 8326246)
- RCBC PLAZA MAKATI: 3/F RCBC PLAZA 6819 Ayala Avenue Makati (Tel: + 63 2 8326216)
- BF HOMES: #96 Aguirre Avenue, Phase 2 BF Homes Paranaque City (Tel: + 63 2 5536824)
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Jellybeans in the City 
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