First Look: Shabu Shabu Ramen at Ramen Champion

About Ramen Champion

With the sheer number of ramen shops mushrooming up across the island, it’s not difficult to realise that Singaporeans love their ramen. After all, a piping hot bowl of noodles is always comforting on a cold, rainy day.

Having been in Singapore for 4 years, most of us are familiar with Ramen Champion and its concept of individual ramen stalls contending for the coveted champion title. But lesser known to the majority of us is the launch of Ramen Champion’s latest Shabu Shabu Ramen concept at its Great World City outlet.

Being a huge fan of shabu shabu, I knew I had to try it out.

About Shabu Shabu Ramen

As its name suggests, Shabu Shabu Ramen is a type of Japanese hotpot which replaces rice with noodles as a staple. It’s specially catered for ramen enthusiasts who can’t get enough of a single bowl of noodles. It’s like a large portion of customisable ramen where you get to choose the soup base, and the types of ingredients you want in your bowl of noodle – super versatile!.

The Food at Ramen Champion

Aside from the myriad of ramen options, Ramen Champion serves up an extensive selection of ala carte orders ranging from sashimi and gyozas to chawanmushi and sushi.

We opted for the both Ebi Chawanmushi and Tori Chawanmushi ($4.50 each), which were surprisingly delicious. While we couldn’t differentiate between the two variations, both cups of steamed egg hit the right spots with the right amount of flavour and smoothness.

The Tebasaki Spicy Wings were also much to rave about. Though they weren’t spicy as its name suggested, the wings were still delectable with their crispy skins and juicy meat. These are chicken wings done right.

Next was the Steamboat Set for 3-4 pax ($59++), which came with a generous portion of dishes including 7 boxes of meat, a platter each of assorted vegetables and seafood, plus a choice of ramen or udon. We picked ramen, of course. Ramen Champion uses Sapporo ramen, which goes best with Shabu Shabu due to its chewy texture.

For every steamboat set ordered, you get to choose two soup bases. We chose the paitan (white broth) and spicy broth, which were both Ramen Champion’s signature broths, and dug in.

The best part of steamboats is when the ingredients start to simmer – that’s when the soup stock gets richer with every addition of ingredients. However after the ingredients were added during the second round, both broths turned out a tad too rich.

Verdict

All three ala carte options nailed it for me, but my favourite would be the chicken wings. The steamboat comes with generous portions of dishes, and those who fancy the richer taste in their steamboat soup will enjoy dining here.

At $59++, sharing it with 3 other friends will likely leave both your tummy and your wallet happy.