If there’s one dish that I could eat every single day for the rest of my life, it would be ramen. But not just any kind of ramen, of course, for I’m a very picky person. Lol. I’ve tried countless ramen/tsukemen/soba dishes, and yet my tummy still leads me to the same few restaurants whenever I have a craving for ramen.

Now, what makes these few restaurants the best places for my ramen fix? Well, there are only a couple of things to consider:

• Is their broth meaty and garlicky?
• Do they include an ample amount of flavorful meat?

These may seem simple and easy, but unfortunately, there are quite a number of ramen restaurants that serve ramen containing the “right” ingredients, and yet fail to actually produce the right taste. A few examples include Butamaru and Ukokkei Ramen Ron, which serve bowls with bland soup + Lucky Me Pancit Canton-like noodles + dry meat. Sad.

Before I continue, I would just like to let you know that I’m not being paid to promote or criticize any restaurant/brand mentioned here; I’m just being honest, and I wouldn’t want you to waste hundreds of pesos for tasteless soup bowls.

Okay, let’s move on— you might’ve noticed that I put an emphasis on “few” earlier…well, for me, the best ramen places in Metro Manila really are just a few. How few? Let’s see:

Ramen Yushoken (Mendokoro Ramenba)

Yushoken has been here in the Philippines for four years now, but people never get tired of coming back to this place for some good ramen— every dinner time in Molito, you’ll easily spot where Yushoken is, because of the crowd queueing up right outside their small restaurant.


Shoyu (Php 380)


Tantanmen (Php 400)

Just like any traditional ramen house, their menu selection is quite limited, for they only offer ramen, side dishes, and drinks. But this should be fine, because after finishing a bowl of their ramen, you won’t crave for anything more, for sure. We usually order Shoyu and Tantanmen with Aji Tamago on the side, and we’re good. Sometimes, we order their Karaage, Chahan, and Gyoza, too, since they’re also as delicious. Also, we got to try some of their off-menu items once, but we still prefer Shoyu and Tantanmen over them. You can check what we tried in the gallery found here.

Yushoken‘s original branch is located at Molito Complex in Alabang, but you can also find its “twin” (Mendokoro Ramenba) at V Corporate Center, Salcedo Village, Makati. Oh, and there’s another Yushoken branch at Oakridge Business Park along A.S. Fortuna in Mandaue, Cebu. Yay!

Ippudo

During college, we’d bear the traffic from Diliman to Ortigas just to dine at Ippudo in SM Megamall. They basically offer one type of tonkotsu broth, but you can choose from three variations: Shiromaru (original/classic; not spicy), Akamaru (blended with miso paste and garlic oil; mildly spicy), and Karaka-men (blended with special spicy miso, ground pork, and garlic oil). For me, their Shiromaru’s a little bland, and their Karaka-men’s too spicy— so for me, Akamaru’s their best. Also, you have the freedom to choose the hardness of your noodles, which is nice, but I recommend having it extra hard, for the noodles might eventually get too soggy otherwise.


Akamaru Special (Php 495)
Recently, they’ve been offering different types of special ramen from time to time, which is exciting but sad, because they usually come up with really good ramen creations but won’t be offered forever. Aside from ramen, they also offer a relatively wide selection of Japanese dishes, and we highly recommend their classic: the Ippudo Pork Bun. Yes, it’s the pork bun, even if it’s just a juicy slice of braised pork belly embraced by a steamed bun…but let’s talk about their really good pork buns some other time, since this post’s supposed to be about ramen only.

Haha anyway, Ippudo has already expanded to four branches besides SM Megamall— in Robinsons Place Manila, SM Mall of Asia, Eastwood, and Uptown Mall. So if you haven’t tried it yet, you are most likely from the south. Lol. But if you are, Ippudo’s definitely worth the commute/drive!

Ramen Nagi

Though I haven’t dined at any Ramen Nagi branch for more than a year now (this is also the reason why I don’t have a photo posted here lol), this still is one of my favorite ramen restaurants in Metro Manila. Despite giving its customers the freedom to choose their ramen base, richness, pork part, vegetable type, noodle hardness, amount of special sauce, fire sauce, and garlic, the consistency in the flavor and quality of their ramen makes it one of the best. They offer different types of ramen “kings” but of course, there can only be one that reigns supreme— and it’s definitely their Butao (original).

As mentioned, every ramen order’s customizable (though you can just have the “chef’s recommendation”), but I’d like to share with you my own preference when ordering Butao: normal richness, heavy special sauce, extra heavy garlic, green onion for the included vegetable, 1.5 spicy for the fire sauce, extra hard noodles, and an extra tamago. As for the pork, either shoulder or belly will do.

Like Ippudo, they also serve a lot of other Japanese dishes, but unfortunately, none of the ones we’ve tried were that good. Nevertheless, again, we’re only talking about ramen here so it’s still part of the list. Haha. Ramen Nagi has quite a lot of branches: SM Aura, Robinsons Place Manila, SM Mall of Asia, Greenbelt 3, SM North EDSA, Robinsons Magnolia, The Podium, NAIA T3, SM City Pampanga, and UP Town Center. Unfortunately, as you may have noticed, none can be found in the south again, but you also won’t regret enduring the traffic for a bowl of ramen that’s reeeally good.

 
Yup, just three. Some other articles that you may find on the Internet will list down ten, or even twenty “best ramen restaurants,” but let’s stop wasting time and money to try them all— because in reality, you’ll only have to choose among three spots for your ramen fix here in Metro Manila. *wink*

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