A cheerfully non-halal restaurant that we wanted to love but ended up barely liking, despite the briskly efficient service that's well worth a mention.
Ultimate Tonkotsu Ramen with char siew, egg, black fungus, spring onions, leek, bamboo shoots, seaweed & garlic oil. Had the vital ingredients, but we prefer the recipes at Fahrenheit 88's Marutama Ramen & Jaya One's Mai Ramen. The noodles here were chewier, like kolo mee, while the broth seemed to have pervasive overtones of pork liver (love it? hate it?). The eggs felt like ordinary hard-boiled ones, instead of the flavorsome seasoned versions.
Ishiyaki Rice, featuring garlic fried rice topped with raw egg & minced pork in a stone pot. Looked alluring, but we had mixed feelings about this too. Hearty enough for carb-lovers, but not particularly addictive. Paled in comparison to, say, paella or bibimbap.
Breaded octopus tentacles. Crisp, but a little too starchy. Not our kinda thing, that's all.
Grilled skewered pork belly (somewhat stinky) & chicken skin (somewhat dried out).
No sake, shochu or wine is available, so Asahi beer is the sole recourse for booze devotees.
Goku Raku Ramen,
S25-S26, Level 2, North Court, Mid Valley Megamall.
Hmmmm...guess they have to improve their food quality :)
ReplyDeleteUlric: yeah, hopefully they'll fine-tune their recipes based on feedback from customers. maybe some of the stuff here is an acquired taste =)
ReplyDeleteI got no problems with the pork liver-based broth :D
ReplyDeleteulric: heh, pork liver ranks no. 3 on my list of preferred kinds of liver. in descending order: goose, chicken, pork, veal and lamb. but yeah, i guess goose liver and chicken liver wouldn't really work as a broth base :D
ReplyDeleteOMG! after all the tweets I read abt this place..i didn't expect such -ve review frm u..
ReplyDeleteI really thot it was good!
Tng: actually maybe many other customers might be satisfied. The food is quite flavorsome, but it's just that the flavors and most of the textures didn't hit the spot for us. and I wish they had seasoned the eggs, the way most other ramen places do :D
ReplyDeleteMatter of taste I think...how extensive is the menu?
ReplyDeleteI might just drop by for a taste...hehe...
Ulric: oh yeah, the menu's quite wide. I think there might be a dozen different types of ramen recipes ... Including a cold ramen salad :D
ReplyDeleteAhhh...cold ramen...music to my ears :D
ReplyDeleteUlric: heh, we initially planned to order that. But after the tonkotsu ramen didn't quite live up to our hopes, we figured better not :D
ReplyDeleteMy lunch target today will be KoHyang @ F88's cold sweet n spicy noodles washed off with hot citron tea :p
ReplyDeleteUlric: ahh I remember kinda liking the ko hyang at mid valley. I suppose the one at Fahrenheit is also good (if it's under the same management, I haven't tried it yet) :D
ReplyDeleteQuality in their F88 branch is d same as MidV's...tried a few times aredi...their ingredients r real fresh...just ask them to cook their eggs a bit less for d yolk to ooze out :D
ReplyDeleteUlric: sounds great :D I haven't had bibimbap in months! Think I'm gonna need it soon, for comfort food, since there are work woes looming on the horizon!
ReplyDeleteGamy you mean...
ReplyDeleteI rolled out of bed 15 minutes ago and was just thinking of hitting Goku Raku for lunch today! Hmm might give them the requisite settle-and-finetune couple of months first then!
ReplyDeleteI am aredi in the throes of work woes!...tats why I need it today :D
ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence! We both posted about it (sort of) in ths same day.. :)
ReplyDeleteLuckily I didn't order the Ultimate Tonkatsu I guess? I had the Goku Raku Ramen and I quite liked it.
(It is very different from the Marutama ramen style tho I guess....)
Non-season eggs? But that's my fave part of the whole ramen experience! :(
ReplyDeleteknow what? you missed one of the nice food at there: Rare cheesecake which made by me :)
ReplyDeleteYea, I'm working at that rest. and so far is in charge of desserts ^.^ the cheesecake is creamy and rich.
we don't use any pork liver in soup based but joint leg instead~
Glad to see and will informs my Japanese Chefs what need to improve!
woot! Didn't know they are opened for business already. I hope this one is better than Harajuku Rice (the one next to Starbucks).
ReplyDeletemichelle: a bit too close to the kinda-foul porky smell, heheh :D
ReplyDeletemin: now would still be a good time to hit this place though, cos they're having a 50 percent off promo for their ramen throughout the next week or two =)
ulric: hope you had a pleasant lunch! i skipped lunch, so i'll try to make up for it with dinner =)
j: heheh, hungry minds think alike! :D oooh, maybe i just ordered the wrong items. yeah, we were torn between the ultimate tonkatsu ramen and the goku raku one, but the word 'ultimate' swayed our decision, heheh :D
lfb: yaaa, it's gotta seasoned eggs and melt-in-the-mouth slices of pork for the perfect ramen experience! but at least more and more ramen outlets are opening across kl now :D
lemonadelime: ooh, thanks for all the info! yeah, saw the cheesecake on the menu, and was very tempted! :D all the best with the restaurant. it looks like it's very busy during dinnertime, and many of the customers looked happy =)
chong: heh, there seems to be mixed feedback about harajuku rice, right. maybe some of the dishes there lean too much toward 'fusion'-style recipes, whereas the ones here at gokuraku seem pretty traditional and conservative :D
Yes...agree with seasoned eggs and melt-in-the-mouth slices of pork...*drools*
ReplyDeleteFusion? I got no issue with it :D
ulric: heh, let's pay a visit to harajuku rice sometime then! although if i recall right, they don't serve much in terms of booze either...
ReplyDeletehttp://lemonadelimes.blogspot.com/2011/06/gokuraku-ramen.html
ReplyDeleteI think the service need improvement :P quite shock they serve me the dessert as 1st dish...they shall ask after customer order :(
Fui: ohhh, strange. The service was pretty good for my visit. But I guess our orders were quite different, heheh :D
ReplyDeleteMe still waiting for a decent ramen place to open up in Taman Desa though. Maybe we oughta open one ourselves? :D
ReplyDeletelfb: ooh, think of what names you could call it! ramen for beginners! the devil's ramen! and that's just the tip of the unimaginative iceberg :D
ReplyDeleteI just braved this for lunch today! The eggs were exactly like ordinary hard-boiled ones, save for perhaps a whiff of soy in the yolks! I felt robbed!
ReplyDeletemin: no doubt about it, the eggs seem to be the main bone of contention for everyone! hopefully they'll upgrade the recipe soon, since seasoned eggs can't be that difficult for a restaurant to make, rite :D
ReplyDeleteBad quality on food and service. Ask for warm water and they sent ais water. And guess what the manager reply? "Sorry sir, knowing our restaurant is a bit warm, so we replaced the order to ais water, for you to chill up." ......
ReplyDeletemost probably you visit on non-peak hour? or maybe I'm the staff there, they "play play" with me without serious work , haha.
ReplyDeletejack: yikes, sorry to hear about your experience!
ReplyDeletefui: heheh, ya, maybe ... i arrived at 6pm and left around 7pm :D
maybe the pork belly wasn't fresh or wasn't washed properly. eewww...
ReplyDeleteeiling: hmmm, i guess that's possible. heheh, i better not think about it :D
ReplyDeleteFound a Goku Raku Ramen voucher to get free Annin Tofu or Kobuta Meshi.
ReplyDeleteCheck out here