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| - Consistently rated the best ramen in the city Santouka tortures its hungry patrons with an overly long wait outside, made worse in the blustery depths of winters chill. Anticipation builds as you crave the warmth of savoury broth while peering longingly at the happy people slurping away inside.
I've avoided visiting this place out of simple refusal to wait an hour for a bowl of noodle soup.. it didn't matter how good this ramen supposedly was... ain't no way no how.
Today however, I caved. Caught a lucky break and noticed that there was only one couple waiting outside and a few people in the doorway. This looked promising. I waited 22 minutes before I got seated hoping my patience would be rewarded. The friendly and chipper staff sat me at the bar, took my order and within 2 minutes brought a heaping bowl of ramen and my side tofu and shrimp salad. Using a minute to take the obligatory Instagram pic, I took a moment to notice the ingredients: a few slabs of fatty pork belly, bamboo shoots, slivers of wood ear mushrooms, scallions, a slice of pretty pink fishcake and the capper - one umeboshi (a tiny red pickled plum). Judged on the flavour and temperature of the broth, the texture of the noodles and the quality of the toppings, Santouka ranks very highly in all measures.
I opted for the shio ramen which jazzes up the savoury tokontsu broth with an extra dash of salt. The broth is just about perfect with the right balance of fattiness and meaty goodness extracted from slow boiling pork bones and various aromatics.
The pork belly was fatty and tender (not quite as delicious as Kinton's slabs) but pretty damn good in themselves.
Noodles are quick cooked to the right chewiness and swimming in the delicious savoury tonkotsu broth.. I usually use the broth as a kind of sauce to which the noodles provide the vehicle for delivering the savoury goodness and I've never been one to drink more than a few spoonfuls of any broth in any noodle soups but I just couldn't resist slurping down a few spoonfuls of Santouka's. Great stuff indeed!
All in all, Santouka proves itself more than worthy of the hype and rewards your immutable patience with some pretty darn delicious ramen. Is it worth waiting an hour in the cold for? I doubt that very much however, I would challenge anyone to leave unsatisfied.
Note - Santouka is a tad on the pricey side and the portions veer on the smaller side of generous (My ramen, side tofu shrimp salad and Coke cost me $27!)
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