Ramen Keisuke Kani King (Cineleisure)
If you're thinking of having a bowl of crab broth ramen at Keisuke Kani King, go early. We arrived at 515pm on a Saturday and the queue was a grand total of six. We managed to skip the queue since we had only 2 pax. Gradually, the queue got longer, but somehow, we can't help but feel that the hype has somewhat died down.
The interior of the shop is littered with quirky memorabilia.
Like with the other Keisuke outlets, you get to customize your own bowl of ramen. Don't expect to be having snow crab legs or crab claws, as all you'll get at Kani King is essence of crab.
The free flow eggs are another Keisuke staple, but if you can afford the $2 to get an Ajitsuke Tamago (seasoned soft boiled egg), you should go for it.
While waiting for your ramen to arrive, if you're not taking photos of everything on the table, you can always grind away on those sesame seeds. Add some to give the broth extra depth.
The pickled beansprouts made their return too, alongside a new side dish of nira (chives), cabbage and garlic. We preferred the beansprouts over the chunky raw cabbage.
Sher ordered the rich crab broth ramen ($13.90) -- normal taste, oil and noodles. The standard serving comes with black fungus, bamboo shoots, negi, spring onions and the chashu. Rich crab broth seemed like a no-brainer and stealing glances at the neighboring table's plain looking clear crab broth further affirmed our choice. The broth was salty, rich but started to get cloying after a few more spoonfuls.
S had the spicy crab broth ramen ($14.90) -- strong taste, more oil, hard noodles. Sounds like a horrid combination. The wait staff warned that the strong taste would be more salty, but he went ahead anyway. The spicy crab ramen also came with the rich broth, but with an added serving of spicy minced pork which gave the soup more body. The hard noodles didn't taste all that different from the normal noodles. Both were springy and had some bite to them.
Kani King is worth a first try. The broth is rich and unique, however, it didn't grow on us. We wished there was some crab meat ($$$) to make the dish more luxurious. We'll probably be heading down to the Lobster King outlet next. It's supposed to be even richer and we can't wait to try (:
Ramen Keisuke Kani King
Address: 8 Grange Road, #01-03, Cathay Cineleisure, Orchard, Singapore 239695
Opening Hours: Mon-Thu, 12:00-15:00, 17:00-22:00; Fri-Sat, till 02:00; Sun, till 22:00.
Contact: 6262 6968
Damage: from $12.90++
