Uma Uma Ramen

So Iggy's brought in this Hakata ramen chain from Japan, and Mr and Mrs C (B's parents) wanted to try it.  Sunday lunch seemed the perfect time so the 4 of us met. Them, with high expectations, given all the hype. Me, with a growling tummy. Yes, we slept in and missed breakfast.

The joint, located at Forum, is smallish and there was a long queue in front of us. We waited 45 min for a table. The hungry girl was NOT a happy girl. But she stayed composed and tried to tame her hunger. It'd better be good, she thought.

Finally the party of 4 were seated and given menus to order from. 

Erm.. what a COMPACT menu. It was quite a no-brainer - we just ordered every item on the menu. 

While the jap-looking chefs behind the counter prepared our ramen (maybe it's just me but I thought they had this "ninja" aura about them), we got served our appetizers. The chicken karaage was nicely fried, crispy and tasty. Portions were small for $8 though. 

The yaki charsiu was really good. I loved the burnt charcoal flavour - couldn't get enough of the accompanying chilli bits. Again, there were only a few slices to go around. $8.

At this point, I was so hungry I had to stop myself from ordering another serving of the appetizers. 

Luckily, the ninja chefs (must have heard my growling tummy) then served up our piping hot bowls of ramen. I had the uma uma ramen and B had the spicy charsiu ramen. We both added egg and bamboo shoots.  

                                                               Uma Uma Ramen

                                                          Spicy Charsiu Ramen

I liked the thin noodles and the eggs were perfectly done, but to be very honest, I was a bit underwhelmed by the soup broth. Of the two, the spicy charsiu broth was better (though still not impressive). I liked the nutty flavour which gave it more depth and dimension. Unfortunately,  the uma uma broth tasted like something I had before at Ajisan Ramen.  

Perhaps it's having too high expectations - after all, we did wait 45 minutes - but this was a rather average ramen experience with an extraordinarily long waiting time. Sigh, I miss Menya Shinchan (was at Robertson Walk, now closed).