Weekly Ramen Discovery

Kuidaore (Review)

This is a special edition, as I was visiting Ottawa for my friend's birthday. I visited Kuidaore, which is located in the Little Italy area. I tried their Tan Tan ramen.

Tan Tan Ramen @ Kuidaore

Broth 8.5/10 - This spicy sesame broth offered different experience than typical Tonkotsu broth. It has a strong seafood flavour, which can be polarizing. It requires a skill to incorporate seafood base in a broth when your toppings mostly include meat. This broth was not able to meet that right balance as I got too much of the seafood flavour versus subtle hint of one. If you are craving that flavour or want something other than pure pork based broth, it is worth to try.

Noodle 8/10 - The noodle was not up to the standards, as it was a little overcooked. It almost resembled the instant noodle one, but luckily it was still chewy enough to be considered as gourmet.

Chashu 10/10 - I got only one piece of pork belly, but this is a MUST TRY. The thickness of the pork, the charred flavour on the outside, and great balance of meat and fat ratio made this one of the perfect pork belly topping on a ramen I have ever had.

Toppings 8/10 - On top of your typical bamboo shoots and nori, it included ground pork with shredded pepper on top. I suspect that this was to harmonize the strong seafood flavour with the chashu topping, but I wonder if it would be better to just go all the way with seafood. Perhaps ground shrimp and crab meat as a replacement.

Egg 9/10 - Great soft-boiled egg that is done with a proper technique, but it lacked the soya marinading.

Overall 8.5/10 - This is a good Japanese ramen spot in Ottawa, and I bet the Tonkotsu ramen rating would be a little higher. However, the Tan Tan ramen just did not give me the same "wow" factor as Tonkotsu or other offspring pork based ramen.

Bonus: Karaage and their mayo dipping are great combination. Veggie gyoza was NOT worth the try. Gyoza seemed to be pre-cooked and frozen. The soy sauce that came out with the Gyoza was not great either.