Off-menu dishes from your favorite ramen brands
The secret’s out! This year, my gift to all of you comes unwrapped, in the form of a cheat sheet of mouthwatering dishes exclusive to particular Mendokoro, Yushoken, and Marudori branches, from hot pot maze soba to lechon ramen. These are not found in the printed menu, and so to order, just mention the dish to the server or ask them about the secret menu. You’re welcome!
Mendokoro Ramenba Alabang: Nagoya
Nagoya is a mound of chahan rice, ground pork, fresh chili, garlic, bean sprouts, and chives, drowned in chicken chintan broth then seasoned with shoyu and oyster sauce.
Mendokoro Ramenba BGC: Curry Tsukumen and TanTan Maze Soba
Tsukemen noodles, served separately, come with a tonkotsu broth combined with curry paste, katsuobushi, and Aoyama shoyu, and served with a variety of vegetables, whole aji tamago, and binchotan-grilled chashu, while the creamy maze soba is topped with tantanmen pork, bean sprouts, chili, and crushed peanuts.
Mendokoro Ramenba Cebu: Lechon Ramen and Lechon Chahan
Their version of skin-on Filipino lechon comes two ways: noodles in a shio-based broth and lemongrass oil, chicharon, chopped leeks, chili sauce, lechon ramen sauce, spring onion, and chopped chili; and fried rice with lechon chahan sauce, pork lard, and chahan pork, topped with egg, shoyu seasoning, and chicharon. Both are also available at Ramen Yushoken Alabang for a limited time only.
Mendokoro Ramenba Makati: Buta Kakuni and Garlic Shoyu
The former is tsukemen noodles with spicy miso tonkotsu broth and buta kakuni and sprinkled with chili powder, while the other is garlic shoyu tonkotsu broth served with cabbage, bean sprouts, garlic chips, and binchotan-grilled chashu.
Mendokoro Ramenba Katipunan: Konbu Sui Tsukemen
It’s tsukemen noodles in a cold kelp soup, accompanied by grilled chashu, grilled chicken, sous vide chicken breast, ham, and aji tamago with rayu chili oil.
Mendokoro Ramenba Pasay: Hot Pot Maze Soba
This is a hotpot with Wagyu beef slices and maze soba noodles, mixed with an assortment of seasonings and spices, including a hint of curry.
Ramen Yushoken Alabang: Karai Miso Tsukemen
It’s the spicy version of their miso, served tsukemen style with soft tofu and roasted chashu bits.
Ramen Yushoken Ortigas: Green Curry TanTanMen and Sundubu Ramen
Their crowd favorite tantanmen gets a green curry version with crushed peanuts and coriander, and the ramen with beef chintan has tofu, chives, egg, and clams.
Ramen Yushoken Cebu: Spicy Garlic Shio Maze Soba
It’s a spicy shio-based, soupless ramen topped with cabbage, bean sprouts, sous vide chicken slices, garlic, chili, and an egg yolk.
Ramen Yushoken Panay: Tantan Tsukemen
Their tantanmen broth is paired with tender yakiniku beef and served with a bowl of cold dashi tsukemen drizzled with rayu chili oil.
All Mendokoro and Yushoken branches:
The Super Chashu is a shoyu-based soup stock with a generous portion of chashu meat, bamboo shoots, black fungus, sesame seeds, mayu garlic oil, and leeks, while the Hitachi Gyu Ramen has the signature ramen noodles in a beef broth base with grilled Hitachi rib-eye glazed with yakiniku sauce, sautéed broccoli, king mushrooms, shimeji brown mushrooms, young corn, asparagus, a fresh egg yolk, and wasabi for balance. The last is available only at Mendokoro Ramenba Alabang, Mendokoro Ramenba Makati, Ramen Yushoken Ortigas, and Ramen Yushoken Panay.
Food Truck: Spicy Kakuni Gyokai
Spicy shoyu-based soup stock is enriched with bonito powder and garlic. Topped with buta kakuni, spinach, menma, chili labuyo, spring onions, leeks stem, and chili oil.
Marudori Rockwell
You can choose from lobster ramen composed of shoyu paitan with lobster sauce, topped with kakiage, fried lobster meat, basil sauce, and spinach oil; truffle ramenba made up of shio paitan with foie gras, king mushroom, shimeji, and enoki mushrooms, drizzled with truffle oil; shio asari ramen with a shio-seasoned broth, chicken, clams, and slices of steamed chicken breast; and a shoyu asari ramen with a clear chicken broth and slices of grilled chicken.
Marudori Ramenba VCorp: Rossi Ramen
Linguini ramen that comes with miso paitan, binchotan-grilled chicken thigh, five kinds of cheeses, basil sauce, and spinach oil. Parmesan/Grana Padano is grated tableside.
Available in both Marudori branches:
The spicy tomato tantanmen comes with a tomato ball, tantanmen chicken, takana, spinach, crushed peanuts, and Marudori’s chili oil. There’s a black tantanmen also made up of rich paitan broth infused with sesame, soy, and chilies, balanced with in-house tomato jam and topped with chopped chicken, as well as a titan tori ramen composed of shoyu paitan, vegetables, binchotan-grilled chicken, crushed peanuts, and yuzu peel.
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