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As I see it | Restaurant reviews: A tale of three ramen shops

Some of the city's most popular ramen chains suffer by focusing more on gimmickry than flavour and substance

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Ramen chef Ikuta San at work in Butao. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Ramen chef Ikuta San at work in Butao. Photo: Jonathan Wong

In 2010, restaurateur Chandler Tang recruited chef Ikuta Satoshi and opened a small ramen shop on a back alley in Lan Kwai Fong. Butao, one of the few authentic ramen joints in Hong Kong at the time, had only 15 seats and served no more than 200 bowls of Hakata-style noodles daily.

The queue outside the hole-in-the-wall would snake around the block and the wait time would average 90 minutes.

Butao gets my vote as one of the best ramen shops in the city. I give it high marks for the authenticity it offers

The creation of Butao marked the beginning of a citywide ramen craze in Hong Kong and its success didn’t go unnoticed. Tang not only inspired local copycats but also invited competition from Japan, including the country’s largest noodle restaurant chain Ippudo, which now runs five locations across the city.

Not to be outdone by Ippudo, Butao has branched out to Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Sha Tin. A fifth shop is being planned for one of the “new towns” in the New Territories. Last July, the Central restaurant moved to a bigger space on Wellington Street, doubling its seating and making it easier to get to.

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