Address: 10 Coleman St. Shop #01-21/22 Grand Plaza Hotel Shopping Arcade
Visited Kadoman today after receiving the dubious recommendation from Rick, someone who read and left a comment on my Ichibantei review.
I invited the girls along to try out this “new” ramen place, which unfortunately, turned out to be a really bad experience.
When it comes to dining at a restaurant, most people are looking for the following qualities:
A. Good Food.
B. Reasonable Cost.
C. Nice Ambience.
Usually we only get to pick two out of the above. Since there is rarely one that meets all the requirements.
Kadoman was one of those rare places that fails all three. Ok, maybe it did have this Japanese feel to it, after all the TV in the restaurant was showing recorded Japanese shows and there was a Japanese feel to the decoration, though nothing really immersive that makes you feel like “Wow, this place is right out of a street in Tokyo”. Sure it has menu items written in Japanese and pasted all over its walls to give that authentic atmosphere, but I was there to have a go at the ramen, not the 101 other items they have like sashimi, yakiniku and whatnot. On hindsight, this amazing number of choices available was a warning sign to the quality of the ramen to come.
Let’s talk about the food. I like ramen, which was why I patronized Kadoman in the first place. The exact quote was “if you’re looking for a soup base that is not mass produced, should try it”. Sure, non-mass produced soup is great. It means that the chef actually bothered to prepare the broth from the ground up. However, just like everything else in life, DIY doesn’t necessarily mean it is better.
Such was the case for Kadoman. I ordered their chashu shoyu ramen and I must say it was one of the most disappointing ramen that I have had for a while. Granted the soup was not the typical mass produced type, it actually managed to taste worse than the commercial soup base. Kadoman uses a chicken stock based broth, which sort of reminded me of the one at Marutama. The key difference being that there was absolutely no other flavour that you can taste besides the overwhelming saltiness. It was like hot water mixed with chicken oil and a lot of salt/soy sauce. The taste was just poor and unprofessional.
The noodles taste familiar, I am guessing that it was the same commercially available noodle that I have tried at a few other ramen places. It tasted ok since they are pretty much all the same, with the hardness of the noodle varying. Since I am a noodle lover, I had no problem slurping them all up.
As expected, the toppings were disappointing as well. The egg was not included in the ramen and I had to pay additional charges for it. Tamago came excactly like those hard boiled eggs that you’d expect to see in a bowl of laksa available in your neighbourhood coffee shop, and it tasted just like them. The chashu was bad as well, thinly sliced and with little flavour left in it, might have easily been mistaken as sliced ham.
The best part was the gyoza. It was the glorified version of those frozen gyoza that you can find at a Japanese supermarket. How glorified? With its exorbitant price of course. That must have been the most expensive frozen gyoza that I have ever had. You can find out how it tasted like by visiting a supermarket.
Remember what I said in the beginning of this review? I said “Good Food, Reasonable Price and Nice Ambience” right? Kadoman obviously failed at the food aspect, so let’s talk about the cost. Three bowls of ramen, a pot of green tea and a plate of instant gyoza set us back by $67 or so. The worst thing that you can get after you had a lousy meal has to be a hefty tab.
Kadoman has left me (and the girls) with no desire of ever returning again.