Kokoro Ramenya: Authentic Japanese Ramen Restaurant in Manila

Kokoro Ramenya is the latest Japanese Restaurant that opened in Manila, located along Roxas Boulevard in Ermita. It prides itself for having a great selection of popular regional Japanese ramen prepared by Japanese head chef and ramen connoisseur, Susumo Murata.



Kokoro Ramenya takes ramen-making seriously, it even has its own Japanese noodle-making machine to ensure noodles are of the highest quality and served fresh daily. Aside from ramen, the restaurant also serves popular ala carte dishes, sushi platters and affordable special lunch set to provide a delectable Japanese dining experience to everyone.



Chef Murata highly recommends the Karakuchi-negi, Seafood Sapporo Ramen, Gomamiso, and Kokoro Ramenya original, Hakata Classic – rich and creamy Tonkotsu noodle soup boiled for 18 hours topped with kikurage, chashu and soft-boiled egg.


Kokoro Ramenya started with two Japanese friends who were chatting over their Japanese instant noodle lunch when they suddenly, they had a great idea of putting up an authentic Japanese ramenya in Manila. After a year of research, various cooking experimentation, food tastings and a few Filipino friends’ support, Kokoro Ramenya was born.



It was the passion for perfecting the quintessential hearty Japanese meal, the RAMEN, that made Kokoro Ramenya what it is today. Soup broth is cooked meticulously for 18 hours to achieve its unique delicious flavor and ramen noodles are made fresh daily to ensure the right creamy texture and flavor. All this for a slurpingly good meal in Kokoro Ramenya.

Octoboy's Sizzling Japanese Pizza

My cousin Lujean wanted us to try Octoboy, a restaurant famous for their Sizzling Japanese Pizza, she said. At first I thought it was little bit weird, because "Japanese" and "pizza" do not really go well together, or not at all. But a few weeks ago, Ly and I got to try Octoboy at Tomas Morato, Quezon City.

Sushi during New Year

One out of a lot of dishes we had during New Year with the Ong Family at my lola's house in Fairview was this sushi platter. It was perfect and filling. I took some photos before they attacked and finished the whole thing :P

Haiku

After watching Mamma Mia with Kim, Beljo, Little Mawnster Kay and Ima Ned, we had dinner at Trinoma. (Aside: I think that Mamma Mia is a good movie. Abba music rocks! *right mawnster?* It made me laugh a lot of times, though Ima was filled with emotions because of the story.)

Since they all knew that I have already tried almost all of the restaurants there (because of the SPOT Tour a few months back), they were all pointing at me to decide where to eat.

No, we didn't end up eating mawnster food, but instead, we finally decided to try Haiku. Kay treated us because it was her birthday! :3

We ordered the #3 Sushi-Maki Combination Platter. (I forgot the real name of the dish..) We also asked our server to put in some Crazy Maki, since Beljo and I really wanted to try it. Their Sushi-Maki platter was relatively good, though, for me, it wasn't anything special.

I still love the salmon from Ebisu. We ordered Ebi Tempura (staple food in every Japanese restaurant?) It was big and better than a lot of Tempura I've eaten. Though Kim was saying that the sauce was a little bit too ginger-tasting, I liked it that way.

We also got the Ribeye Steak Teppanyaki (local) and the Scallop Teppanyaki (local). The beef was good. The scallop, on the other hand, was a little bit dry and not that fresh I guess.

This next dish wasn't on their menu. It was a really yummy prawn and crab sticks concoction which, according to them, is their best-seller in their Makati branch.

It's called something like Grilled Ebi-Kani. It was 5 large pieces of grilled prawns with kani and mayonnaise on top. We all enjoyed this dish. It was delicious because it was all fresh and it really melts in your mouth. One good point was that the mayo didn't really overpower the dish.

Over-all my Haiku experience was very filling and one of the good Japanese restaurants around. One quibble though is that the prices of the food were a little bit steep.

Photos taken from Kim's camera-phone. Thanks a lot Kim & Beljo! :)