Kaneta Shoten – Finding Gold In This New Ramen Shop

Kaneta Shoten is the latest ramen store born out of Otoko Ramen’s management team. The name “Kaneta Shoten” (金田商店) is actually derived from the names of the two main chefs in the restaurant. One of the executive chefs, Tanaka Mikihiro, is a Japanese man who can be seen hard at work during peak periods. Since we could not converse in Japanese, we had the honor of speaking with his co-chef, Chef 金 (jin for English, which translates to Gold) who shared with us the beginnings of Kaneta Shoten. Both chefs have more than a decade of experience creating traditional style ramen in Japan. Chef Jin revealed that both Chef Tanaka and himself have previously worked in Santouka, Japan. If you’re a fan of the restaurant Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, you must definitely visit this shop!

The queue was relatively short, though I suspect that it would get longer during peak hours. If you can’t escape the queue, you can always grab a selfie with the Astro Boy statue that stands near the entrance of the restaurant. Chef Jin shared that the whole concept of Kaneta Shoten is inspired from the Showa period, which refers to the 1920’s – 1980’s period in Japanese history.  To evoke a sense of nostalgia for the Showa period, the chefs decided to exhibit Astro Boy since it was the contemporary anime figure of the Showa period.

Chef Jin recommends the Kaneta Mazesoba ($13.90), which is a specialty of the restaurant. This bowl is an assembly of dry ramen noodle, char shu, a soft boiled egg, mushrooms, chopped spring onions and seaweed. The bedrock of the bowl is a special sauce that is made with truffle oil. When you mix the springy thick-cut noodles up, you’ll experience ramen in a delightful and hearty manner. Chef Jin also mentioned that a couple of diners actually add mayonnaise to enhance the taste of the Mazesoba. If you do drop by, do try this ramen hack on our behalf!

One of the more popular dishes is the Shoyu Ramen with Special Full-Topping ($16.90), which is made up of a brown and clear tonkotsu broth with special tamari soy sauce. You’ll find the ramen swimming with a generous portion of ingredients – 3 slices of char shu, a flavoured soft boiled egg, bamboo shoots, leek, fish cake, radish sprout and full-size seaweed. The pork broth is fragrant and light, which will cater to those with an innate lighter palate. I found the char siew slightly dry for my taste, but it is nevertheless flavourful. If you’re sharing both the Mazesoba and the Shoyu Ramen, I recommend that you eat the Shoyu Ramen first before having the Mazesoba because the robust taste of the latter can easily overpower the Shoyu Ramen.

I also ordered the Unagidon ($12.90), which is a Unagi rice bowl cooked with special sweet sauce and butter. For it’s price, Kaneta Shoten offers a generous portion of Unagi. The eel has a very soft texture that goes really well with the Japanese grains. However, the sauce used to coat the eel is slightly too sweet for my liking.

This restaurant offers a couple of perks which makes it really hard for us to not return. Apart from the free flow hard-boiled eggs, diners are also entitled to a free upsize of 50g noodles for every Mazesoba and Tsukemen course. For a fuss-free dining experience, and affordable yet good ramen, I really recommend Kaneta Shoten. Just take note of their break times, which happens from 3pm to 5pm on weekdays.

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

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