Ramen 38 Sanpachi Express, Kuningan City, Jakarta

Although there are so many ramen shops in Jakarta, my heart still belongs to Ramen 38 (Sanpachi) when it comes to the best ramen in town. As one of the earliest and (most probably) the pioneer of ramen in Jakarta, it has never failed me whenever I visit for a bowl of delicious ramen. I remember I used to go to the outlets in Pondok Indah and Melawai very often, the ramen were consistently nice and had really thick broth which I really enjoyed.

This time, after such a long time, I got the chance to eat there again, but this time, in the express outlet inside Eatery Kuningan City. The ramen’s price ranges from IDR 53K – 79K, while there are also other food beside ramen such as rice bowls, onigiri (cheapest one, priced at IDR 16K). As for the ramen, there are so many options and believe me, you’ll find it difficult to choose because they all look so good and tempting!

Enma Ramen IDR 61K
Ramen shio noodle spicy taste and sour twist. Well, don’t ask me, that is the description they put under the title. Basically it was a shio (salt) ramen with spicy thick broth and trust me, it was shocking and crazy, but very delicious! I chose the spiciness level 7 because I wasn’t sure how spicy it was. And even by the appearance, I could tell that it was gonna be spicy like hell! There were lots of orange chili cuts spread around the bowl, and combined with the already spicy soup, it was amazing. I couldn’t really taste any sourness or whatever they mean by “sour twist”, though.

Shoyu Ramen IDR 53K
Ramen 38’s shoyu ramen is definitely one of the best I can find in Jakarta. The noodle was perfect (in term of thickness, consistency, and color), served with shoyu broth that looks sparkly but not disgustingly oily like some other ramen broth. The shoyu has significant aromatic taste was just perfect. Highly recommended even for a ramen newbie.

Maboh Don IDR 53K
Although mabo tofu is one of Chinese cuisine, I don’t know why I always like the Japanese version much better. I can’t really eat the corn flour based soup which are easily found in Chinese food, and I always think Japanese mabo tofu are much lighter yet still very tasty. I was surprised when I tried this because it just tasted soooooo good. The mabo tofu was poured over a hot rice and everything was just very nice. The tofu was silky smooth and melted right away in the mouth (yet they still could be served in those nice blocks shape, I wonder how!). The meat, the sauce, everything was just nice and delicious. I will definitely try the maboh ramen next time I come back!