Ramen Time! | Rotterdam, Netherlands
We went to Rotterdam in December 2018. I went with all guns blazing, ready to eat their crunchy-fluffy-delicious French fries all day everyday.
However, on our way to the Markthal, we found this place:
The sign outside said they import noodles from Sapporo, Hokkaido Japan. We were in Sapporo this summer and had some of the best ramens there. We simply had to try their ramen!
Hinoki
There were only a few customers when we arrived at the restaurant at around 6pm. When we started eating, the place was pretty much full and by the time we were leaving there was a queue outside.
I had vegetarian tantan-men which was a seasonal special. €15.50, not cheap, but the portion was big with endless and generous mountain of toppings.
Tantan-men is typically spicy and served with minced pork and I have never seen a vegetarian version before. Hinoki’s vegetarian tantan-men ticked lots of boxes: chewy curly noodles, creamy spicy soup, and the soya-mince was a really nice touch. It was what I call ‘tasty spicy’, the kind of spiciness that is flavourful and allows you to enjoy and taste other components of the dish. They managed to recreate tantan-men’s creamy soup rather successfully also, but without the heaviness and fattiness of the meat version.
C had Tonkotsu ramen with egg, €11.50.
As it should, it came with thin, straight noodles which capture and bring heavy tonkotsu/pork broth with every slurp. The broth was milky and white with little shiny sparkles of gelatine on top which suggest it was cooked properly and with care. The egg was cooked perfectly.
We both enjoyed our ramen at Hinoki so much, also service was friendly. We left the restaurant and started to walk towards Witte de Whithstraat, enjoying the night views and still talking about the ramen at Hinoki.
Then we found this place.
Another Japanese ramen joint! It appeared they make their own noodles. We also liked their small, ‘we do one thing really really well’ no-nonsense menu.
So we came back the next evening.
Tensai
We arrived at around 6pm and exactly the same thing happened; people started to come in and the place became full very quickly with some people waiting.
I had veggie shoyu pumpkin ramen (€13.50) which was absolutely fantastic.
Curly tasty noodles that had the right thinness for the broth. The broth had many layers; hearty vegetable broth with pumpkin giving the sweetness and depth, and the soysauce gave a good accent, a little kick. Each vegetable topping was cooked to perfection and had its purpose in terms of textures and flavours.
C wanted to try their Tonkotsu, but they had run out. People who sat at next to our table seemed to have finished it! So C went for the chicken ramen instead (€13) which he really enjoyed.
It came with thin, straight noodles, a generous amount of meat toppings (both pork and chicken slices) and the broth had a shiny golden colour as good chicken ramen should.
Once again, we enjoyed really good ramen and friendly service.
Ramen is traditionally about bone or fish broth (and noodles that match perfectly with that broth of course) and in a way tends to rely heavily on that animal flavour. I do therefore admire ramen restaurants who have the ability to create a good vegetarian ramen which carries the soul of ramen: the heartiness, the depth of flavour and the joy and warmth it brings. I felt that both Hinoki and Tensai excelled on that front. I have been to many restaurants whose vegetarian dishes were incoherent and made without any thought. These 2 ramen restaurants are definitely not one of those. They make ramen, a really good bowl of hearty, tasty ramen that just happened to be meat/fish free.
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