Manpuku can be distinguished by its white cartoon-like window stickers:
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| Entrance of Restaurant |
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| Inside of Restaurant |
As well as the series of ropes running along the ceiling of the restaurant, which provide an interesting shadow along the walls/interior:
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| Self Service Station |
Through a series of visits, I decided to try out their most popular/recommended dishes, including ramen #7:
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| Kono Deaini Kanshashite Aijou To Jonetsu Komete Isshoukenmei Tsukutta Uchirano Icchan Sukina Manpuku Shiawase Ramen ($14.90) |
This ramen has been dubbed the "ramen with a long name" by many customers as it probably has the longest ramen name everrrrr (sort of like a tongue twister). In short, the ramen is immersed in a soy-based pork and chicken soup and topped with pork belly, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, shallots, seaweed sheet and (half of a) nitamago egg. Like Makanai in Chatswood Westfield, the name of the restaurant is printed on the nori sheet:
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| Printed Nori Sheet (Note the little guy on the bowl saying "We will rock you!") |
Despite the bowl size, this ramen serving is small... and the soup started congealing being served, even though it wasn't even that cold inside the restaurant (a sign the soup wasn't quite hot enough?). The soup was good but there just wasn't enough *sadface* and the bamboo shoots weren't fresh (tell-tale dark shade). This ramen normally comes with their wavy ramen noodle but I requested to change it over to the premium dry ramen noodle - however, I found it a bit too hard for my liking.
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| Pork Gyoza ($5.90 for 5pcs) |
People have been raving about their gyozas but to be honest, I wasn't a fan. The pork inside was processed with cabbage and radish, and I found the meat filling to be too salty. The only good thing was the crispy layer around the base of the gyozas, which should have been served as a single block but probably got broken up during plating.
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| Manpuku Mini-Rice Bowl ($3.90) - Pork Belly, Mushed Egg, Bean Sprouts, Shallots, Sesame, Mayonnaise, Teriyaki Sauce |
Meanwhile, the Manpuku rice was good. Similar to (and cheaper than) the mini-rice bowls at Ippudo, this one was topped with pork belly, egg, and veges. There is also a similar rice bowl (Chashu Rice) minus the egg for the exact same price but you want to get your money's worth, especially with current egg prices/availability!
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| Chicken Gyoza ($7.90 for 2pcs) - Pork Gyoza in Chicken Wing with Teriyaki and Mayonaise Sauce | Inside of Chicken Gyoza |
The Chicken Gyoza sounded like an interesting concept - a de-boned chicken wing stuffed with pork gyoza meat filling (rather than an actual gyoza, much to my disappointment). I'm not quite sure why the parts of the chicken wing had a charred exterior (blow-torched?) though but the chicken wing exterior was crunchy/crispy. However, I am still a bit undecided as to whether I would ever try it again, given its price.
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| Karaage Rice ($4.90)- Japanese Style Fried Chicken, Shallots, Teriyaki Sauce and Sesame Dressing |
Despite the recommendation from @Al, I was rather disappointed by the Karaage Chicken. Based on the dark colour, the chicken was either cooked for too long or the oil was too hot, and I found the mini-rice bowl to be rather mediocre in comparison to the Manpuku rice bowl. Personally, I preferred the karaage chicken from Hakata-Maru Ramen more.
Something wasn't quite right about either (or both) of the last two dishes as I ended up with an upset stomach soon afterwards... On another note, for a restaurant that claims to serve "homemade" ramen, I find it interesting how their (dried) ramen is stored in clear plastic/cellophane (ditto with their gyoza chicken wings, which were packaged in individual plastic wrapping).
It might be worth another visit to check out their other ramens but probably not in the short term (stomach needs to recover...).
Update: Interestingly enough, Aunt-T and Uncle G visited Manpuku in May as well to have a #7 ramen each and they both got sick soon after eating...
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