Definitely. Ippudo SG has expanded since my last visit, with three other outlets but the one at Mandarin Gallery is the original one. It isn't very big, probably sits around 60 people, so there you have to queue for a seat if you go at lunchtime. Especially Sunday lunchtime, haha.

We arrived around 1pm and were seated around 1.30pm so the wait was long.. But it was alright for us as we chatted while we waited, and we weren't super famished or anything. Towards the front of the queue you will enter the restaurant itself where there is this waiting table that customers snake around. There are menus placed there as well as some Japanese brochures. With the menus, you can decide on what you want to eat beforehand, which is a way for them to keep the customers' waiting time shorter I guess.

It was just three of us because YT was busy, so we each picked one ramen, and got - guess what - a salad to share haha. That was the smartest decision we made all day because the salad was simply fabulous ^^

The waiting time for food to arrive is short, the Spicy Buta Shabu & Tofu Salad arrived pretty quickly. The serving size was bigger than what I expected too, though it cost $11. Normally at restaurants high price =/= large serving so I was pleasantly surprised.

After mixing the salad with the adorable wooden tongs they provided, we dug in.

And it was well worth the 30-minute wait. The salad veggies were fresh, crunchy, but what really stole the show was how well the shabushabu pork went with the tofu.

The cold silk tofu was in large pieces that were imo too large haha so I cut them, not a problem.

The tofu + veggie + pork = excellent combination of textures. With the slightly spicy dressing, it was a very appetite-whetting salad haha. The dressing is more sour than spicy though, spicy is more of the after taste, which was still lovely.

I could go on about the salad forever, but it would be irrelevant.

Moving on to the ramen, one of the things I absolutely love about Ippudo is the thickness of their noodles.

The thin flavourful noodles are a huge hit and it's no wonder people return for more. It's not too thin such that you'd think it's meesua or beehoon, but not too fat like yellow noodle either. So the noodles still maintain a certain level of Q-ness/bounciness.

My mom got the original tonkotsu ramen that comes with chashu (Shiromaru Motoaji) while my dad got the one with egg (Shiromaru Tamago). I ordered the spicy one with egg, because I have this thing for spicy ramen, hahaha. So that would be the original tonkotsu base with spicy miso paste and ground pork (Karaka Tamago).

I was quite disappointed with my spicy ramen though. It was flavoursome, no doubt, but it just wasn't spicy! The spicy miso paste instead made the soup very salty as compared to the original, as well as added extra oil to the surface.

My noodles were cooked alright, we ordered Medium for all three bowls and I'm thinking I should have gone with Hard instead because Medium wasn't bouncy enough to my liking. But medium noodles are still yummy, and have lots of flavour.

The egg was good, runny inside with a bit of soft whites. Thumbs up for their tamago!

No photo of that because I gobbled it up too excitedly haha.

For the tonkotsu broth my parents' had, I think that's the right amount of saltiness and flavour. I kinda regretted my own decision to go with spicy but whatever, thing about family is that you share hehe.

I didn't get to try the chashu that they both had, but my mom said it was not bad and soft. From memory, their chashu is good anyway.

Oh yeah, so it meant that my bowl of spicy + egg was $20, but had no chashu.. I was disappointed by that, didn't realise the menu meant mine had no chashu :(

Overall happy experience, was very full after the lunch so (:

I would go back again definitely, want to try out their other ramen hehe.

Spicy Buta Shabu & Tofu Salad $11

Shiromaru Motoaji $15

Shiromaru Tamago $18

Karaka Tamago $20
Tamago $3
Additional charges apply

Ippudo SG

Opens daily from 11am

333A Orchard Road

#04-02/03/04

Mandarin Gallery

Singapore 238897

Tel: (65) 6235 2797

Other outlets are at River Valley, Westgate and an express one at Asia Square