Menya Genki Ramen House in Hobbies of Asia

The only reason we venture over to Hobbies of Asia is to eat at King One but we found another one, Menya Genki Ramen House ( for. Genya Tonkotsu Ramen),  after visiting the DOT-LEGO exhibit in Mall of Asia (I’ll blog about this in the future).All of us love ramen as evidenced by the countless time we’ve eaten it in Davao and here in Manila. I think I’ve seen it previously during visits to King One but paid it no heed until I read a couple of reviews about it.

When we got there and I saw tonkotsu ramen on the signage, I became worried Lauren would not like it since she did not like the tonkutsu ramen from Ramen Bar. Irene said to try anyway and if Lauren did  not like it we can just buy McDonald’s for her after.

We settled down on a both seating, scanned the menu and proceeded to order with a little help from the waitress.

I ordered their Shoyu Tonkotsu Special Ramen (P300) while Lauren ordered a Regular (P200) one. The difference between special and regular is the addition of a Ajitsuke tamago(P35) (seasoned soft-boiled egg) and more pieces of  chashu (P70) (braised pork). You essentially only save P5 for ordering the special, just found that out when I was doing this post.

The noodles are firm and chewy but still falls short of our leading favorite in the ramen wars, Ukokkei Ramen Ron. The soup is nicely balanced with the pork flavor being enhanced by the soy sauce. The chashu is generously thick and tender. Lauren gave a thumbs up to the soup and said it was yummy. I thought the Ajitsuke tamago was very good until I tasted the egg masterpiece from Nomama, a few days after.

Since we ordered only two bowls of ramen to share since we were wary of Lauren’s verdict, we decided to order side dishes, Tokusei Gyoza (P120/6 pieces) is one of them. The gyoza’s looked delectable with its golden brown bottom. The pieces are quite big, and kinda dwarfs the offerings from other restos. The gyoza were very good and was polished off quickly.

Our other side dish was Fried Chicken Wings w/ Special Sauce (P160/5 pieces). 5 large pieces of  chicken wings with a glistening skin atop a bed of lettuce. I took a bite and was reminded of the chicken wings I had in a small stall in Davao, too bad it closed down. The wings had a nice sweet glaze on the wings that were probably brushed on since the taste did not extend to the meat inside. I even some of the lettuce which was recipient to the sauce drippings.

I now know where to go to get a bowl of tonkotsu ramen that meets Lauren’s approval, too bad its quite a ways away. Genya’s side dishes are very good and are good value, the noodles are the only thing keeping me from elevating it to Ukokkei’s level for me. There also seems to be quite a few mosquitoes buzzing around our feet while we were there, so out came the Moskigo patches.

Menya Genki Ramen House