Marukin Ramen

Marukin Ramen must be doing something right if I dined there 3 times within a month after the 1^st visit.
I read about it and was told the ramen was not bad. I just never got the chance to try the food despite walking past it many times and it was always very quiet. When a place looked quiet, you do wonder if the food was good.
Instead of the usual pork based soup stock, Marukin uses chicken stock, similar to Marutama. However there is a wider choice with 4 types of stock to choose from (Shio, Shoyu white, miso and shoyu clear).
What I have tried:
— Issai Gassai Miso which has everything! Chicken wing (tender but messy since it has bone), chicken balls (not my favorite), shrimp wanton (surprisingly good with soft wanton skin), chicken chashu (like teriyaki chicken, I like) and the seaweed, mushrooms, green onions and egg (nicely done, similar to Marutama standard) in a miso soup.
— Miso Corn Nitamago which was basically corn and egg and mushroom. This was quite alright, maybe I was expecting Hokkaido butter and corn which would be richer and sweeter.
— Dipping cold noodles could be better. The noodles stuck together and was hard to take apart. Maybe it was stickier compared to soba which could slide away easily. But I like the al dente bite of the ramen which was chewier.
— Karaage was average.
— Gyoza was good with minced chicken and shredded vegetables.
— Potato salad was surprisingly tasty.
I noticed different types of noodles were used for different soup stock. I would go back again when I want a quick bite of warm noodle soup. The service is decent and food gets served pretty fast.

Marukin Ramen is located at the very new Scotts Square basement, which only had a few F&B outlets and convenience stores. I was actually expecting a restaurant, but turns out Marukin Ramen is more of an open air counter with some seats. On first look, it bore some semblance to Marutama at Central with the orange round logo, but of course they are quite different.
Here’s a fun fact: we found out that all the ramen soup stock at Marukin is made with CHICKEN stock instead of the usual pork bone! The story is that they opened up a stall in Shanghai and found that people like chicken better than pork, so they decided to go with that revolutionary stance, and brought the concept to Singapore as well. The one here is not yet Halal-​certified but they are trying to go for it.
We started off with 5 types of appetizers. The Marukin Potato Salad ($ 3.90) is one of my favorite. A very classic and simple dish that cannot go wrong.
There’s also the Hiyayakko (Chilled Tofu with chilli soy sauce) ($ 3.90). This one I would skip. I had expected the sauce to be slightly sweeter like the one from some sushi chains, but instead it was just plain old soya sauce. Salty.
The Marukin Gyoza (Homemade chicken dumpling) ($ 5.90) was quite good though. It was not too oily and quite flavorsome. I would imagine it to be a good afternoon snack sort of dish.
The deep fried vegetables in dashi broth ($ 5.90) was also pleasant enough. This could help in providing some veggies in the otherwise carbo-​loaded meal, but since they are deep fried and soaked in dashi, I don’t think there are much nutrients left. Still, quite a special appetizer dish that is not offered in other restaurants.
Of course there is also the classic fried chicken karaage ($ 4.90). It was good too! I know, surprising. It was crispy and not too salty nor oily. The chicken was also juicy. Yummy. This would be my pick for an appetizer if there was one.
Moving on to the ramen! We tried 4 types.
We first tried the Tsukemen ($ 14.90). Literally meaning ‘Dipping Noodles’, it is actually thick cold ramen with chicken char siew, nitamago (egg), Kikurage mushrooms, green onions and sesame with warm dipping sauce on the side. I actually love cold ramen very much. This tsukemen was done quite well, though the noodles could be colder and the sauce warmer. The char siew was a bit dry though.
Next up — the Shoyu ISSAI-​GASSAI ($ 16.90). Probably the ‘house special’ of Marukin. It was a cacophony of many ingredients, some of which are quite random such as chicken meat balls, a piece of Chicken wing and shrimp wanton. You don’t see that often in ramen dishes. Wanton? Haha. It is almost quite local!
Our bursting bellies had to contend with the next dish — the Shio Wakame & Corn Ramen ($ 11.90). It is a ‘vegetarian’ ramen (well the soup is still chicken) featuring wakame seaweed and corn. The noodles are also thinner than the usual. I being the carnivore, would not really order this dish.
Lastly — the Spicy Negi Negi Miso Ramen ($ 13.90). Actually when they say ‘spicy’, it means it comes with a small saucer of chili that you can add into the soup yourself. I like how democratic that is because some people just cannot take spice. Ironically, there is a ‘non-​spicy’ version which is exactly what is served, but without the chili and slightly cheaper. Yet another veggie only dish, the egg ramen noodles are mixed with Japanese leek, kirurage mushrooms, and green onions. Actually taste-​wise, I could not really tell whether this was any different from the rest already because I was inundated with ramen. As typical with any ramen dishes in Singapore they all tend to veer towards the salty spectrum.
I would go back because it is special in using Chicken Stock for their ramen soup.