Butao, a Hakata-style ramen shop from Hong Kong, is soft opening its first Shanghai shop today after much anticipation from the city's ramen junkies. Known for its intense popularity when it first opened in Hong Kong, queues for Butao would invariably stretch into hours, spurring the brand to open several branches throughout the city. And you can sure as shit expect the same thing to happen here.
During soft opening, Butao will limit itself to just 300 bowls a day, meaning that supplies are likely to run out before a reasonable dinnertime, which sucks. In happier news, in addition to the original flavors, Butao Shanghai has unveiled two new flavors exclusive to the mainland. More on those later.
Original flavor – signature pork soup stock (tonkotsu, RMB62). Good place to start. We'd customize this one with a marinated egg (a pretty steep additional RMB13).
'Black King' – squid ink and black garlic flavored (RMB65). Our personal favorite, this bowl takes the tonkotsu broth and adds 'black sauce,' as well as a ball of black sauce minced pork on top. Don't wear anything white.
'Red King' – hot and spicy (RMB65). A so-called 'delicate blend' of chili powder and spicy sauce, with miso, sesame and a ball of hot minced pork. We found it to be around a 7/10 on the spicy scale.
'Green King' – tonkotsu with olive oil, fresh basil leaves and parmesan (RMB65). Butao's version of the trend for 'East meets West' ramens that use cheese as a topping/flavor enhancement.
Now for the two Shanghai exclusive flavors.
'Shoyu King' (RMB65). More intensely flavored than the tonkotsu original, with a blend of 'specially made' soy-based sauce.
'Japanese Pepper King' (RMB68). Spicier than the original red flavor, this bowl was designed with Shanghainese spice lovers in mind, since the laoban heard that people here are especially fond of heat. Any Sichuanese readers out there, cover your ears. Features one ball of spicy pork, one of chili and another of 'mala' (麻辣) pepper and chili.
So should you go brave a queue for Butao? Sure, why not if you're a real ramenizer. For those disinclined towards queues, we'll let you know once it's died down a bit.
See a listing for Butao Ramen here.
Read more Food & Drink News
0 User Comments