Kintaro Ramen

Our last meal in Paris was actually not Kintaro Ramen.  In actuality, it was McDonald's but I'm not going to blog about that.  But the second-to-last meal was a quick Japanese ramen before we visited the Louvre in the evening.  Again, this was not our first choice, as we had another ramen spot in mind, but they were open.  The positive about walking to Kintaro was that we could take in the sights and sounds of the 2nd arrondissement.

Looking over the menu, there wasn't a whole lot of choice when it came to starters, so we went for the ol' standby being the Chicken Karaage.  This was surely crispy due to the aggressive deep-fry.  However, that also meant that the chicken wasn't as juicy as we would've liked.  It wasn't dry per se, but it was lacking moisture.  In terms of flavour, it was okay, but it could've used a bit more saltiness.  The squeeze of lemon helped.

Onto the ramen, I decided to have the standard being the Shoyu with chashu, nori and bamboo shoots.  With all of the ramen we've had, the best way to describe this was - serviceable.  The broth was extremely light and although it had enough soy flavour to keep things from being bland, there was no depth.  As for the noodles, they were nicely chewy and the chashu was fairly tender and balanced with meat-to-fat ratio.

Viv ended up with the Tori Ramen with a chicken soup base and served with chicken and a ramen egg.  Due to the fatty broth, this had much more body and overall flavour.  It wasn't as clean as the shoyu broth, yet we were much more happy with the natural sweetness and chicken essence.  As for the meat, it was tender while the egg featured a custardy yolk but was rather mild-tasting.

My daughter had her favourite in the Miso Ramen.  Now this was much more impactful than the shoyu.  Naturally, with the addition of miso, we got the fermented saltiness that gave the broth some depth-of-flavour.  With that being said, it wasn't an umami bomb, but was much tastier.  There was also more fat in the broth which gave it some aromatics.

So my son went big with the Chashu Ramen which was essentially the shoyu ramen, except with double the chashu.  Great for those who are a bit more hungry.  Seeing how the chashu was sliced thin and tender, this was a good call.  Broth was still the weakest of the bunch we had.  With that being said, this was a decent meal that was reasonably-priced.  Naturally, I've had better ramen, yet this served a purpose and did the job.

The Good:
- Decent service
- Serviceable eats
- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:
- Broth on the lighter side