Bankara Ramen: Restaurant Review

This post is brought to you by Bankara Ramen.

Although Japanese ramen has been taking the spotlight at dedicated ramen shops and popping up at various locations across Klang Valley, I haven’t been tempted to give ramen a try simply because I am not adventurous when it comes to trying out new cuisines. When I was told that we were headed to Bankara Ramen for lunch, I took it as my first and formal introduction to ramen, and it turned out to be a delightful experience.

The latest ramen player to hit town is Tokyo’s ramen specialist that has over 60 outlets across Japan, Bangkok, and Jakarta.

Four Distinct Styles of Ramen

The first Bankara Ramen at Avenue K dishes up four distinct styles of ramen: original Bankara signature style Ramen, Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen, Saporo-style miso ramen and Tsukemen, which can all be personalized with additional toppings like pork, corn, seaweed, and veggies. Noodles of different sizes and textures are matched to each soup.

Tori Karage

While Aaron Lee, managing director of Slurp & Burp Concept, who’s responsible for Bankara Ramen Malaysia, educated us on the joys that can be derived from sipping a bowl of authentic ramen, we ordered some snacks like the Tsumami Menma, a typical Japanese dish that consists of Japanese bamboo shoots tossed with Bankara fragrant oil and topped with Japanese onion. However, the Tori Karage was my favourite: served piping hot, the marinated chicken was deep-fried and the end result was tender and juicy meat in the inside, coated with crunchy and crispy batter.

We waited patiently for our Bankara original ramen to arrive and to my surprise, the smell wafting from the bowl was enough to awaken both appetite and senses. Topped with chashu, bamboo shoots, dried seafood and Japanese onion, the broth made with pork bones infused with refined shoyu had a mild sweet taste, and complemented the thin noodles imported from Japan and cooked al dente. Each dining table is stocked with freshly peeled garlic and a garlic press, so we pressed a few garlic cloves into our noodles, unlocking flavours that changed the soup’s characteristics beautifully.

Tonkotsu Ramen

The next bowl of sinful goodness was the Tonkotsu Ramen, which employs a slow boil technique to create a milky pork bone soup. The rich and creamy soup was extremely palatable without being too salty or cloying, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It was followed by the Tsukemen, a cold ramen dish dipped with hot, spicy soup. The Tsukemen uses a thicker version of ramen noodles, which we grabbed with our chopsticks, dipped in the flavourful soup, and gulped down. Next was the Miso Ramen, a nice, robust, smoky-flavoured broth combined with springy noodles, crunchy bean sprouts, and Bankara’s signature stir-fried pork belly slices… it was divine to slurp it up.

Annin Tofu

We cleansed our palate with some annin tofu (almond pudding tofu), a dessert of mild, creamy, milky and custardy goodness served in a sugar syrup. This cold dessert has a smooth aftertaste and was a perfect end to the meal.

Bankara at Avenue K has a distinctly Japanese interior drawing inspiration from the Samurai house and traditional warehouse vaults. A visit to Bankara Ramen is akin to soaking up the culture and heritage of Japan while enjoying a staple of its delectable cuisine. Kon’nichiwa… or “from Japan, with love.”