My Double Experience at Ramen Nagi (SM Aura and MOA branches)

Have you been bitten by the ramen craze nowadays? Well, I have. Ramen restaurants are now always in my options when thinking of a place to eat. Just last week, I ate ramen thrice in 3 different restaurants. Have you heard of Ramen Nagi? If you have, then surely you would know that it's the latest ramen place to hit Manila. It's a franchise from Japan so once entering the restaurant, you will immediately notice that the servers keep on shouting Japanese phrases the entire time. The server explained that this is a strict requirement from their Japanese manager. Maybe this is to make the customers feel an authentic Japanese ambience? Not really sure, but honestly the servers were so noisy that it was really hard to concentrate on our food and it was hard to keep a decent conversation with my companions.

Actually, I ate at Ramen Nagi twice last week, but in two different branches. Ramen Nagi in SM Aura was already open since December last year but I was just not able to try it out early on. Ramen Nagi in SM MOA just opened this March, and I can say that I'm one of the first few people to try out this new branch. 

Ramen Nagi SM Aura branch

Exterior of Ramen Nagi SM Aura branch

Entrance to the restaurant

Logo outside the restaurant

Interior of the restaurant

Poster on the wall

Ramen Nagi SM MOA branch

Exterior of Ramen Nagi SM MOA branch

Interior of the restaurant

Difference between the 2 branches 

Waiting time I got to eat at Ramen Nagi SM Aura for the first time last Sunday, and I have observed that the lines at SM Aura are super long. There are about 30-40 names (or even more) in their waiting list for dinner time. It took about 30 minutes before it reached our turn. Then, I ate at Ramen Nagi SM MOA last Wednesday for dinner and we were number 4 at the waiting list. It took less than 5 minutes for us to be seated. 

Space The SM Aura branch had a bigger interior than the one at SM MOA. There is twice the number of tables at Aura than in MOA. Both branches do have tables outside as well.

Noise Level It was definitely noisier at Aura as there were more servers here than in MOA. The Japanese phrases being shouted was also more consistent in Aura as the manager in MOA does not seem to be Japanese. This is merely my observation, and I would rather eat at a restaurant that is peaceful and quiet.

Menu

There are just 5 different types of orders that can be chosen from. These are the Butao King, Black King, Red King, Green King, and Limited King. I was only able to try out the Butao King and Black King so I can't really give my reviews on the Red, Green, and Limited King. The Limited King depends on what they were serving for the day. In our case, it was the Curry King. I wonder how that will taste though, ramen with curry(?) hmm. There are some other new side dishes added to the menu like the Gyoza and Chashu Rice, but we didn't order it. As of this writing, these are currently only available in the SM Aura branch.

Menu of the different ramen variants

Limited Curry King offering

New Side Dishes Offering

Price The Butao King costs P390, while all the other variants cost P410. For me, the price is kinda steep. Let's see how their ramen fares.

Checklist You can customize your whole order according to your preference, or if you don't know what you want, you can easily just choose the Chef's Recommendation. You can see in this photo what are the things you can customize. You can also add toppings like tamago and others. I really felt like answering an exam when I was filling this out for the first time. It's as if I wanted to get everything just perfect so that I could enjoy my ramen to the fullest.

My filled-out ramen checklist

Black King is the favorite order of most of my friends. I was really excited to try this out as well but unfortunately my order was mixed up and I got Butao King. Of course, they immediately sent it back to the chef to change to Black King. I was really pissed off by this time since I was really hungry and all this additional waiting time is not doing any good. I still can't believe how they got it mixed up since my order was totally different. I hope they be more careful next time as this is such a turn off for me. Anyway, enough of my rambling, let's get down to the review.

Black King (P410)

This is the first time I got to try ramen with this flavor. It's totally different and the taste is really something new for me. I did not really like the taste of the soup as the flavor is a little too strong for me. The soup was also surprisingly a bit too spicy for me even though I just chose 1/2 spicy. The noodles are nice though and I can say that it has just the right hardness that I like. Honestly, I wish there were more noodles though. I feel that I can still eat some more after I finished my order (or I was just really hungry). I'm also really happy with the pork belly since the meat was super soft and juicy, and luckily I was able to get a big slice. Lastly, be careful when eating this as the black particles might get into your teeth after eating. How awkward would that be!

Black King Ramen

Extra Tamago (P50)

Too bad I wasn't able to take a picture of my tamago. I devoured it faster than you can say "I love Ramen Nagi!" This is the type of tamago though that I like, the runny yellow yolk one. I was just a little confused with the taste as it felt a little too salty.  

Butao King (P390)

I got to try Butao King from my friend's order and I have realized that I like the taste of Butao King better than Black King. So, on my second visit (MOA branch), I made sure to order Butao King. I changed all my preferences to the total opposite. I made the soup flavor light, then the noodles to soft, and the pork belly to pork shoulder. Big mistake, the soup tasted almost like water because it was too light. Good thing you can ask the server to bring it back to the chef to add more flavor to it whew. I realized that I prefer hard noodles to soft noodles, but it's okay just the same. I can't really say good things for the pork shoulder because I got only three thin slices of it. The meat was soft but it won't make you feel full at all. Overall, I still prefer Butao King to Black King, but I would gladly recommend that they put more ingredients into their ramen as I feel that it's the soup that's making me feel full, not the meat or the noodles.

Butao King Ramen (Non-spicy)

Butao King Ramen (Level 4 Spicy-my bf's order)

There are also free condiments on the table like to-ge, garlic, sesame seeds, chili powder etc that you can add to your ramen for a more preferred taste. The server will bring out a garlic press so that you can crush the garlic and pour the juice onto your soup.

Condiments on the table

Verdict I really liked my experience eating at Ramen Nagi. The servers were nice, and the place really felt Japan-authentic. I just wish they would tone down their shouting. This is not my favorite ramen place surprisingly as I do not feel that the taste of their ramen is super special, but I believe that I will still come back here to try out their other variants like the Green and Limited King. I read in other reviews that they will be having even more variants soon, and I do hope that will be soon so there can be more choices for customers. I also wish that they can maybe decrease their prices a little as I feel that it might be a little too expensive compared to other ramen that are comparable to them in taste and may have even better quality.

Picture picture with the freshly served ramen

So that's my honest review on Ramen Nagi. What do you ramen lovers think of their food?

Ciao!

Kat <3