ramen restaurants|Menya Appare 麵屋 天晴-mid valley — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Long Queue, High Expectations, but Disappointing Saltiness – A Mixed Experience at This Japanese Ramen Restaurant

I've passed by this ramen place countless times and noticed a long queue, which naturally made me assume that the food must be amazing. After seeing the crowds, I finally decided to give it a try. We ended up visiting twice to try different dishes and see if it lived up to the hype.

First Visit:

We ordered the Standard Tonkotsu Ramen and the Deluxe Yuzu Shio Ramen to compare their offerings.

Standard Tonkotsu Ramen: The noodles were just right – we opted for the thin variety, as recommended on the menu, and they were perfectly cooked. The pork belly char siu was tender with a good balance of fatty and lean meat, and the broth was rich with the umami of pork bones. Overall, it was a solid dish. I’d rate it 7/10, though personally, I prefer my char siu with about 70% lean meat and 30% fat.

Deluxe Yuzu Shio Ramen: Again, we went with the thin noodles, and they were consistent with the first dish. The pork belly char siu had the same texture as in the tonkotsu ramen. The broth, however, was a bit overwhelming. The first sip was refreshing, with the yuzu and ginger giving it a nice, clean flavor – exactly what I was hoping for. But after a few more bites, the saltiness became way too intense. The balance between the flavors was lost due to the overpowering salt. It was a bit disappointing, to be honest.

Second Visit:

Hoping to see if there was any consistency in quality, we ordered the Standard Tonkotsu Ramen again along with the Shoyu Tonkotsu Ramen. We were curious to compare the two tonkotsu-based dishes and see if the Shoyu version had the same overpowering saltiness as the Yuzu Shio.

Unfortunately, this time we were quite disappointed.

Standard Tonkotsu Ramen: The pork belly char siu was again mostly fatty, with very little lean meat, which I found unbalanced compared to the first visit. The ramen itself was fine, but the excessive fat in the pork was not enjoyable.

Shoyu Tonkotsu Ramen: The broth was similar to the Yuzu Shio Ramen, but with a stronger soy aroma. At first, it was okay, but the saltiness quickly became overwhelming again. The Yuzu and ginger in the previous dish were replaced with the Shoyu base, which was nice at first, but the saltiness was still too much. The difference was mainly in the flavor profile – Shoyu had more soy, and Yuzu had a citrusy kick, but neither were balanced enough.

Final Thoughts:

As a first-time ramen explorer, I can’t compare these dishes to authentic Japanese ramen, so I’m unsure if the saltiness is typical in Japan or if it's been adjusted to local tastes here in Malaysia. If the salt levels were toned down to a more balanced level, I would have rated both dishes a solid 10/10.

It’s really unfortunate because both ramen dishes had great potential but were ruined by the over-the-top saltiness. If you're someone who enjoys extremely salty ramen, this might be perfect for you. However, if you prefer a more balanced flavor, you might want to reconsider.

Overall rating: 6/10 – Would love to return if the saltiness...

I seldom go for Japanese ramen in my food choices. In fact, ramen is my least fave Japanese dish after natto. It's always very salty and oily. So when I saw a lot of buzz surrounding Menya Appare, I decided to give it a try as I don't remember the last time I had one.

Ishiyaki Gyokai Tsukemen Half Size Half Size refers to the amount of ramen. You can also choose the thickness and to whether have it served hot or cold. This option comes with two strips of char siew hanging on to a bowl of boiling hot pork based gravy. As the gravy was served in a bowl that retained its temperature, it was still relatively warm but the time I was done with the ramen. The first few mouthfuls were good as I love the firm and chewy texture of the thick ramen. The thick and flavorful sauce latched onto the ramen easily. The char siew strips tasted familiar with no unwanted surprises. Towards the end though, the layer of oil in the gravy has started to show. Saturated fats are good but not in excess so I transferred most of it to another bowl (see last picture). This ramen dish is served with a pot of hot broth for you to pour into the leftover gravy to savour it in soup form. Obviously the gravy was salty enough for that.

Toripaitan Tsukemen Half Size This is everything that I have described above except that its the chicken version served with one whole chicken leg.

Toripaitan (Ramen Soup Version) Same as above but a soupy ramen. I do like its full flavored chicken flavour soup. I believe the chicken leg was grilled as it had that smoky flavor with its charred spots.

Karaage Mayo Each piece of this fried chicken is large, crispy outside but succulent and juicy inside. Again, another familiar taste with no unwanted surprises.

Gyoza Mentai Mayo This was quite average to me. I prefer the version by Manjoe that has a stronger mentaiko flavor.

Japanese ramen is still too salty and oily to me. But I would not hesitate to have that Toripaitan Ramen if I ever pay this ramen restaurant another visit. There's no stopping its popularity as the tables were quickly filled up minutes after it opened at 11 am...

Visited on a weekday lunchtime and it was quite crowded. There was a queue outside and had to wait about 15 minutes to get a seat. I was fast considering I was alone and there was a counter seat avaliable so I sort of managed to jump the queue for a few groups ahead of me. I didn't really know about this place initially, but when I did a search on "best tsukemen in KL" and this place did pop up a couple of times and in some IG posts as well, so decided to give it a try. Strange as I looked around before I ordered, seems like most people were eating the normal ramen instead of the tsukemen. But I still went ahead to order the tsukemen, gyozas and the deep fried chicken. The tsukemen was served and it looked rather impressive, but was kinda surprised to see the soup had extra ingredients on top and the colour looked different from typical tsukemen soups. The sides also came a while later but I decided to finish the noodles first before having the sides. I really had high expectations for the tsukemen but it really wasn't the "best" I had imagined. I can only say it tasted average, the soup was okay but it tasted very "earthy" doesn't have much of a meat taste in it, where ironically there were 2 pieces of meat jutting out from the soup bowl. The gyozas were very nicely presented on an upside down manner. I flipped over and saw that they were actually quite big. The skin was thin and the filling was quite generous but the filling was a little dry. On the other hand, the deep fried chicken was so tasty. It was still very hot after leaving it aside for a while but it maintained it's crunchiness and it was so tender and juicy there was literally liquid squirting out from the fried chicken. Initially I saw the price of the meal after ordering I thought the price was rather reasonable, but when I went to the cashier to make payment I got a shock because the price I saw online while ordering didn't include tax so there was like 20RM additional for the taxes. The experience dining here left me hanging actually, not knowing whether it was good and whether I should return back...