Sarukame — Restaurant in Seoul

A very good bowl of ramen from a restaurant that has been on my list a long time but it was always closed but I made sure to get there early today.

I ordered the 카메라멘 and a bowl of 원숭이밥.

I waited in anticipation as the chef got to preparing my bowl of deliciousness with the home made ramen being put in to boil. Whilst the noodles are cooking away he heats up the bowl with a blow torch and adds all the components to the ramen. There is a soy sauce based broth with delicious and salty salty chashu that is layed over the edges of the bowl and then it is all topped with thinly sliced green onion, bamboo shoots and egg. To finish off they season the chashu and give it a quick heat with the blow torch and we were ready to eat.

What always impresses me is when a restaurant make their own ramen noodles and you can see at the other end of the restaurant they have their equipment to make their noodles. The noodles were a nice and chewey delight that had a good consistency to them and took on the flavour of the broth. The broth itself was light and not too over powering of salty with soy flavour and really brought together all the components of the dish. The egg was well made and when I pierced through the egg white I was welcomed by a golden gooey middle that I mixed in to add an extra creaminess to the dish.

The chashu was well seasoned and had a nice salty taste to it. The meat was very soft and tender and was something that I could have eaten a load more of just on its own. This was a wonderful bowl of ramen noodles with great ingredients used to create a wonderful noodle eating experience.

The 원숭이밥 was also a very tasty treat as it had nice char grilled pieces of pork added on top of the rice and that left a smokey and flavourful taste.

A bowl of noodles...

It was a pity that by the time our queue number was called, their popular crab & clam ramen is already sold out. Thus, the hubs ordered the clam ramen with mini clam don. My boy ordered a clam ramen only. As for me, I got myself a clear anchovy ramen. The mini clam don comes with an onsen egg on top. You mix the onsen egg with the clams and rice, giving you a balanced taste or all items blend together. By the hubs is just not a fan of onsen egg🤷‍♀️. The clam ramen is similar to that of the crab & clam ramen, just without the crab. Still very delicious with slices of chashu and clams. But I've got to say, the best dish of all these is the clear anchovy ramen. The clean and unassuming umami anchovy soup base allows you to taste all the goodness. Highly recommend that you try their ramen over the donburi. If you can get your hands on the crab & clam ramen, that should be your 1st choice, otherwise the clear anchovy ramen...

The place is small and will get crowded FAST, it's almost always packed. You do have to queue up on the tablet in front of the store with your phone number on catch table, no reservations. Not sure if you can do it without a number, I haven't tried.

Once your number is up, you'll go in and order on the kiosk and pay. Then you'll have to wait for an available seat with usually takes about 10-20 minutes after. There's only a few options for ramen at 15,000won average and they all come with a donburi rice bowl.

The soup is very light but rich not like your usually creamy Tonkotsu broth. The cuts of meat is not as fat as usual but noodles were well made. The egg was SLIGHTLY overcooked but not as issue at all. Overall I would say the Michelin recommended rating is well deserved. Great bowl is noodles not too mention the rice was pretty darn...