G2 Ramen — Restaurant in Da'an District

鶏二拉麺 is one of my favorite ramen places in Taipei at the moment. Their menu is split into normal meal times and afternoon. For lunch and dinner, they serve shoyu and shio chicken ramen. In the afternoon (2:30-5:00), they serve two variations of chicken paitan ramen. Despite the variations in each bowl, they all use a superb rich chicken broth. Each flavor is unique, but all have a solid foundation of chicken flavor.

For lunch time, they have 3 different sizes. The sizes are split into "small small", "small", and "large" sizes. The "small small" is the most normal size that most people should order. The "small" size is twice the size of the "small small" and should only be ordered by people who have big appetites. The "large" size is over twice the size of the "small" size and should only be ordered by trained competitive eaters (seriously, its massive). You can choose between thin and thick noodles. The thin noodles are a normal thinness while the thick noodles are thicker than udon and are quite chewy. You can customize the toughness of the noodles as well as the saltiness or richness of the soup.

Their shoyu ramen is their signature dish, consisting of a rich chicken soup, in-house noodles, a heap of beansprouts and lettuce, topped with a big scoop of raw garlic drizzled with soy sauce, pork seabura, pork chashu, and a half a ramen egg. The soup is very harmonious; the shoyu and chicken broth combine to form a unique flavor that tastes different then either on their own. It's rich yet easy to drink. The bite of the raw garlic contrasts nicely with the rich soup. Chunks of seasoned seabura (pork back fat) integrate nicely with each bite, adding extra richness to beansprouts and noodles. The chashu isn't my favorite in Taipei, but it isn't bad either.

Their shio ramen is a purer flavor of their chicken broth, consisting of a rich chicken soup, in-house noodles, a heap of beansprouts and lettuce, topped with flakes of katsuobushi, finely chopped green onion, seabura, pork chashu, and half a ramen egg. Mixing the katsuobushi with the soup creates a subtle sea flavor. The soup itself is quite pure in taste although it isn't as rich and oily as chicken paitan. This shio ramen is quite good; if it weren't for the large serving size, it's actually quite light.

Their afternoon menu has two items, with only one size and one type of noodle. You can customize the chewiness and the saltiness of the soup.

The "shrimp sauce" paitan is the more complex flavor, consisting of a rich chicken broth drizzled with an aromatic shrimp oil, in-house noodles, a generous amount of shredded green onion with a tiny shrimp perched on top, cool chopped onion, two pieces of raw lettuce, 3 slices of chicken chashu, half a ramen egg, and a slice of lime on the side. The lime works well with the shrimp oil and the soup. The acidity plays well with the richness of the soup, and the shrimp oil makes it hard to get tired of the flavor. Squeezing the lime onto the ramen egg also creates a weirdly good flavor. The shredded green onion combines into each slurp of noodle, adding a fresh bite to the rich soup. The chicken chashu has an herbal taste with lemon/lime. I felt it didn't work as well in the "wild vegetable" flavor, but it was nice when combined with the shrimp oil.

The "wild vegetable" paitan (picture) is the purer flavor, consisting of a rich chicken broth with a deep yellow color drizzled with chicken oil, in-house noodles, a generous amount of shredded and chopped green onion, baby corn, asparagus, cherry tomato, chicken chashu, half a ramen egg and a small scoop of tomato miso on the side. The green onion gives a fresh bite to each slurp. Mixing the miso with the soup and the noodles cuts through richness while adding a nice miso flavor, but it doesn't change the taste as much as the lime and the shrimp oil in the "shrimp sauce" flavor.

Overall, 鶏二拉麺 is very good, with nice variation among the flavors it serves. You can't go wrong with any flavor, but the shrimp sauce paitan is my favorite....

Super rich, flavorful chicken+pork broth. Make no mistake, even the salt flavor is heavy; you can even see chunks of fat floating around in the broth. The "small" bowl at 189NT feels bigger than most standard bowls you'd get in the USA. The thicker, dense 粗麵/cūmiàn also add to the heft. Pork is a nice roast with a peppery outside, although with more fat than I could chew, while the egg has a noticeable taste of wine as part of its marinade. There are raw diced onions as well, but you can submerge them in the hot broth if raw is too strong. Thankfully no menma (bamboo). All is good in this world.

First you line up outside, then when you get a chance to go in, a person will give you an overview of order options and step you through it, prompting you for how to customize it. After paying the vending machine, he'll give your order stub to the kitchen, while you have a seat off to the side until they tell you where you can actually sit as your order gets queued up and prepped. (I inadvertently rudely made the mistake of choosing a seat first, sorry!) They might also occasionally ask someone or a pair to move seats or slide on down in the middle of your meal so they can seat bigger groups, which I have no qualms about for such a small popular shop. Definitely will come back to try...

This ramen shop embodies the Jirolian style. Since it was my ramen challenge day and I had already eaten a bowl of ramen earlier, I opted for the “小小雞鹽味拉麵” here. One thoughtful aspect of this place is that they offer three different portion sizes. Even though I chose the smallest portion, I found it to be more than sufficient—not just because I had already eaten a bowl of ramen earlier. True to the Jirolian style, the ramen includes a generous amount of bean sprouts and noodles. The char siu pork is thick and well-seasoned with black pepper. Overall, it’s a decent ramen shop, but what stands out is the affordability. At just 200 NTD, this delicious bowl of ramen offers great value for money. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys Jirolian...