Hide-Chan @ The Loop, Central
Hide-Chan had received an amount of media attention prior to its opening... and because of this i couldn't help but have certain (not necessarily high) expectations for this ramen chain.
L and I arrived to find a mini queue to be seated even though there were clearly empty spaces inside. That was ok I thought, maybe they're just not used to crowds just yet. Soon enough, we were seated and gave in our form in which we specified our order: Two white hide (orig tonkatsu) ($75) with lean(er) char siu (thin pork loin), 'hard' noodles plus an additional soft-boiled egg for $10 ($5 for half of one).
L got particularly frustrated with the efficiency of serving of the noodles. Ramen joints, she says, are supposed to be speedy. Here, they took their time indeed, and our noodles came more than 15 minutes after being seated. Time issues I was willing to overlook...
Our bowls of white hide came with relatively thin wheat noodles, chopped wood-ear mushrooms, spring onions, char siu and our order of egg in a Kyushu-style (or so they call it) tonkatsu broth.
Rather than milky-white, the broth was rather dark.. grey almost, with a thin film of fat. Looks aside it had a very strong pork flavour to it, but not too salty or so strong that I couldn't drink, like my recent MSG/salt-laden version at Butao.
The noodles were floury white, though I could detect a fair amount of kansui like the ones at Yachiyo. They were slightly hard as they arrived but because of the thinness of the noodles they quickly soaked up the broth and about half way through they were officially soft. Not bad, but I prefer slightly thicker noodles - the ones here were thinner than Butao and Ippei-An which both serve the white floury type ramen.
The toppings were fair, but the amounts were relatively stingy. A bowl of ramen itself does not include any eggs, just a couple thin slices of char siu that was tender enough. Our added egg (well, half for L because they messed up her order) was perfectly cooked, albeit lacking the sweet and salty taste marinated eggs usually have on the outside.
We left very full, but not quite satisfied... our quest for the perfect bowl (in HK) will have to continue...
With time, I hope Hide-Chan improves because they seemed under-trained (if at all) for a ramen joint in terms of speed and service.
Food: ♥♥1/2
Service: ♥♥
Price: $$
19/F, Wellington Place
2-8 Wellington Street,
Central
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