Good morning! Happy weekend, again! I just finished cleaning some stuff and I'm ready to sleep. Brother said he's visiting early later and I also have to do laundry. Hopefully, I get some energy from two hours sleep. Lol.
Anyway, the cool weather makes me want to slurp some ramen but I'm trying to be careful with my expenses right now because I've been spending so much lately and would still continue in the upcoming weeks. Ahhh! So I'll just reminisce the last time I was able to eat at my favorite ramen restaurant.
Before traveling, I plan where to eat months or weeks ahead. I rarely travel so when I do, I make sure to make my trip worthwhile. One of it is eating again at my most favorite ramen restaurant yet—Ramen Nagi.
I was supposed to eat here during the concert day but I met other fans and ate at a different restaurant. I ended up going the next day before I went home.
The last time I ate at Ramen Nagi was still back in 2018 in Baguio City and I will never forget how delicious the Butao King was. That's why I was really determined to go back at Ramen Nagi and have another bowl of ramen.
After going to the Sensory Garden, I went down and looked for the restaurant. I stood behind the lady at the waiting area until a staff went outside to assist us.
"Table for one", I told the staff. I felt intimidated uttering these words and I practiced it in my head a few times, but finally saying it felt like I gained a new sense of confidence. This is my first time dining alone at a restaurant away from home.
I was also lucky that there were only few customers when I came. There was only minimal noise which I liked.
The staff led me to my table located a bit on the corner and handed me this two menu books, one from Ramen Nagi and one from Akimitsu Tendon. These two restaurant partnered on select locations and one of them is at Gateway 2. Unfortunately, I'm dining solo and I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to eat up all my foods if I ordered some on Akimitsu. The staff also reminded me that we can't take out the dine-in foods.
Finally, I was given this small paper where I have to encircle my preference of ramen. You can also customize your ramen by choosing what type of noodle you want and how much of each ingredient would you like your ramen to have. People on social media would jokingly compare it to taking a school test and complain why they have to do it when all they want was to eat ramen.
I handed the paper to the staff and I was surprised when she drew a huge 'X' over my answers. I felt like a student who failed the examination. Lmao! Apparently, you can only adjust the spiciness and type of noodle if you choose the Limited King ramen. It's my first time ordering a limited king ramen so I'm unaware of such things.
While waiting for the foods, I used the time to fill out the hotel raffle tickets. I wasn't able to take photos of the restaurant's interior because I was busy with the tickets. Lol The foods were served in just a few minutes.
Apart from the regular ramen options, Ramen Nagi has their Limited King which varies every month. Last October, their Limited King was Gyu King-premium angus beef short ribs in tonkotsu broth with beef oil, bamboo shoots, leeks, gyu sauce, and hand-made noodles.
I was curious of how beef short ribs would taste in a ramen, thus, I ordered it. As you can see on the photo, the meat is cooked to medium-rare. It looks uncooked, I know. Lol.
The meat is good and easy to chew and the soup was also rich and a bit spicy. Although it tastes delicious, I think the Butao ramen was still better. The butao tastes simpler but better.
There were also condiments on the table which you can add to the ramen. I only added sesame seeds. There's also a service water which I totally forgot about. If only I have known then I didn't order a drink. I could've saved more than a hundred peso. Yikes! I ordered a black tea drink with mixed berries. I was only able to consume half and brought home the bottle.
I also ordered three pieces of gyoza just because I want to compare it with the dumplings I'm making at home. Well, what can I say, I still need to improve on making dumplings. Ramen Nagi's dumplings were soft and the meat was juicy. I wonder how they keep it juicy.
And since I failed to visit a matcha cafe, I ordered a matcha ice cream at Ramen Nagi instead. I'm not the best food critique but as far as my tastebuds remember, Ramen Nagi's matcha ice cream tasted just right, though I think Dohtonburi's matcha ice cream tasted better.
You know, I spent an hour eating and even though I spent that much time, I wasn't able to eat all of the ramen's soup. I'm afraid that drinking the soup would fill my bladder quickly and it's not good when I travel back home because travel time is 6 hours. I felt a little embarrassed that maybe the staff would thought I didn't like the ramen or maybe I was wasting food. I ate all the noodles, meat, and vegetables though.
Total amount I've spent here was more or less Php 1,200 including the service charge. Dang, if I just add about a few peso I could eat at Viking's instead which was just across Ramen Nagi. Lol. Anyway, I was craving for a Ramen Nagi ramen so it was still worth it.
I wish I could go back again someday at Araneta City because there's still a lot of restaurants I wanted to try. Any food recommendations in Araneta?
