More than just 'kei': Keisuke Lobster King Ramen
The Keisuke brand has always approached ramen uniquely: from Tori King ramen to Gyoza King ramen, Keisuke Takeda – founder of Ramen Keisuke – has time and again brandished his skillful hand at creating unusual ramen concepts. This time, it’s with Ramen Keisuke Lobster King.
Just slightly over a month old, KLK is a 12-minute walk from LKSCB, with its restaurant gracing the banks of nearby Clarke Quay. You’ll be covered for dinner or, if you’re mugging through the night, a 4am supper because this place is open from 6pm-5am.
The Experience
Not surprisingly, the queue for dinner begins at around 5.30pm so when we joined the queue at 6pm, it took about half an hour before we (a table of four) were seated.
The dinner queue forms early so either download 'Charades' on your phone or bring a book
The interior is of course modeled after a typical Japanese ramen shop, complete with bar style seats, shutter awnings and plenty of wood accents all around. And with the staff yelling “Irasshaimase!” (Japanese for “Welcome, please come in!”) every few minutes, the experience is pretty authentic.
The menu offers a barrage of ramen options and side dishes but the main ones are Lobster Broth Ramen with Clear Soup ($13.90); Lobster Broth Ramen with Rich Soup ($14.90); Miso Lobster Broth Ramen ($14.90); Spicy Miso Lobster Broth Ramen ($15.90). Each bowl comes with juicy chicken char siew, a prawn wonton and a slice of pork belly – making it totally worth the price!
I love me anything spicy so I naturally gravitated towards the Spicy Miso Lobster Broth bowl. We also ordered a side dish - the Beef Tataki ($9.80). It was lightly seared, served with julienned onions, and a lemon wedge that added a refreshing taste to the dish and accompanying soy sauce.
Our ramens arrived within 15 minutes – which we spent helping ourselves to the free flow of boiled eggs, heh. My first spoonful of soup was satisfying: it was well seasoned and tasted like rich lobster bisque with miso mixed in. It was a full-bodied soup and the noodles were pleasantly chewy. It was strange to see a wanton floating with ramen but it complimented the soup very well and it helped that the prawn (in the wanton) was fresh.
Towards the end, the richness of the soup did start to get to me though, because it got too cloying (or gelat as we say in Singlish). KLK's generous toppings do rival the heavy soup so wolf down all the other goodies in your bowl before you become too stuffed!
Final Thoughts:
4/5 - If you’re a fan of prawn mee, the lobster broth bowls will not disappoint because they are practically established royal relatives of our local prawn noods at Keisuke Lobster King. The only con is having to wait in line for at least half an hour for a hearty bowl soup and noodles.