Wrong Ramen: The Weirder, The Better

In a city with many great restaurants abound, how does one stand out? A restaurant needs imagination. It must shake things up a bit. While all other establishments take themselves too seriously, this one has the cojones to call itself Wrong Ramen.

I doubt I'll end up screaming in pure ecstasy, but the humor alone  made this look interesting enough to try.

Heading out one rainy day with friends for the usual Friday lunch-out, we decided to give this place a shot. The place seemed a bit tight, but they managed to fit the five of us at their center table. We were amused by the wit and sarcasm that continued to show on the inside.

Well then, let's see what these "idiots" are made of! I wish they DID have Cream of Mushroom Ramen...

We appreciated that the staff was warm and polite. Some restaurants seem to forget that this goes a long way in the enjoyment of one's meal. The playful atmosphere that manifested from the condiments to the menu also added to the experience.

A Salt in Battery. (get it?)

The menu was very interesting. Many of the selections were dishes you would not find elsewhere and some of them were uhm.. very interestingly named too (you'll see). We naturally started with the appetizers.

Enoki Mushroom Fries, P150.00

Fried enoki mushrooms. Enoki mushrooms are more familiar to us by the name "golden mushrooms" in Chinese cuisine. I, on the other hand, have always thought these were what they referred to as "straw mushrooms", which would make much more sense because they do look like straw! This dish sounded great but we didn't like it that much. The fried mushrooms were quite airy and it felt like all I could taste was the breading. The katsu ketchup it is served with helps, though. Katsu ketchup is a combination of ketchup and Tonkatsu sauce.

Bacon Katsu, P260.00

Bacon, cheese, wasabi sauce, breaded and fried, YUM. I don't even care about the alfalfa sprouts that top the katsu anymore. If I were to nitpick, the cheese was abundant but tasted a bit too much like quickmelt. Mozzarella would have done much better. The bacon wasn't very bacon-y in texture, its texture was more like that of ham. With a combination like that though, you'd have to try really hard to come up with something that isn't delicious. ...and this dish was very delicious. So much so that we were tempted to cancel all other orders and get four more Bacon Katsus! However, it would be wrong not to order ramen, wouldn't it?

F.U. Ramen, P425.00

F.U., ramen! Aptly named since this ramen is bursting with attitude. and oil, yes, oil too. This dish takes the concept of ramen and F's it up (in a good way) with bacon, spam, cheese, and a sunny side up. The broth was mildly salty and very peppery. It really did taste like breakfast in a bowl. This is something some adventurous eaters would enjoy trying. It was fun to eat, messy and weird and I loved it for being so.

Wrong Ramen Tantanmen, P395.00

Chashu (barbecued pork) and ground pork on noodles with a delightfully nutty and creamy, spicy, sesame broth. We really liked this one, too. I remarked that if I could have it done, I would take F.U. ramen with this tantanmen broth instead. I imagine that would be absolutely delicious.

Wrong Ramen Rich Tonkotsu, P385.00

The title of this dish sounds like a martial arts action film. This is the more standard type of ramen. This was good, but wasn't as interesting as the first two. We noticed that it had a strong clam taste despite being described as having creamy chicken broth. The only ramen on the menu that had seafood was the "Sea Men Ramen" (you read that right) so we were curious and asked. They explained that there was a mix-up in the kitchen. I found it amusing that quite poetically, we were served the wrong ramen at Wrong Ramen. They were very nice about it though. They kept apologizing and took this off our bill. We were totally fine with it and we were just glad that no one's allergic!

There were two things we really wanted to try but weren't able to. 

- Poop of the Gods. This nastily named dessert is Belgian chocolate with sea salt and olive oil. It doesn't sound too appetizing but chocolate with olive oil is just too interesting to pass up. It was disappointingly out of stock. Perhaps it was too early in the day for Zeus to perform his divine business on his "other" throne.

- Buffalo Chicken Tsukemen. I read about this from a blog post prior to visiting and with chicken karaage (fried chicken), a buffalo soup base, and bits of blue cheese, this dish looked like the king of strange! I noticed it wasn't on the menu and asked about it. Unfortunately, they said that this dish has been discontinued. Sad. Very sad. 

Verdict: 

Enoki Mushroom Fries: Average

Bacon Katsu: Great

F.U. Ramen: Good

Wrong Ramen Tantanmen: Good

Wrong Ramen Rich Tonkotsu: Average (though with the soup mix-up, this is likely not credible)

I love the humor of this restaurant as much as I enjoy the "most wrong" of their dishes. I hope they build on that strength of theirs and come up with more innovation. For the ramen bowls specifically, we believe they could do to lower the prices significantly. P400++ is quite heavy on the wallet for an average-sized serving of ramen, especially if their ramen isn't supposed to be "authentic" at all. The rest of the menu seems to be priced much more fairly, anyway.

Love Wrong Ramen? Hate it? Let me know what you think about anything by commenting below, and you can always tweet me!

- Joaquin

WRONG RAMEN
Burgos Circle, Forbes Town Center, Forbestown Rd,

Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
(02) 823-8249

Operating Hours:

11:00 am - 2:00 pm

6:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Facebook: Wrong Ramen


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