Why You Should Visit Nomama Ramen

No, not for their ramen.  I know it’s called “Nomama Artisanal RAMEN,” but I give them more credit than stating the obvious.  Sure, I also tried them little bowls of goodness, but it’s the other stuff that makes the place special.

Nomama is one of the first¹ restaurants to promote local and organic ingredients and free-range poultry and pork.  They supposedly boast 0 MSG and the organic movement apparently makes their dishes taste better.

I do suggest getting the Prix Fixe Menu (P575.00 or $12.75).  It’s a 3-course set with your choice of greeneries or raw composition², a choice of ramen, and a Kit Kat Bar dessert.  The serving is a bit down-sized, but the appetizers are worth a try³.

Do get the Tuna and Avocado (P295).  It’s sushi grade tuna loin with avocado, ponzu, and mizuna leaf.  It’s awesome and really clean flavors.

The Beef Tataki with Chips is one of their signature appetizers.  Their version of beef tartare is made with Kitayama Wagyu sirloin, hand-chopped with roasted garlic, and sweet potato chips.  It’s not bad, but not the greatest thing in the world either.  I’m a beef person, but I prefer the tuna over this.

If you’re a Nomama virgin, go for the house’s signature ramen, the Nomama Ramen. It’s made with house pork stock, special miso-sesame blend and comes with chasu and tamago.  The sesame and miso are a bit too pungent for me, but mom loves this.  Ramen bowls can usually become quite salty and overly savory in taste — but not this bowl.  Solid argument for their “0 MSG” claim.

I always go for the Thai Green Curry Ramen. It comes with seared chicken fillet, bok choy, and peas with the broth made with a green curry paste and coconut milk.

This bowl is different from other ramen bowls,  for obvious reasons, and is one of the reasons I like this so much.  It tastes like your Thai green curry, but actually better than most Thai *koff*Nav*koff* restaurants out there.

They offer Piso Ramen offers from time to time.  It’s pretty straight forward.  1 Peso for 1 bowl of ramen.

For dessert, try the Kit Kat Bar.  It’s made with home-made peanut butter and chocolate bar with raspberry jam and isn’t bad at all.  A bit sweet, but not too bad.

I prefer the Flourless Chocolate Cake with Miso Salted Caramel, but tasted more like just chocolate (without the caramel) but a bit cleaner.

 

The best meal I’ve had in Nomama was off the Deal Grocer⁴ coupon.  We got the Kitayama Wagyu Steak and Teppanyaki Special for 3 for P1,910.00 (or $42.45) but worth quite a bit more.  We had a taste of the different menu items that didn’t end with “ramen.”

We started off with the same Beef Tataki with Chips (see above) and a Beef Curry Rib Gyoza.  I wasn’t a big fan of the beef gyoza.  They braised a short rib for this and I found it to be a bit on the sweet side and was a little stringy and dry.  The skin was too thick as well.

I don’t like mushrooms so I didn’t care much for the Milky Mushroom Steak.  They serve it with Japanese mustard, roasted garlic miso paste and Kikkoman caramel.  To be fair, my mushroom-eating companions loved this dish.

The Ribeye Teppanyaki with Tendon, flavored with miso butter, was just fucking awesome.  Can you spell “smooth” or “melt-in-your-mouth,” with U-M-A-M-I?  I guess not, but it somehow should.  This dish is why we all love beef so much⁵.

But if there’s one dish that I would have over and over again, it has to be the Soy Prawn Teppanyaki with Uni Cream.   They cook those little crustaceans in soy, sake, mirin, roasted garlic and serve it with uni and prawn bisque.  I just wet my pants.

The set finishes with the Nomama Dessert Plate, a trio of samples of the Flourless Chocolate Cake with Miso Caramel (see above), Lychee Panacotta, and a Home-made Gelato with Sesame Tuille and Kaffir Lime Syrup.

The Lychee Panacotta was OK, but nothing special.  It’s clean, but the flavor comes more from the lychee piece than the panacotta itself.  Better than the one I had over at Malcolm’s.

The Home-made Gelato with Sesame Tuille and Kaffir Lime Syrup was more like vanilla with a dash of lime syrup.  It’s solid, but not great.  At some point, the acidity became too much for me, but I can’t complain.

If you’re looking for a solid ramen place, especially if you’re in the Quezon City area, there aren’t very many places better than Nomama.  You cannot go wrong with their ramen.  But the place is a lot more than that.  They’re a tad more expensive, but go for the entrees in the menu.  Clean flavors, quality ingredients, they take the effort to plate the dishes properly and they do it really, really well.

The service is very good… at least the manager’s was.  The staff are OK, but the managers don’t need a pen and paper to take (and remember) your orders, divide the senior citizen discounts properly, refill your water, or even wipe your ass.  I made that last part up jeje.

If you still have doubts why you should visit Nomama, I’ll say it again: Soy Prawn Teppanyaki with Uni Cream⁶.