Kureji: Sizzling Stone-Pot Ramen

Kureji’s first branch in the Metro is located in the Japanese wing of Vertis North. Since competition for diners can be a bit tight in the area, the restaurant enlists the aid of its colorful mascots to draw people’s attention every now and then. This quirkiness extends to the upbeat service provided by their extremely friendly staff who’d always greet diners with genuinely sincere smiles.

GYOZA (P200)

Don’t dare miss out on their Gyoza! These perfectly crafted potstickers are wonderfully buttered and packed with tasty filling; and boast of thin crisp wrappers that are simply divine.

TOMATO SEAFOOD (P420)

Its runaway best seller is the Tomato Seafood sizzling ramen. I had my hesitations about this dish since I couldn’t really make out how exactly it would taste, but my mom and I just decided to trust our server and go with his recommendation. Since it is sizzling, the restaurant serves unlimited rounds of its soup (as it tends to dry up quickly). You’d be grateful for this since its broth is one of the tastiest but cleanest ramen broths I’ve ever tasted. The tanginess of the tomato is perfectly balanced by the saltiness of the seafood essence present in the bowl. A word of warning, this gets really addictive! This definitely ranks as one of my favorite ramen bowls in the country!

GYUDON (P350)

Apart from sizzling ramen bowls, Kureji also offers a couple of rice bowl alternatives. One of which is the Gyudon. Thin juicy sukiyaki beef strips and mushrooms are lightly coated in a sweet dashi, mirin and soy sauce mixture and served with a hefty serving of rice. Unfortunately, the beef and sauce dried up relatively quickly with the heat; which made the beef tough and bland to eat midway through the meal. To cure this, I believe that the restaurant needs to adopt the same concept of the Tomato Seafood’s soup refills by going around giving Gyudon sauce refills.

TANTANMEN (P420)

If you’re not into the sizzling stone pot concepts, they do have classic ramen choices such as the Tantanmen. Unfortunately, the broth was bland and failed to have any character to it. I love that the noodles were firm and had a nice chewy bite to them; but it became a chore to eat through this dish. It failed to deliver on the heat, and it failed to deliver on flavor. To make it more bearable to eat, I decided to mix in spoonfuls of the tomato seafood broth just to give the bowl a much needed flavor booster.

Kureji

4F Japan Town, Ayala Malls Vertis North, Quezon City

Dates of Visit: July 7 and 14, 2018 with Lily Chua and Jem Chua