Ramen Nagi

We finally got to try Ramen Nagi which is hailed as the best tasting ramen in Manila. Popularly known as Butao in Hong Kong, this award winning establishment finally opened in Manila early this year and now has two branches in SM Aura and SM Mall of Asia. We visited their branch in SM Aura with Kim's friends.

The restaurant's interior is best described as an updated ramen bar with the usual wood furnishing and colorful and quirky displays on the walls and above each table. As with most ramen bars, you can't rearrange the tables and chairs to your preference. So that means you might have to dine and rub elbows (figuratively and literally) with someone you don't know which might be an issue to some. But with ramen this good, you probably won't mind.

They only serve ramen here. There are no rice meals, no gyozas, no dumplings. To order, they give you this sheet of paper called the Omotenashi Sheet where you can specify your ramen to your liking. There are 5 kinds of ramen that they serve: Butao, Black King, Red King, Green King and the Limited King which varies from time to time. During our visit, the Limited King was Ebi King. First, you need to select your ramen. Then, you tick off the following items on how you'd want your ramen to be.


You can see how we ordered ours:

Kim ordered the Limited King, which is the Ebi King. 410php.

Kim selected the pork belly to go with her rich soup base along with green onions. She had her noodles Extra Hard (some people might get the wrong idea of having "hard noodles," but this was just really firm in texture). She also had an extra order of Tamago or boiled egg (50php). Since this was our first time in Ramen Nagi, she just got the level 1 Spicy of the firesauce as suggested. Kim loved this since she loves shrimps, and this had a real, nice shrimpy flavor and aroma. The serving was a little much more than she could handle though.


I ordered the Black King. 410php.

Black King ramen gets it flavor from garlic and squid ink, which explains the black soup. This might not look like the prettiest thing to eat but it was really good. I liked how the subtle garlic flavor provided a nice kick to every spoonful. But since I had my soup base just Normal, it might vary for those who'd want a rich garlic flavor to their Black King. And just like Kim, I also ordered Tamago for my ramen.

We're not really ramen experts, and we haven't eaten a wide range of ramen in different ramen bars to say that this was the best we've had. But both bowls we ordered were really good! Although it's a little pricey, most ramen places are pricey anyway. We were a little surprised that's there no other menu item aside from the ramen, because we usually order gyoza or some chicken karaage to go with our bowls.

We suggest that for those who plan on visiting Ramen Nagi to arrive earlier than normal dining hours (lunch and dinner), as lines can get crazy. And no, they don't take any reservations. Also, make sure to mix your soup before eating to completely mix the firesauce with the soup base. I found this out the hard way as I took a spoonful of firesauce.

Ramen Nagi
5th Floor SM Aura Premier
McKinley Parkway, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
https://www.facebook.com/RamenNagiManila