Wednesday, 23 January 2008

• Ramen X one

  Hep Five
  5-15 Kakuda-cho, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan
  http://www.livehep.com/about/index2.asp

  Osaka is Japan's second largest city with about 19 million people.  We didn't get a chance to see much of the city since we were staying in Kyoto and only in Osaka for a day.  But here we find ourselves exiting a subway to a mall:

  

  It's really busy in every major city in Japan.

  One of the largest malls in Osaka is Hankyu Entertainment Park (HEP).  In the main lobby of the mall you're greeted by a pair of whales hanging from the ceiling above:

  

  These huge whales don't really make the mall look exciting or beautiful to me.

  The mall also features a huge ferris wheel:

  

  It was raining really hard so no one paid to go on until the rain died down in the afternoon.

  One of the random restaurants at the top floor we chose to eat at, Ramen X one:

  

  Here you can see what the dishes look like before ordering them.  Unlike restaurants in North America, these models are pretty accurate to what you really get.

  

  Caesar-like Salad:

  

  Really light but very fresh.  For $6, this dish was expensive.

  Pork Ramen:

  

  It's a mixture of pork broth and cream.  I will filled but the noodles weren't nearly as fresh and pork broth not rich as as those from Ramen Japan Mutekiya.  There were only 2 slices of pork.  For $7, the price was reasonable for what you get.

  The whole menu was in Japanese so we all went to the front of the restaurant with the waitress to point at the dishes we wanted.  The restaurant is staffed with young girls with lots of make up (compared to North America - they look like they're going for a photo shoot).  The service was nice and polite like every other restaurant in Japan.  Food quality was alright but didn't stand out.  The prices were a tad on the high side but if you factor in tax and tips are included in the cost, it's a decent price for food.  Nothing really drew me to come back here so I don't recommend it if you're in Japan on vacation.

  Eric Tummy Points: 2.5 out of 5

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