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This one is long overdue (two weeks to be exact). On my last day at work with my previous employer, I took my colleagues (those who were not already on Chinese New Year holiday) out to lunch at Ramen Ton Chan Japanese Restaurant. The place is located on the first floor of Wisma Cosway in KL. The place was pretty crowded when we arrived and we had to wait awhile for them to seat the seven of us.

We got a window seat overlooking the road runnin behind Wisma Cosway towards Wisma UOA. The seven of us squeezed together in a space meant to seat six. The funny thing is that four big guys got one side of the table while another guy and two girls got the other side. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just a little cozy.

The nice lady at the counter came to wait on us as we studied the menu. It took us a while (it took me 10 minutes!) to decide on what each of us wanted. At the end, it was two Hoikoro sets (pork with leek and a raw egg on top), three kanitama sets (fried egg with crab meat in sweet sour sauce), one stamina set (odd name this. Its actually stir fried pork with vegetables), and one special set for me.

Each set consists of a main dish served with a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, some yellow pickled vegetable, vegetable salad, cold tofu, and fruits. There’s also a free flow of green tea.

The special set (mine!) was different from the standard set in that the soup is replaced with a large bowl of ramen (Japanese [stretched] noodles) with four choices of soup AND a scoop of ice cream. The waitress suggested ramen in miso soup and I went with it. For the special set, you can choose from a choice of eight main courses. I can’t remember the name of my main course but it was basically Japanese stewed pork in sweet soya sauce.

One thing special about this place is that it has a large collection of comics and magazines that you can read while you wait. On top of that, there are two televisions hooked up with Sony Playstations. The ambience of the restaurant is also perfect for conversation. I don’t know what it is about Japanese restaurants but people tend to speak in quieter tones when dining in one. So go head to head with a friend on the Playstations, read a Japanese comic, or simply chit chat while you wait, the choice is yours.

As I mentioned earlier, the place was pretty busy while we were there and they were short on staff. As such, it took a while for them to serve us our tea, and longer still for our food to arrive. But arrive it did. By that time, we were all starved so we dug in without much ceremony.

I don’t know about the others but I enjoyed my meal tremendously. My Japanese stewed pork turned out to be a sweet version of the Chinese Kau Yok. The stewed meat was very tender and soft with just the right combination of fat and lean meat that melted in your mouth. The gravy was like sweetened barbeque sauce, which complemented the meat.

I had initially thought that they would give me a small bowl of ramen, since the set also came with rice. However, the bowl turned out to be a very big one. The noodles were nice and springy while the soup was perfect, full of flavour, and not spiked with MSG. I wolfed down the meal with some difficulty. It might be a little too much for one person to handle, since I was quite full after finishing the last of the porkl. I think the special set would be ideal to share between two persons with maybe an extra bowl of rice.

The best, however, was still to come. I had nearly forgotten about my scoop of ice cream. It took a few minutes to get the waitress’ attention. She brought me my ice cream in a cup straight from the freezer. The cup was still frosted over and had ice chips underneath. I was hoping for green tea flavoured ice cream but it turned out to be strawberry instead. But still, it was nice and freezing cold. YUM!

For the seven of us, the meal set me back RM136.85 inclusive of 5% govt tax and 10% service tax. That averages out to a little under RM20.00 per person, subject to what you order.

A great meal for me. I definitely recommend the place for its atmosphere and the food. I also recommend that you order the special set instead of the normal one. The ramen and ice cream is definitely worth the additional cost. Two thumbs up!

Ramen Ton Chan
Lot 1.18 - 1.21, 1st Floor,
Wisma Cosway,
Jalan Raja Chulan,
50200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel (R): +603-2148 9389 (R is for restaurant)
Tel (O): +603-2144 3152 (O is for office)
Tel (F): +603-2144 6254 (F is for fax)

ROF is for Roll On Floor. This english lesson was brought to you by Boredworkers.com

Operation Hours: Lunch + Dinner (I think)