Every Tsukemen restaurant I've come across in Hong Kong always has a line snaking around the perimeter of the premises and so far, none have really impressed me... Until now.
Fuunmaru opened earlier this year, along with ramen sibling Tsuta a little later afterwards and when I walked past both establishments at around 1pm, Fuunmaru had it's consistent queue while Tsuta's once before line of a 30 minute wait had disappeared - And it's no surprise why. Inside is quite a large space, about 50 people with a mix of solo seating and group seating tables. It's one of those places where you have to tick what you want on an order sheet and when I saw the front page was only in Chinese I suddenly panicked. Luckily there's English on the back - Phew! I ordered their most popular soup, the fish soup with 200g of cold noodles and an extra bowl of rice. The soup arrived bubbling hot in a clay pot bowl with two bamboo shoots, a big slab of pork and a egg resting on a bed of noodles in another bowl. When I dipped the noodles in the soup and started slurping, it was packed full of flavour. It had the peppery taste of Tonkotsu with a slight undertone of fish which complemented well and did not taste overwhelmingly fishy. The noodles were firm, had a good bounce and were thick enough to slurp! The egg came whole with a slight break in middle so you could see the silky yolk bursting to ooze out while the bamboo shoots were nothing to rave about. The pork came as one large thick slab rather than 3 small slices like they usually do and it was charred on the outside to perfection, giving it a chargrilled flavour while the meat just fell apart and the fat melted in my mouth. Once I was finished with my noodles, I dumped the rice into the remainder of the soup mixed with shredded seaweed and fried onion. The rice completely soaked up the soup, leaving not a single drop left. Too often I have tried drinking the leftover soup and even after diluting it with water, it still ends up being too salty or overpowering. But this was a perfect addition to the meal as I love rice with soup (think Korean tofu soup with rice) and it's a great way of not leaving anything to waste.
This is hands down the best Tsukemen I've had! Don't bother waiting in line for places like Mitaseimenjo and Shugetsu when you have Fuunmaru. Also look out for when you dine between 11am-1pm and 3pm-5pm, it's 10% off one bowl, 20% off two bowls and 30% off three bowls. Also look to get there early to beat the queues, otherwise you might be left hungry for a while before you get finally slurping! read more