Hide-Chan Ramen

Last weekend I was in Central and wanted to see how ridiculous the queue was for Butao Ramen, the small ramen shop with less than two dozen seats on Wo On Lane in Lan Kwai Fong. I've long decided that I will wait until the hype is over to try it than waste a morning lining up. It was already 1pm and the line still looked like it was about 2hrs long. Butao closes after selling 200 bowls of ramen, so I was wondering if all those people at the end of the line actually thought they had a chance to eat a bowl of ramen that day.

Not to despair! Hide-Chan Ramen (serving Kyushu style ramen) just opened on Wellington Street and the line was only about 15 minutes. One of the servers came out every now and then to make sure the people in line had menus to look at and gave out an order form with clipboard and pencil so you can decide what you want to eat while in line.

Hide-Chan's menu

The order form - available in Chinese and English

A view from the noodle bar

While the noodles might be the heart of a bowl of ramen, the soup is definitely the soul. When it comes to the soup, my rule of thumb is to choose the most basic soup base. That way, you can taste the actual soup without interference from add-ins like miso or soy sauce. There were three choices of soup at Hide-Chan: White Hide (the basic pork bone soup), Black Hide (soup + special soy sauce), and Red Hide (soup + special spicy sauce). You also get to choose the texture of your noodles and whether you want your roast pork to be from the shoulder or belly. For additional $$, you can add extra anything to make a unique bowl of noodles. 

They also have tsukemen (mixed noodles, noodles and dipping sauce served separate) if you're not in the mood for something soupy, and gyoza with a choice of mayo (cheese, green onion, or tarako). The gyoza would probably be nice to share with a friend, but they run out of gyoza quick! The couple next to me wanted to order them but they were already sold out.


My choice: White Hide, medium textured noodles (al dente), roast pork shoulder, +$10 for a whole soft-boiled egg.

White Hide Ramen

The soup was thick, white and creamy, perhaps even a bit too thick, as if they reduced the soup a bit too much. I read somewhere that they simmer 120kg of pork bones for 400 bowls of soup for a whole day. If you're not one for intense flavors, this place is definitely not for you. The soup was borderline salty for me (probably because it's so concentrated). I'm glad I didn't choose the Black Hide because that would be even saltier!

The noodles were cooked just right. I think if you chose soft noodles they might be a bit mushy, since the noodles are on the thin side. Even though I ordered the roast pork shoulder (the less fatty option), the meat was still very delicate and not dry at all. You can also order a plate of roast pork, which they torch just before serving to give it a little bit of a char.

Soft boiled egg

I think the egg was a bit disappointing because for a soft boiled egg I was expecting the center to be slightly runny, like the eggs at Wakayama. I cut the egg open right after my first bite of noodles so I know it wasn't because I let the egg sit in the hot soup for too long.

Done!!

For about $80 a bowl of ramen and a shorter wait time, Hide-Chan is worth trying if you're in the Central area. Note that I waited about 15 minutes on a Sunday afternoon at around 2pm, so the wait could potentially be much longer.

Like: customizable ramen, roast pork
Dislike: egg, soup base might have been too concentrated


Any other ramen places worth trying? I still have plans for Mist and Ippei-An - stay tuned!

Hide-Chan Ramen

Upper Ground Floor, The Loop, 33 Wellington Street, Central , 2522-5990  
http://www.hide-chan.hk/eng/index.html