Maruten Ramen (Dominion Road, Auckland, New Zealand)

The last time I had Maruten Ramen is when they were still at Mercury Plaza, since then I never knew where they moved to until one day when we were at Westfield St Luke’s Shopping Centre and was craving for some Ramen. After searching online what’s the nearest ramen shop near us with good reviews Maruten Ramen showed up and I got excited.

Located in Dominion Road, it was less than 2 kms away. We arrived there for dinner and luckily it was not that busy. As we sat and gave our orders, people start arriving, in just a few minutes the place was packed and with only the one waitress, service was still excellent, from order taking to serving our food, what’s even better, nothing was delayed.

Maruten Ramen is popular with its homemade noodles where you have an option of having it as a thick curly ones or thin straight ones, the thick ones take a bit of time and we were told it can be around 10 minutes or more. For our ramen orders we opted for this thick one but with a good service we got ours in less than that 10-minute disclaimer.

As we wait for our ramen, we started with some Deep-Fried Squid (NZ$12.00) and Okonomiyaki (NZ$12.00). The fried squid was good, standard taste that you get from most restaurants that serve a similar dish.

Now for the Okonomiyaki, I was quite disappointed at first since I never expected it to look like that, perfectly round and quite dark, first expectation based on the looks it that this thing might not taste good but lo and behold, it was the best Okonomiyaki I tried to date!!! I love its texture, I am not sure if it’s a traditional one or a variety but I had tasted Okonomiyaki before and this was quite different in texture, it felt like I am eating a flat version of Takoyaki. It was soft on the insides, crisp of the edges, slightly creamy feel with hints of seafood and that sauce with the mayo was amazing, if you are looking for Takoyaki and is not satisfied with its small amount then you need to try this, it literally is a large flat Takoyaki for me, so good.

Even before we start to eat our Okonomiyaki, the ramens started to arrive. We grabbed three varieties first was the Tonkotsu Ramen (NZ$15.00), homemade original ramen served on a pork flavoured soup with sliced pork, green vege, spring onion, bamboo shoot, dried sea weed.

Second was the Tonkotsu Shoyu Ramen (NZ$15.00), homemade original ramen served on a pork and soy flavoured soup with noodle, sliced pork, green vege, spring onion, bamboo shoot, dried sea weed. And lastly the Shoyu Butter Corn Ramen (NZ$21.80), homemade original ramen served on a soy sauce flavoured soup with butter, corn, sliced pork, green vege, spring onion, bamboo shoot and dried seaweed.

The ramen I remembered was not as good as this, it was already good before but their taste had elevated even further, the Tonkotsu broth was really rich and it was really enjoyable. Noodles were cooked perfectly, not soft but not too hard too, enough bite like and al dente pasta. The Shoyu Butter Corn Ramen on the other hand was my first time as I usually order Tonkotsu before, this one was not our favourite, not that it was bad but the goodness of that Tonkotsu overpowered the shoyu ramen.

Overall, we were quite happy, nice food, nice service, reasonable prices and it’s in a better location now. What more can you ask for.

Maruten Ramen
Address: 466 Dominion Road, Mount Eden, Auckland 1024, New Zealand
Phone: +649 214 8504
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marutenramen