For years, Soi Thonglor has had all sorts of eateries to suit everyone's taste and budget.
Its Soi 13, in particular, is known for Japanese restaurants. Some of these serve traditional fare such as sushi, sashimi and your standard tonkatsu, tempura and grilled eel on rice, while others serve traditional shabu, sukiyaki and udon and ramen noodles. But what makes these restaurants different is that they have to maintain exceptionally high standards of quality and taste because most of their customers come from Japan. The Sagano Ramen Cafe, which opened about three months ago, is a great example – it’s totally devoted to ramen. The secret of a good bowl of ramen is in the quality of the noodles, how the chef cooks them and the broth. The quality of the raw materials should also be good. So, in order to appreciate a really good bowl of ramen, you need to eat it as soon as it comes out of the kitchen – piping hot. At Sagano they serve ramen with three different kinds of broth. I can’t say which sort of broth is my favourite, but the first bowl I tasted was ramen with shoyu broth – a brown, fragrant, soy-based broth. It wasn’t too salty and tasted perfectly balanced with lean slices of pork belly and boiled egg. Needless to say I gobbled it all up while it was still steaming hot. The second bowl I tried was the miso broth – also not too salty but with a pleasant fragrance. It was so good that I invited my mother to join in. However, much to my surprise, she opted for something completely different – cold ramen. She also went for the fried chicken with lime, gyoza and stir-fried ground pork and tofu served over rice. Mind you, she had to share all these dishes because the servings was fairly large. The restaurant also offers pork rib broth, which has more body and is the richest of all the others offered. For those of you familiar with Thai noodles, it can be compared to guaytiew nam tok, which has blood in the broth to make it richer. But this richness in taste doesn’t mean it has to be too spicy or sour – it needs proper balance. The restaurant also offers Japanese salads, which are served crispy and chilled with typical sesame dressing. There is only one dessert that the restaurant owners are very proud of – banana choco-moji. I liked it, but I preferred their ramen a whole lot more. That’s why I advise you all to stop off at Sagano for a light lunch or go there after a night of heavy drinking. I, for one, will be making a beeline for Sagano after my next late night out. The restaurant is on the right hand side of Thonglor Soi 13 and there’s ample parking at the back of the building.
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