Yet To Name Ramen: Orchard Plaza’s viral S$15 fish-broth ramen with sashimi-grade fish
Orchard Plaza has basically become the de facto destination for Japanese food nowadays — we’ve been seeing new places popping up, with many of them attracting a lot of hype on social media.
One of the biggest openings of the past few months at Orchard Plaza has undoubtedly been Yet To Name Ramen.
Well, it’ll probably continue not being named any time soon, as the current incarnation is a three-month pop-up concept running until the end of July.
When it first opened, Yet To Name Ramen was a queue magnet, with lines building up even before it opened for the day.
Part of the reason was the credentials of the team behind it, which includes Hirofumi Imamura, the former chef-owner of Imamura, a now-defunct kappo (a type of omakase-style dining that offers a mix of cooked and raw dishes) restaurant in Sentosa.
Another factor was the limited availability. The small pop-up ramen bar has a mere 10 seats, and serves only 50 bowls of ramen a day.
The staff did inform us that the limit has been increased to 90 bowls a day now, though.
Maybe this increase in supply is behind why there was no queue when we visited Yet To Name Ramen on a Monday, right before lunch time.
Singapore’s best fish ramen?
Once we were shown to our seats in Yet To Name Ramen, the kitchen team immediately began preparing two bowls, without us having to say anything.
The reason is simple: Yet To Name Ramen only has one ramen on its menu.
To be precise, it has a weekly rotating selection of broth styles, but only serves one type of broth throughout that week.
During our visit, we were served hirame ramen (clear flounder broth with shoyu, S$15). The also-popular engawa ramen (thicker paitan-style broth made with flounder fin, S$15) wasn’t available – each broth is served every other week.
Yet To Name Ramen only serves fish-based broth — a business choice that is quite rare in Singapore, where thicker tonkotsu (pork bone) broths usually reign supreme.
When you receive your bowl of ramen, you’ll probably first notice its protein topping. Instead of the ubiquitous chashu, Yet To Name Ramen’s bowls are adorned with slices of sashimi-grade snapper.
While it previously served yuzu snapper, the team has decided to transition to using smoked snapper for the rest of its tenure.
The snapper is silky, with a touch of meat-like firmness and bounce from the smoking, while the taste is subtly buttery, though there is a whisper of fishiness
However, you can also allow the fish to cook a tad more in the piping-hot broth.
Although the fish topping was a nice touch, our main focus was still on the shoyu hirame broth, which was superbly crisp, elegant, and packed full of fish sweetness, harmoniously blended into its understated shoyu notes.
Essentially, Yet To Name Ramen has created a broth that, while clean-tasting, still contains plenty of depth and flavour.
At the same time, the pencil-thin hakata ramen noodles also arrived perfectly springy, and the broth clings snugly onto it, making each slurp so satisfying.
Yet To Name Ramen has also included an important finishing touch that would be easily mistaken as a routine garnish.
The unassuming bushel of microgreens daintily perched atop the noodles? Those are actually wasabina, and should be eaten with the noodles since the lightly floral and wasabi-like aroma beautifully complements the fish flavours.
Is it something we would return for?
Definitely. Especially given how there are now more bowls available each day, and lower demand for seats, it’s definitely a spot we’d revisit when we are hankering for a top-drawer, clean-broth ramen!
For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on the hot new opening with the sickest skyline view and the best spots in Singapore to indulge in hearty sandwiches.
Tue 10.30 am - 3 pm
Wed 10.30 am - 3 pm
Sat 10.30 am - 3 pm
Sun 10.30 am - 3 pm
- Somerset
Evan started off writing about food on Instagram, before joining outlets such as Buro and Confirm Good to pursue his passion. His best work usually comes after his first whisky shot in the morning.
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