Ramen Nagi Butao 豚王: Black King, Red King & Green King Ramen in Manila!

Source: Our Awesone Planet

RAMEN NAGI'S BUTAO 豚王 Ramen is hailed as the BEST Ramen in Hong Kong by most foodies. It was established by Ramen Master Chef Ikuta Satoshi in Shibuya, Tokyo in 2006. It's a young, authentic and very creative ramen house which is easy to find by just following the long queues.

They have RAMEN NAGI branches in Shibuya, Nishi Shinjuku1F, and Kogame in Tokyo. In Hong Kong, they are popularly known as BUTAO with branches in Central, Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui. They opened international franchises in Taipei, Jakarta, Indonesia and soon in Manila. (There's no branch in Singapore.)

Recently, BUTAO held its first Pop-up Store to test and introduce the first ever bowls of Butao King (traditional pork-bone soup), Black King (Butao broth with squid ink), Red King (spicy miso-based soup) and Green King(Japanese-Italian fusion: olive oil, basil and cheese) in Manila.

Our foodie friend Jin Perez of Jin Loves to Eat blog said, "There are too many ramen shops sprouting left and right in Hong Kong, but Butao Ramen remains to be my favorite."

The Pop-up Ramen Nagi Butao store was held for one day at Selah Bistro and Coffee Bar at Robinson’s Cybergate.

The first ever Butao ramen bowls in Manila were served here. 

It was a by-invitation-only affair with friends, mall business partners and some bloggers attending.

BUTAO Ramen is the traditional tonkotsu ramen with a milky rich pork soup. It got its name from BUTA which means pork and O means King, so Pork King.

The soup was rich and really good with thin noodles and the right egg. Since they had limited time to prepare for the pop-up, they used Philippine pork which is a bit thick and tough.

Richie of the Pickiest Eater in the World loves Butao among all the ramens we tasted that day.

BLACK KING. My wife and I both agreed that our favorite is the squid ink ramen known as the Black King. It has finely-chopped squid, rich black soup with lots of garlic.

It reminds you of eating black ink spaghetti with yummy soup and egg.

RED KING. This is the chili ramen version with a smooth hotness that does not stay on your mouth. I love it and it was a pleasure eating it without getting tired of the taste.

CURRY KING. This was really good too but I felt a bit weird eating curry with pasta. The curry is best paired with rice, and curry lovers rave about this ramen.

Thank you to Roxanne of Plains and Prints, who brought the Butao franchise here in Manila, for the Butao ramen feasts :)

The winner for us is the Black King and this is something that foodies would rave about in Manila.

Before we go, Ramen Master Chef Ikuta decided to serve us a special ramen bowl of Ebi King and the famousGreen King ramen of Butao.

Ebi King, the shrimp-based ramen, was a bit salty for us. But the Japanese loved this type of Ramen.

GREEN KING. This is one of the most innovative ramens I've ever tasted. And it's quite unique because it is Italian-inspired with basil, olive oil and yes -- cheese!

It's like eating pesto pasta with soup and putting cheese on top of your ramen works!

It was great to see Michael Lim of Fashion Pulis fame with Ramen Master Chef Ikuta during the Butao Pop-up :)

Overall, we love the Black King, Red King and most specially Green King. If you think you have tasted all the ramen flavors in Manila, wait until you get a taste of Butao! I love the creativity of the chef, and the unique ramen combinations.

I'm excited for Butao to open in Manila because they have the most extensive and unique condiments that you can add on with your ramen. I wonder how much each ramen bowl would cost...

We can't wait for RAMEN NAGI BUTAO 豚王 to open in Manila!

RAMEN NAGI BUTAO
5/F SM Aura Premier, McKinley Parkway McKinley Hill, Taguig (Beside Yabu)
Soon to open in October at SM Aura, and the second store at SM Mall of Asia.