Folks, we finally jumped on the Butato bandwagon.  It happened when we were strolling along Tang Lung Street,  (scoping out the new restaurants) and noticed there wasn’t much of a line up outside of Butato (豚王). I’ve heard that the queues are no longer horrendous, but I didn’t believe it until I saw it. We waited 5 minutes only, and got ourselves a table (well, a shared table).

 Butao Ramen

 Red King

 Marinated Japanese Egg (A ramen must)

Some Extra Pork Belly

 Preserved Vegetables

I loved how Butao lets you customize your entire bowl of ramen:

Soup base:  degree of richness, amount of infused oil and garlic
Toppings: choice of pork belly or pork butt, spring onions and cabbage
Spicy Sauce: select the spicy level
Ramen: type and texture

I ordered the Red King and hubby had the Butao, and I think he secretly wished he had ordered mine. I could see how envious he was when I broke apart my “ball” of minced pork and gave him a sample taste.

We both ordered the pork butt and shared some extra pork belly.  Both cuts of the char chiu were perfectly prepared, but I recommend the pork belly.  After taking a sip of the soup base,  I understood what the Butao fuss was all about ~ it had everything to do with the rich and intoxicatedly flavorful broth.

Ramen is never complete for me without an oozing Japanese soft-boiled egg, and the one I had a Buato was as good as it gets.

At the end of the meal, I asked hubby to rate Buato against Ramen Jo (see older post here).  We both agreed that we preferred the soup base of Buato and the ramen and char siu of Jo’s more.  But, don’t get me wrong, we both enjoyed Buato very much and already planned on going back (given the wait time is reasonable)!

Lunch Total: $253 (2 persons)
Address: 40 Tang Lung Street, Causeway Bay / Tel:  2893 3190
Website: http://www.butaoramen.com

The Bill
Buato Ramen ….$83
Red King Ramen ….$93
Extra Pork Belly ….$17
Marinated Japanese Egg ….$17×2
Coke ….$13 x 2
Preserved Vegetables ….free