It’s been a while since we’ve had ramen — and for good reason: ramen is best done in moderation. All those carbs and oils and fatty pork can’t be good for you on a daily basis. Having said that, we thought it was high time to check out another ramen joint, this time at SM Megamall — which is a bit out of the way for us.

Kichitora is different from other joints we’ve tried so far based on one thing: instead of pork, their prime ingredient is chicken. Okay, so you might think, “What’s so unusual about that — chicken mami is a Filipino staple!”. Well to the Japanese it is, as ramen is mostly made with pork stock and topped with pork slices. To some people who shy away from the fatty goodness of pork, Kichitora’s chicken ramen is a great option.

      

The noodles themselves are okay — not exceptional, but not terrible either (think Chinese egg noodles terrible — that’s mami hun not ramen). The soup itself is okay — flavorful enough considering that it’s made with chicken and not pork. Personally, it did not agree with me since I found it too oily and and too salty. It was good for the first few slurps, but as I went through the bowl I began to like it less and less.

That aside, I can forgive the store for serving ramen not to my liking; maybe it’s just not my cup of tea and would be brilliant to somebody else. However, what I could not overlook was the terrible service we’ve had during our visit. The wait staff kept screaming out orders to the kitchen for “The VIP Table”, and bumping off orders from regular diners like us. One of our dishes was even diverted to the VIPs even if we ordered ahead of them, just because they ordered the same thing and they were at “The VIP Table” while we were clearly not.

After an additional fifteen minutes of waiting for our errant order and listening to more “Send this to the VIPs!” and “This is a VIP order please hurry it up!”, our last bit of food finally arrived. It was obviously underdone and clearly rushed to our table without consideration on how it looked like and tasted like. So we just drowned it in dipping sauce, asked for our bill, paid the exact amount, and left without another word.

Would I eat there again? I’m not sure. I guess if one of my friends did and said they would spring for dinner I wouldn’t say no. However, if it were up to me, I’d save my hard-earned money for places like Santouka or Mitsuyado that served ramen to my liking, as well as valued my dining experience as much as they did the dining experience of their erstwhile “VIPs”.