茶悟拉麵

Foodholic Nako @ Taipei

"Cha Wu Ramen" is a ramen shop that uses tea in its broth, located in the Zhongshan Station area, which is a hot zone for ramen places in Taipei. Nearby, there are famous spots like Ghost Gold Stick, Kirin, Tian Ji Noodle House, Pool Sound, etc., and many new ramen shops have recently opened.

"Cha Wu Ramen" is also one of the new openings in the past two months. The queue system is very friendly; you just need to fill out a registration form, so you can line up even if not everyone in your group has arrived.

The ramen menu is quite simple, offering only three types of noodles, each using a different tea-based broth: Earl Grey, Hojicha, and Oolong tea. As a fan of food with various tea flavors, I was thrilled to see this menu; the names are great, and I wanted to try all of them.

The ramen noodles are only thin noodles, but you can adjust the firmness (hard/normal/soft). We all chose hard this time, but it felt more like the normal texture from other ramen shops?

You can get extra noodles for free, which is great news for big eaters, but you need to request this when ordering, as you can't add them halfway through your meal.

Hojicha Chicken White Broth - $290
Contents include: 2 pieces of chicken chashu, 1 piece of pork chashu, 2 wontons, half a soft-boiled egg, purple onion, and green onions. The broth looks very rich, but it actually tastes quite mild, like drinking salty hojicha. I didn't quite figure it out even after finishing the whole bowl, but a friend said it tastes like corn chowder. Maybe it's the hojicha combined with chicken white broth that gives it a creamy flavor!

The shop also provides a plum, which you can add halfway through, resulting in a slight change in the broth, but I didn't find it significantly beneficial. The chicken chashu has a strong tea flavor that bursts when you bite into it, and the meat quality is good, but I prefer the pork chashu – it's not too thick or too thin and has a wonderful aroma from being grilled; one piece just isn't enough! The wontons are average.

I strongly recommend enjoying it with green onion and purple onion to balance the richness!

Shan Chen Oolong Soy Sauce Clear Broth - $280
Contents include: 2 pieces of chicken chashu, 2 pieces of cherry duck breast, 2 wontons, half a soft-boiled egg, mushrooms, perilla leaves, purple onion, and green onion. Personally, I felt the broth had a herbal taste for some reason—maybe this is a chemical reaction of oolong tea and soy sauce? Overall, I didn't like it much and stopped after a few sips.

The cherry duck breast was standard, nothing particularly stunning, and the other ingredients were the same as the first bowl.

Comparing these two bowls, I preferred the Hojicha Chicken White Broth, but honestly, they were probably at 70 points and 60 points respectively. Neither was exceptionally delicious or a ramen that I'd want to have again together.

Cha Wu Chashu Rice - $70
This dish features a mix of chicken and pork chashu, grilled and drizzled with mayonnaise and soy sauce, which is quite indulgent and tastes great. However, I feel the rice cooking can be improved, as some parts were a bit hard; it might also be because there wasn't enough soy sauce drizzle, making the bottom layer slightly dry.

Overall, the meal performance was average, but since it's close to home and the queue system is friendly, I would be willing to visit again to try another type of noodle I haven't had yet.