Butao Ramen

I got a seat before the lunch crowd queue. I ordered the signature dish, and it had rich broth, slices of pork belly and the beautifully cooked soft boiled egg which was so enjoyable to eat.
I requested that the noodles be thick and I still got thin ones — did I do something wrong? Are there thicker noodles that I’m not aware of?
The broth had depth and I was happy to finally get a decent bowl of ramen in HK.
I was fascinated with the squid ink bowl that my neighbor was eating and I am determined to try that bowl next time.
Service was quick and turnover is fast, so you don’t have to wait too long to get a bowl of steaming hot ramen on a chilly day.

This is it. for me the best ramen place I’ve been to so far. I’ve tried 5 other places in San Francisco area so far but this is it. At each one I try and compare the miso broth.
We had the spicy red and the green pesto which was unusual to see on the menu but was wonderful nonetheless.
Both broths were not too salty and had just the right flavor for us. I loved their sheet where you can customize your ramen. If I’m ever back in Hong Kong, I’ll be back to try the other flavors.

This turned out to be a relatively disappointing place. The soup base was quite salty… so salty that I could not finish the soup. In my opinion, the soup base is one of the most important part of a good ramen. The noodles themselves were ok; nothing to write home about.

Butao is up there with some of the best ramen have had in Hk. Even though it’s a chain, I felt like the branch is causeway bay is slightly better but I love the spicy ramen. I personally always order gyoza with my ramen, so was slightly disappointed that butao don’t have gyoza on their menu.

delicious, and open late! you can customize your ramen very specifically, down to how hard or soft you want your noodles. The portion sizes are big but not sickening. I got the standard butao king — rich and filling. since we were there late, I guess they wanted us to leave quickly, so we were asked to pay the check before we finished eating. i’m also writing this review right now to distract myself from the sound of a baby shrieking itself hoarse on my flight.

I don’t know if it’s because I wasn’t feeling too well to begin with, but I was very disappointed with Butao sadly.
I came here after hearing that it was a great ramen spot that was better than Ichiran (personal fave in Hong Kong). I ordered the Big Red (Spicy) Ramen, and my friend ordered the Black King (Squid Ink) Ramen. Their marinated soft-​boiled egg, which I added on, was amazing. I’m a huge sucker for soft-​boiled eggs, and it was heavenly.
The broth and ramen, however, made me feel rather nauseous. I think the broth was too fatty and too oily for my stomach to handle, and it ended up being something I couldn’t even finish. I really wanted to like Butao, but I have to admit that unfortunately it didn’t sit well with my stomach.
If your stomach isn’t sensitive to oil and fattier broths, you might want to try it out. But personally, Butao wasn’t for me.
Also, they only accept cash.

Omgosh the best ramen I’ve ever had!!! You order by completing a sheet of paper with lots of options to customise your ramen. There is:
Butao ramen — the original. Tonkatsu pork broth.
Black king — garlic and squid ink broth.
Green king — cheese pesto broth (not so sure about this one!)
Red king — spicy broth.
Also options for how hard /​soft you would like your ramen, accompaniments etc.
I loved the thick, flavoursome broth, perfectly cooked ramen and accompaniments. My only criticisms would be 1) the rim of fat around the pork was a lot bigger than in other restaurants and 2) the ramen is probably not good for my general wellbeing!
I’ve tried all but the Green King ramen (sounds a bit too adventurous for me) and was very impressed. Since then, I’ve become a bit of a ramen addict on a quest to find ramen that will top Butao but have not found anything. Ippudo is my favourite — but I prefer Butao!
Restaurant is small and seating is cramped, it is a place where you have your food and leave straight away rather than lounging around.
If you’re having trouble finding it, it’s the restaurant with the queues outside!

The. Best. Ramen. Ever.
Butao is the bar I hold when I judge ramen. No, not Ippudo, Butao.
I had both the Red King and Black King ramen. The flavors! The complexity! The joyful medley in your mouth!
Plan on getting to Butao 10 min before it opens, because there will be a line. Worth every minute of waiting.

When I think of Ramen, I think of Butao. Since moving to HK, I’ve started dreaming of this place and I’m trying to consciously stop myself from coming too often… there are more Ramen places to try, or so I tell myself.
It’s quite packed because of all the hype, but totally worth it. They serve 300 bowls of ramen a day, so try to come early (I’ve had the pork sell out on me a few times). When you come, they give you a menu, asking to select your base, thickness of taste, oil sauce, garlic, pork, veggie, noodle texture, etc etc… basically it’s VERY CUSTOMIZED and sometimes even overwhelming. I typically select the option for them to choose for me… BUT ALWAYS ADD AN EGG. IT’S A MUST.
The single biggest decision you’ll make each time is which base do you want — original (tonkotsu pork bone broth), green (Italian inspired with cheese, pesto, and basil), black (tonkatsu squid ink), or red (spicy miso broth). They will also have ‘limited kings’ — basically experiments they’ll do to mix it up a bit. I usually go for these or the original flavor… although I have to say they’re ALL amazing.
There are times when I think about ordering two bowls. I’VE LEARNED THIS IS A MISTAKE. You will get WAY TOO FULL. Although I can typically eat 1.5 bowls out of pure gluttony.
Notes on finding this place: It’s kinda hard to see where it’s located — take the MTR to Causeway Bay, exit A, go through the shady alley near the Rolex sign and you’ll see it on the left hand side.
Another note: Don’t make it too spicy if it’s your first time — you’ll want to drink ALL OF THAT BROTH!!! SO GOOD.

Some of the best ramen I’ve had since visiting Japan. Everything served there is the absolute best quality.
Staff is super friendly and willing to work with you. They let our party sit at different tables to begin with and then switch to one when it opened up. On weekends and Friday nights there will be a line to get in but that just proves how awesome this place is.
I got some squid ink ramen bowl and I highly recommend it if you have some authentic ramen experience. I will totally remember this place and come back there if I’m ever in the neighborhood.

My favorite food lately is «Ramen» haha, before i seldom went to Noodle places but lately I found some that are very good, highly recommend this «Butao Ramen».
I ordered «Black King» as it looked interesting and very special — it’s squid ink and cuttlefish sauce mixed with pork and its covers the whole bowl in a kind of black puddle. It tasted really good, really sweet and the broth is rich.
My friend ordered the «Butao King» which is the original version and a strong pork bone broth. For Ramen, I feel the most important part is the texture — it should not be too soft but this ramen was great and quite firm. We love that half boiled egg too, it was soft and the egg yolk keep bursting out after I bit it — yeah I like to bite this egg, but is up to you if you wan to mix it into the broth or not.
Overall it was a nice dinner, it had a traditional Japanese feel, we enjoyed the feeling of satisfaction was immense as we were still talking about the ramen even after we’d finished the meal. It was so good that we will not forget it quickly, may be we will go again very soon! Lovely ramen!

This is the second time back having this amazing ramen. And thanks to Unilocal updates with the correct address or I will not know it got relocated a street down.
My favorite, well it was so good that I ordered the same flavour, is the squid ink ramen. Very generous on the squid ink and even the minced meat are inked ;) the sugared yoke egg is also a must order to go with any ramen! It’s perfectly cooked on the egg white yet creamy runny yolk inside. It was so savory and satisfying.
I have to say the broth is a bit on the greasy side, just heavyweight for a pork base soup. So for someone that doesn’t like the pork flavor can order light soup base. I like it plenty on whatever they are making.
*note: they won’t seat you unless your full party is arrived. They got a pretty small seating area and usually with a line. So have your Asian time friend be on time ;)

I had the red spicy broth they have an scale of spicy (hot) levels from 1 to 10. I asked for level 4 and it was the right level for me. I typically get the highest level in the US.
You can also select the tenderness of the noodles from very hard to very soft.
My friend had the green broth and it was equally delicious.
Nice portion at a moderated price. I don’t think they have any vegetarian friendly options since everything had pork.
Limited beverages but they do have Sapporo beer for &33HK. I didn’t see any hot tea available either.
I will definitely come back.

I’ve had plenty of ramen in my life but nothing compares to what you can get at Butao. In recent years they have expanded, with a few branches all over HK. I’ve tried the Causeway location, and the food is the same there, but I think the Central location gives the best experience. The Central location has actually relocated around the block not too long ago but remains pretty similar.
The Central location is tiny (just a handful of small tables) and probably has the longest line. The good thing is that they let you fill out your form so that by the time you sit down, your food will be almost complete. They have forms in English too if you need those. Another good thing is that they provide tea to people waiting outside.
You can choose from their base broth (tonkotsu), or for an addition $ 10 HKD you can choose one of the «king» broths. The black one uses squid ink, the red one has spicy miso, and the green one I believe uses pesto and cheese. I personally prefer the black one and the standard one. After that, you can choose how to customize your bowl, such as how much noodle texture, flavor content, amount of oil, and add-​ons. I like to add an egg to mine.
You will have to wait quite a while (my first visit took 90 minutes of waiting during peak lunch hour). They only serve a certain number of bowls each day too, and they close when they sell all of those. If you want to avoid the line, you can gamble and try to show up around 3, when they’re close to running out of bowls. We showed around 3 once and only had to wait around 10 minutes, but were close to hitting the cutoff.

It was ok. Had the house base with a hint of spicy. Extra pork belly and an egg. The pork belly was not cooked or hot… the broth wasn’t hot enough to cook the extra meat. The egg was impressively made. The egg was hard boiled, but still had the yolk wet. I’m not a fan of the yolk being wet since it pretty much mixed in with the broth. The egg didn’t cook either since it wasn’t hot enough. The plus side was that the broth was tasty. Friendly staff too. They had a sedans grinder which was neat and from the bar, you could watch the chefs work the noodles.

We were walking through the street to locate a lunch place and noticed this small interesting joint. Glad we picked this place as it was packed after 30 mins and there was a huge line waiting to get in. As we found out that this place was rated one of the best ramen places in Hong Kong.
When ordering, you will be given to build you own ramen selection on their list. It can be fun but confusing since you don’t know what to order. However the wait stuff were extremely helpful and they can guide you along.
The ramen I ordered was a light spicy broth with skinny ramen noodle with pork belly. The noodle texture was firm and the broth was extremely tasty. If you love ramen as much as I do, this is definitely a place to try while you are in Hong Kong island.

We were hanging with some locals and dinner time rolled around. We let the locals lead and ended up here. So glad we did.
There was a line, and you fill out an order form while standing outside on the sidewalk, so that there’s no time wasted looking at the options once you occupy a valuable seat inside (as with most places, seating was limited).
You can either check a series of boxes to make the ramen you want, or simply check the «Let chef decide» box and be done.
Option wise, it’d be hard to be disappointed, so many options, I loved mine. I’d go spicier next time, but that’s always hard to know the first time you try something.
Apparently there’s always a line, and with a group it’s not terrible, you can talk and such to kill the time. I don’t know how often (If i lived there) I’d want to wait in a line for soup.

It was kind of hard to find but pay attention, look around the street and you’ll find it.
Black King ramen was squid ink broth, which was salty and fishy, but they did not skimp on the squid ink! Even the ground meat was covered in squid ink! This was a really good ramen, even if I did feel kinda thirsty afterwards. The noodles were Chinese rather than the Japanese ramen, which was ok, but it would really be better if they had the latter! The pork belly was so fat and thinly cut though, oh my gosh.
You could add pickled radishes and veggies from little jars on your table (one was spicy and the other was very salty)– both were delicious. You share that as well as any more spicy seasoning and communal water.
My bf got the Red King and it wasn’t as spicy as he thought it would be, and it is more chili oil than actual chili powder. His soup was salty as well.
I quite like this place for its novelty ramen. If you know what you like, you can also customize your ramen!

Quite the wait.
We waited for half an hour at night time. I ordered the Big Red, which consists of spicy soup and ramen. I usually pick the hardest ramen because it won’t be as mushy when I am half way through the bowl.
The soup is very rich, heavy and creamy. If you like this kind of ramen then you should stop by. I have heard the one in Causeway Bay is much better than this one, but after hearing the hype of this I would like to give it a shot.
I am not too surprised about this place because it is overrated. I have seen many people line up during the lunch hours in the hot, humid climate trying to slurp on some ramen. Does it hold up to the hype? I don’t know, you tell me.
The prices are reasonable; around $ 100 HKD per bowl.

This Ramen shop ALWAYS has a queue. I was curious, so I queued up!
(beware– mosquito bites while you’re waiting in line) We waited for about 30 minutes. So, don’t let my 3 stars fool you. This place is good! The ramen broth is tasty and heavy. You can control the spicy-​ness of your broth as well.
But, for me, I wouldn’t go out of my way for this place again. Theres many other places in HK that have Ramen that tastes the same but for a cheaper price.
But, if you’re in Central and are really craving for RAMEN, this is the SPOT! CHEERS!
It’s about 100HKD per bowl.

If you are looking for good ramen, this is THE place to be. It has moved to a new location for a few months but the number of diners coming here seems to be growing by days. With that, you will be expected to wait outside under the bright sun for about half an hour. That being said, it only means that you need to be more patient to try this; and let me tell you — it is totally worth it.
There are normally four types of ramen and one special one. The first one called Butao King is the original one with really strong flavored pork broth; The Red King for spice lover who can take red miso; Black King with black squad ink soup and last but definitely not the least — the Green King that has cheese in it. The special one that I tried last week I forgot the exact name but it was made of fish broth.
My friend and I ordered the original one and the special one respectively. The Butao King is as high-​quality as you would have expected so I will just skip that; the special one that I had turned out to be quite disappointing. Even before I ordered, I already asked my friend if that would taste like the «home style stock» from Knorr and I regret to tell you that it did taste like it. The ingredients like the pork were very nicely made but it was the broth that killed everything. It was REALLY salty and together with the salty fish there, they just did not mix well. I felt like consuming loads of MSG and I had to pay more for drinks. My friend of course finished the soup but I honestly could not. Anyways, I still do love this place and I recommend you guys go for the four typical ones; the fish one? Uh-​huh.
(Notice that this place will close as soon as all the noodles are sold-​out.)