Butao Ramen

My favorite ramen joint by far! I have tried the green ramen, the original ramen and black sesame oil ramen. But my personal favorite is the original one! The broth is thicker and creamier than the one in Ichiran ramen!(which is my second favorite) You gotta add the egg into your ramen and some spring onion too!

Finally get to check this place off my bookmarks!
I came around dinner time and of course there’s a queue outside. In the mean time, I customized my ramen to my taste.
I decided to go with the black king because it’s so hard to find squid ink ramen in LA. You can literally customize your garlic, spice, and oil levels for your ramen! You can even customize your softness of your noodles! WUT.
The place is small so get ready to rub elbows with a stranger and slurp noodles in each other’s ears.
I got my ramen in five minutes and on the table there’s sesame, pepper, and bean sprouts to add to your ramen as well!
I tried my broth and it was rich and almost had a creamy consistency. The noodles were cooked great and the egg was actually RUNNY!!! I was amazed.
FYI: the black King broth makes your teeth black while you’re eating it. So smile!

This is a little better than A-​OK in my book… I’m lucky to have some great Ramen places back in Los Angeles to compare with. The pork slices could be of better quality and the ramen noodle texture is not so great, broth is decent. Too many confusing choices on the menu. how about just make good ramen and let people add more garlic at the table… the place is small and the more I think about it it’s over rated… so I wish I could leave 3.5 stars but I will gift them the half a star to be nice ;-)

Good ramen place. I especially like the black octopus ink soup. All your standard ramen options and add ons. Noodles are well cooked and the soup is hot. It’s small and can get crowded during peak hours.

The ramen is well prepared and size is large but the taste and flavor is mediocre, not as good as Ippudo’s. I will not come again.

Be prepared to queue up! And when I say queue up during peak hours, you might have to literally line up across the street when they run out of room in front of the door!
The wait isn’t as excruiciatingly long as Ichiran but be prepared to wait for a bit.
When you are finally seated, you get a sheet to customize the ramen exactly the way you’d like it. Everything from the oil richness to the amount of garlic, spice, etc can be made to your liking. I recommend going for thin noodles and having the broth extra rich with sesame oil and spice. It’ll taste heavenly once you have the whole mixture of char siu, ramen and broth all being chewed simultaneously in your mouth!
Go for their Red King broth if you want that spicy kick. Feeling a little adventurous? Their Black King is a good choice as it has black octopus sauce added to the broth (so lovely)!
If you’ve got a big appetite, add extra pork belly and egg to your soup. And get an extra side of ramen if you’re looking to load up on carbs! It’ll be almost another bowl of ramen once you add it in!

My HK colleague raved about Butao’s ramen, so I made sure to meander over during a recent trip to HK.
There are quite a few ramen shops on this little street and Butao is not labeled outside in English, but luckily the wait staff were adorned in clearly labeled navy blue shirts.
Arriving solo, I was ushered to an empty stool at a table with a happily slurping couple and presented with the order form. Since I arrived after 9:30p, two flavors (black and red) were already sold out, so I opted for original with extra hard thick noodles, two marinated eggs (what can I say, I’m both decadent and pregnant), and an extra helping of black fungus.
The bowl took about 10 minutes to arrive, oddly slow for a ramen shop, but the wait was well worth it. Noodles were perfectly chewy, broth was rich and flavorful, reflecting my request for extra garlic flavor and all the toppings were complementary and additive!
PARTING THOUGHT: someday, I’m arriving early enough to try the famous black ramen before they run out!

Really good ramen noodle both broth & noodle wise, small & crowed end & probably you must share a table but worth it hkd85

So it was dinner time in Causeway Bay, and was in the mood for some Japanese ramen because at the time heard that Japanese food in Hong Kong is also really goo.
I didn’t really want to go to Ippudo, but a search on another site ( Unilocal wasn’t around at the time) came up with Butao Ramen which was highly rated.
I knew It was something that I had to check out. Approaching the place there was a long lineup so it was a good sign that this place was actually good. The ordering system was easy enough. You choose what sort of ramen you would like, the toppings, spicy level, hardness of noodles, and anything else that you would like.
The verdict? It’s definitely pretty good. Good enough to come back many times. Especially on a cold and rainy day.

If you’re looking for non-​traditional ramen, this is your spot. The Black King ramen with squid ink was rich and full of flavor. Since it was my first visit I chose the normal levels for each option. It wasn’t spicy enough so asked for more of the hot stuff to add in after it came out. Try the soup before adding in the additional pickled veggies, vinegar, etc on the table. They add in a nice textural and flavor contrast but it’s nice to have a baseline before changing up the flavor. It’s not a big place and seating is communal which is cool since you can see what others are getting. I went at an off hour after lunch and it was easy to get a spot.

Want to try good tasting and unique ramen? Then look no further and head to Butao Ramen in CWB. They have another location in Central but I do think the CWB one taste better.
Whats good about this place?
1. The ordering method is simple, you just fill out a sheet and check what you want from garlic, richness of the soup, spicy level, hard or soft noodle etc… but first you can choose from their special ramen.
2. Specialty ramen: ordinary Butao King, Red King (spicy), Black King (black octopus sauce), Green King (made with pesto and cheese).
3. Its quick
The only downside is the tiny space of the restaurant, you WILL be sharing tables with other customers. It gets messy too so ask for napkins to wear around your neck (the black king stains quickly from the splash of your slurp).
About 100 bucks for a bowl of ramen. (17 bucks for the extra egg seems steep though).
One of my fav ramen place in Hong Kong.

Looking for a great ramen place in Hong Kong. Heard about Butao and went to check it out.
First off, the place is busy, so they’ll queue you and hand you some menus and order sheets (really efficient!) Second, you’ll have to be able to match the Chinese characters to the pictures as there is no English (I took a pic with some translated items).
I went with the first Tonkatsu (above average broth) Ramen (thin noodles, not bad) and added extra fatty pork (almost too fatty) and egg (soft boiled egg, good addition). I like the idea of being able to pick the veggies, the Garlic intensity, spiciness, and the richness of the broth. You can also have the chef create it for you by checking off the box on the sheet.
Overall it’s a decent bowl of ramen, I still think Ramen Santoku in Vancouver is better. Imma try Tamashii as well to see what HK has to offer for ramen at other locations.

This is still my favourite ramen place in Hong Kong. The branch at Causeway Bay is convenient to drop by for lunch but have to be there a bit early before the queue got long. The plain ramen is always my choice — the super creamy soup base is lovely and fulfilling. I choose the pork shoulder meat instead of tummy as that is leaner. The best thing here is the spiced bean sprout, which goes so well with the noodle. My colleague loves that so much he finished the whole mug and finished another half mug after refill ^_​_​_​^”