Kenji Tei

First time I saw Kenji Tei Ramen House I blurted, "How cute that is!" And when I said 'cute' it meant that it was a really small restaurant. It's one of the smallest restaurants I've ever seen actually. So, I just look at it and smile whenever I pass by it along President's Avenue in BF, Paranaque. That is until my younger sister and her husband told me to try it out because they said the ramen there is good. Also they said that the place opens at noon, closes in the afternoon, then opens again in the evening. That really made me smile because it sounded like a real ramen house. Well I'm not that experienced but I have watched a fair amount of anime throughout my couch potato life to be familiar with ramen.

So one day my friend Therese suddenly asked me out to have lunch around BF and said maybe we could try Kenji Tei. I was happy of course. I have mentioned the place to her before but I thought she wasn't interested. It was a Saturday that we went, the third Saturday of the month. We both agreed to meet in the resto. I arrived first around 11 and I was the first customer they had. The place had about 20 chairs I think, more or less. I've lived in Batangas before and the fast food places there can be really small but I was tickled with the size of this place. It's pretty cool inside even with the hot mid-noon sun outside. I thought at first it would be warm because of all the glass windows but it was comfortably cold. Therese arrived and had a hard time with the sliding door. She didn't notice it was a sliding door at first. I think other people would have the same predicament also since there's no indication that the door slides. Anyway, we ordered Crispy Chicken Teriyaki, Cheese Gyoza and Shoyu Ramen.

Cheese Gyoza (left) and Crispy Chicken Teriyaki (center)

By the time our order arrived the place was already getting packed. A family of seven came in then a couple then another couple and so on. I love the Crispy Chicken Teriyaki but wished that I have ordered the Chicken Teriyakidon which is the same dish but was made a topping on a bowl of rice. The one I ordered was ala carte so the rice was insufficient for me and the chicken serving was too much. I wished I had taken it home and grabbed a lot of rice there. The Cheese Gyoza I'm not much of a fan. When it comes to fried dumplings I guess the one in Kaya I like best. Therese said the ramen was so, so. As you can see in this pic she separated her noodles from the soup. She was trying out something but in the end she put the noodles in the soup as well. Well I can't really comment on the ramen since I have to taste it myself. Maybe next time when the world becomes a little cooler :).



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