Maze Soba Hototogisu Holland Village – New Flavours of Japanese Soba

Maze Soba Hototogisu Holland Village is a small ramen restaurant in the new One Holland Village shopping. It seems like a popular restaurant with almost all the tables taken up at lunchtime on a weekday. Since we have yet to try this ramen brand from Japan, we decided to check it out.

One Michelin Star Ramen from Japan

Maze Soba Hototogisu is one of the brands of restaurant group Japan Food Holding. According to its website, it is a One Michelin Star brand. Hototogisu ramen’s new concept brand is said to be “supervised by One Michelin Star chef Yamamoto” to create numerous varieties of maze soba.

Maze Soba Hototogisu Menu One Holland Village

Here are pictures of some pages of the Maze Soba Hototogisu Holland Village menu. The maze soba seems to be the main attraction at this store.  According to its website, “(i)n Japanese, maze soba means “dry noodles” or “dry ramen” that needs to be mixed before eating. The soba is available with different toppings and three types of sauces – negi oil (original), shoyu (black) and red (spicy).

In addition to the new maze soba, some traditional ramen items are also available. We decided to try a basic Hototogisu Ramen ($11.90) and a Maze Soba Kakuni ($13.90).

Maze soba diners have an option to “make it a set”. A choice of drink and a side dish for an extra $4. Here are the side dishes available.

Hototogisu Ramen and Maze Soba

This is the ice lemon tea and gyoza that we selected for the set meal option. The tea was so so. The gyoza was not bad.

Hototogisu Ramen

We were quite pleased with the Hototogisu Ramen. This was a simple no frills ramen with a mild tonkotsu (pork bone) broth with toppings of a slice of cha shu and half an egg. Compared to places like Ippudo, the broth was relatively light, but it has an appeal like Teochiew porridge. Sometimes a less punchy flavour suits the mood.

Kakuni Soba

We chose to have the black version of maze soba Hototogisu at One Holland Village. Our Kakuni soba was topped with a soft egg, seaweed, chopped spring onions and slices of braised pork belly. At first glance it reminded us of lor mee, such as the one we enjoy at Mei Ling Market.

We were encouraged to thoroughly mix the ingredients before eating. Some white vinegar was provided as well. After mixing and adding vinegar, it resembled lor mee even more. We were impressed by the overall taste of the dish. The sauce was pleasant and balanced. We only added a bit of vinegar and that was sufficient so as not to crowd out the rest. We also like the noodles which had a very good degree of bounce.

Overall, we thought that our choices of Japanese noodles at One Holland Village were nicely contrasting and enjoyable. For more dining options, check out our post on food outlets at One Holland V.

Ratings:
Food: 4
Service: 3
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 3
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs 

Maze Soba Hototogisu Holland Village
7 Holland Vlg Wy, #02-45, Singapore 275748

Opening Hours: 11.30 am to 10 pm

Nearby MRT Station: Holland Village (CC21)