Bari-Uma Ramen, Jaya Shopping Centre

There’s a new ramen place in town, and it aims to give some of the established names in town a good run for their money.

Bari-Uman Ramen hails from Hiroshima, flew to Singapore and landed into our laps with its first Malaysian outlet in Jaya Shopping Centre, Seksyen 14.

Initially I thought because of the non-halal status, the mall management stuck it all the way to Level 3. That’s A LOT of escalator riding. But then I was told there would be a cinema in the mall soon, and having the higher floors occupied with restaurants is the current trend.

All the way up to Level 3, baby!

Bari Uma’s signature Noritama-Uma (RM29) is a complete bowl of noodles, pork-flavoured shoyu soup, a slice of thick-cut flamed pork, egg, spring onion, bamboo shoots and seaweed. They bring in the 20-hour boiled tonkotsu (pork bone broth) directly from their Japan HQ; no messing about with their soups here.

Itadakimasu!

A bit of everything.

At Baren Uma, noodles are own-made in their kitchen every day. You get to choose the hardness of your noodles: Firm, Original or Soft.

I enjoyed the Original – bouncy with a bit of bite. Carol who loves firmer noodles, opted for the Firm. Think of it as Japanese al dente. I thought the difference between Original and Firm was minimal.

The Ajitama (flavoured egg) was slightly overcooked for my liking. The yolk lacked the smooth runniness that I’ve come to expect from Japanese soft-boiled eggs. Not a deal breaker though.

The highlight was Bari Uma’s delightful thick-cut charsiu, of which the labour of making speaks for itself. The pork; sourced from Germany is boiled for 3 hours to soften. It is then cooked in a special soy marinade for half an hour, then removed from the stove and left on its own for another hour to truly absorb all the marinade goodness.

When you’re at the restaurant and you make your order, only then they would carve out a slice and grill it to your order.

A piece of well-marinated meat, it could melt in your mouth. The smokiness from the grilling adds depth to the flavour. By far, the BEST charsiu I’ve had!

If you’re around for lunch, Bari Uma’s current lunch special deal (11am-3pm) is quite worth it. A bowl of ramen, green tea and yakitori OR gyoza OR ice-cream for only RM29.90.

See if you can finish everything and spot the words of gratitude at the bottom of your bowl.

Bari Uma is proud of their pan-fried chicken Gyoza (RM11 for 5). “Why chicken and not pork, since you’re already selling pork?” I asked. “We experimented with pork,” said the manager, “but the chicken version came out better.”

True enough, the gyoza was juicy and flavourful. Taste it on its own first before dipping into vinegar (which I LOVE).

Like yakitori? Get a load of pork belly, pork thigh and leek, chicken thigh etc… OR try the Yakitori Combo for RM13.90. Decent for add-ons to your meal.

Another main meal highlight is the Chashu Chaofan RM14.90) in hot stone bowl. Literally fried rice with their signature marinated pork, the giddying aroma of the charshu could leave one hankering for more.

If you’d like to try both ramen and chaofan, bring someone along and get ‘Dinner for Two’ (RM49.90) to feast on one ramen, one chaofan, one yakitori combo, a salad, gyoza and green tea.

Finish off with ice-cream. I recommend the black sesame, where bits of sesame are still in the ice-cream, providing much fragrance and deliciousness.

Bari-Uma Ramen
Jaya Shopping Centre
L3-11, Level 3, Jalan Semangat,
46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Tel: +603-7932 2958
Website: www.bariuma.my || Facebook: Bariuma.my

Opens daily: 11am to 9.30pm.