Ganso Tsukemen’s Lobster & BBQ Pork Tsukemen is What Dreams Are Made Of

If you know this Big Body, then you know that gun to his head, he is choosing tsukemen, the pungent, savory dipping ramen, over traditional ramen, noodles served in a piping hot broth, any day of the week. 

This is not a slight to the glory that is everything ramen. In fact, tsukemen is classified as ramen so it’s actually a celebration – a celebration of ramen in a lesser consumed form. 

Look at me acting like Gary from 6th grade in his JNCO jeans and Bathing Ape hoodie when he obnoxiously always made sure to differentiate himself by proclaiming to everyone how he only listens to alternative music because mainstream radio edits are for “unoriginal posers.”

The point is, I’m #TeamTsukemen.

I must have latched onto tsukemen as my default ramen amalgam because I’m secretly a masochist who loves fumbling to pick up room temperature noodles with chopsticks followed by splashing its dark shoyu (soy sauce) broth all over the only nice button-down I own. The struggle is real. But that also makes it taste that much sweeter (saltier?). 

Well, in my pursuit of finding the best tsukemen (and ramen) in Hong Kong, this Big Body was pleasantly surprised after stumbling on an unassuming ramen joint in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui for a coveted Thursday night hang with one of his top dawgs. Better yet, it was a spot serving up a noodle dish that appealed to both his gustatorily high-brow and prurient interests – that’s right, a lobster and BBQ pork tsukemen.

Here is why Ganso Tsukemen’s lobster and BBQ pork tsukemen should absolutely be on your ‘Hong Kong ramen radar’. 

Humble Appearances Behind Exceptional Flavor

I’ll never get tired of the view of Hong Kong Island from TST.

Website, Address, & Details: https://www.instagram.com/gansohk/ 

• Location: Tsim Sha Tsui, Hau Fook St, 5號多富閣地下
• Price: HK$75 – HK$155 – prices depend on how fancy you go. The ‘Lobster and BBQ Pork Tsukemen’ I love clocks in at a reasonable HK$110-ish. 

I’ve been hanging out in Tsim Sha Tsui more and more lately. I think part of it is because I’m feeling a bit stuck and in dire need of a change of scenery (primarily my own doing). I’m also not really making money at the moment and Kowloon is somewhat of a financial reprieve from the glitz, glam, and HK$1,200 brunches of Central (before service charge). 

If you read my post on trying the promiscuous burger served over at Eggslut in Causeway Bay, then you already know that sometimes this Big Body just needs to “sad boy Charlie Brown-walk” his way around town to get out of whatever self-imposed funk he is in.

Proactively lining up ‘hangs’ with the dawgz over on Kowloon and solo walks along the Avenue of Stars, pensively staring at Hong Kong’s skyline, pretending I’m Frank at the end of Pusher, has been refreshing. 

But it isn’t just the atmospheric changes that have been refreshing – it’s the gastronomic diversity, affordability, and quality of TST that have me dancing like a Gen Z’er doing whatever that one Fortnight dance is while my parents wonder what went wrong in such a short period. 

And there is no better representation of this holy trinity of gustatorial goodness than Ganso Tsukemen.

Located just a stone’s throw away from Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) MTR Exit B1/B2, Ganso Tsukemen is a venerated establishment in an area where Japanese restaurants come and go as quickly as paychecks for this Big Body.

It’s a small, narrow shop that is almost completely overlookable (I think that’s a word) due to its sandwiching between the bright green shopfront of Day 1 Fitness and the wooden ‘wafu’ exterior of Sushi Sho. The plastering of assorted menu items, an instructional video on how to dip tsukemen on a 32” inch Samsung TV, and random newspaper clippings of noodle accolades, do, however, command a second look. 

If all three shops were 3 contestants on a dating show, not that one gameshow in Anna Kendrick’s ‘Woman of the Hour’ based on the true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala’, going on looks alone, I don’t think you’d end up going home with Ganso. You might also see the angry cartoonish eyes of Ganso’s red and white mascot (just the head) and think that it is the Rodney Alcala of the lot. 

Unless you’re actively looking for Ganso, I don’t think most people on a casual “walk by” are piecing together the excellence that lies within. 

But now you know. So you have no excuses.

Pale Ale Travel Tip: If you’re on Hong Kong Island, don’t forget to check out my post breaking down my favorite ramen restaurants in Central – including my all-time favorite tsukemen spot ‘Shugetsu’. 

Serving Up a Tsukemen Gan-So Good, You’ll Cry

Unbeknownst to me, the term “Ganso Ramen” translates to “original ramen,” and is used by noodle proprietors to signal the authenticity and innovativeness of their shop. 

Do I know exactly why ‘Ganso’ was chosen for the name of this shop? No. But I love to speculate and if I was a betting man, I’d bet that it is an ode to Sapporo’s ‘Ganso Ramen Yokocho’ – a popular tourism hotspot and alleyway in Japan’s largest northern city boasting 15-plus miso ramen shops. 

It may also be in line with the fact that Ganso was the first ramen shop in Hong Kong to roll out seafood-infused tonkotsu-miso hybrid broth-based offerings. 

What I do know about Ganso Tsukemen is that you’re guaranteed to receive roughly 200 grams of medium-thick, al dente noodles, a runny, well-marinated ajitama (the quintessential ramen egg), handful of earth bamboo shoots, salty nori (dried edible seaweed), and two large discs of melt-in-your-mouth Japanese chashu (braised pork belly). 

Oh, and how could I forget? A sweet, briny, creamy, and thick dipping broth made from an emulsified lobster shell stock, pork bone, and a touch of miso. 

Pale Ale Travel Nonsensical Note: I don’t know why but I think ‘Al Dente’ would be the perfect name for an Italian American pornstar. 

Picture a slightly thicker lobster bisque concoction with generous chunks of lobster (which is oddly a rarity in Hong Kong) that if served without the noodles, would be able to stand on its own merits. 

The meaty, buttery, slightly sweet hunks of lobster amplify the seafood-forward flavor profile of the broth, adding a juicy and chewy dimension that counters the smoky, sweet glazed Japanese chashu. It’s surf. It’s turf. It’s damn delicious.

Ganso’s grooved medium-thick, chewy wheat flour noodles, served room temperature, are deliberately ‘pulled’ and done so with the mind of ensuring they pick up every little last drop of the viscous seafood potage. There’s a slight stickiness to each noodle which is perfect for the impending ‘lobster lacquering’.

Individual bites can be whatever you want them to be with this noodle dish, which is a driving factor behind why I’m a tsukemen ride-or-die. Sometimes, with traditional ramen, whatever you have in the bowl is exactly what you can expect for the entire course of the meal. With tsukemen, you can mix and match. 

Go heavy on the broth, mix in a bamboo shoot or two, pair it with a briny seaweed sheet, or magnify the creaminess by pairing it with the ajitama – that’s just a fraction of what you can do to maximize the flavor and textural depth when eating tsukemen. 

Finally, Ganso Tsukemen isn’t solely about that dipping noodle life and sports 10-plus traditional ramen flavors, all of which are an eclectic and luxurious mix of “lots of surf” and considerable “turf.” 

For example, you’ll find truffle tsukemen with scallops and BBQ pork, abalone lobster tsukemen, snow crab tsukemen, and even sea urchin tsukemen. The only one I’m skeptical of is Ganso’s ‘raclette cheese lobster tsukemen’. That seems like luxury overload. But maybe it works.

If you’ve tried any of the above, let me know in the comments!

If You Love Tsukemen & Seafood, Ganso Tsukemen is For You

For some reason, Hong Kong sports a thriving ramen landscape but a relatively barren tsukemen one. In fact, there are only a handful of ramen joints that I actually know that serve tsukemen on their menus. That number gets even smaller once you factor in the tsukemen spots that do it justice and are worth making the trip for. 

Ganso is emphatically one of them. ‘Tsukemen’ is literally in the shop’s name after all. So, you know they take this stuff seriously. It’s also the perfect excuse to get out of your bubble on Hong Kong Island, or whatever other enclave you’ve created for yourself. 

Finally, its affordability means that you don’t have to sell whatever bodily fluid it is you’re picturing right now or move back in with that one French roommate you once caught staring at you while you sleep just to save up that extra skrilla to enjoy the finer things in life.

If you have any questions about where to eat or drink in Hong Kong, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at info@palealetravel.com. 

Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to my local Hong Kong newsletter where I tell you what’s new in the city food and drink-wise, along with events so that you aren’t sitting at home twiddling your thumbs.

Eat well everyone,

Big Body