Butao

Butao serves some of Hong Kong's best ramen, the owner of the shop claims to have traveled across Japan tasting thousands of bowls of ramen before creating the ultimate bowl of perfection. The store created an insane amount of buzz when it first opened and people still line up for hours on end now to savor the tasty bowl of ramen. The shop gauged the Hong Kong market really well, it knew that people in Hong Kong were obsessed about hype and exclusivity. Therefore, the store only serves 200 bowls of ramen a day. This clever gimmick along with the high quality of the food ensures that there is always a huge demand for Butao. I came at 11:30 am to line up and waited for 2 hours before finally sitting down in the tiny space to enjoy the legendary bowl of ramen. The waiters are very nice though and offer umbrellas and water for people in line which I thought was thoughtful and considerate.

The never ending line 

Menu
From left to right: original tonkatsu, squid ink, spicy, and pesto 

Personalization of your bowl of ramen
You can choose the richness of the broth, amount of garlic and scallions, hardness of noodles, and level of spice, etc

Masters at work

Busy packed space full of hungry diners slurping away

Red King Ramen
This came with bamboo sprouts, cha siu (barbecue pork), scallions, and a large scoop of a special meat sauce. This ramen was incredible. The texture of the noodles were perfect - chewy and firm. The soup was incredibly rich and flavorsome. You can tell that the broth has been brewing for hours on end to became the essence of all that is good. The spice factor of this also took the ramen up a notch. The bamboo sprouts were crunchy and fresh, and the cha siu was fatty and tender. 2 hours is a long wait, but this bowl of heaven makes up for it.

Black King Ramen
Mmm almost as good as the Red King, the broth was just as flavorful and rich and the rest of the ingredients are the same, but the squid ink didn't really provide a different taste as the spicy Red King did. I am a sucker for spicy things so I prefer the Red King to this one. 

Perfect noodles

Delicious

Butao 

8-13 On Lane Street

Lan Kwai Fong

Central

Hong Kong