Hamakaze Ramen on A.S. Fortuna: the collagen soup is chicken, not pork
The collagen soup people go for is chicken, not pork. Five paitan bowls from ₱390, a clear shoyu at ₱360, and a katsu don that drops to ₱249 at weekday lunch. Every price read off the menu on 5 September 2026.
The bowl comes out pale and thick, thick enough that the chashu sits on the surface instead of sinking. Two slices, torched along the edge. Half an egg. A heap of something dark and minced. Straight noodles underneath. If you have eaten ramen anywhere else in this city your brain files it as tonkotsu before your first mouthful, and your brain is wrong. There is no pork in it. The collagen soup everybody in Cebu talks about is chicken.
Where the collagen actually comes from
Two ways to cook a broth. Keep it below a boil and it stays clear, which is the assari style, and the fat and collagen stay separate from the water. Boil it hard for hours and the whole thing emulsifies: fat, gelatin and water beaten into one liquid that comes out opaque and clings to a noodle. That is paitan, and tonkotsu is just paitan made with pork bones.
Hamakaze does it with chicken. The menu explains itself in one line, and it is worth quoting because nobody writes menu copy like this anymore: the soup “is boiled for many hours until every last bit of goodness is in the broth. Good for the health and wrinkle-free skin.”
Skip the skincare claim. The part that matters is the boiling. Chicken paitan is lighter on the palate than pork and heavier in the mouth than it has any right to be, and in a city where nearly every ramen counter is running a pork bone broth, it is the only one that tastes structurally different rather than just seasoned differently.
The five paitan bowls, and which one to start on
| Paitan bowl | What is in it | |
|---|---|---|
| Paitan Sho-yu | The chicken collagen broth with a soy tare. The baseline. | ₱390 |
| Black Paitan | The same broth with black garlic oil through it | ₱400 |
| Spicy Paitan | The same broth built spicy | ₱410 |
| Ebi Paitan | Shrimp worked into the broth | ₱420 |
| Natto Paitan | Fermented soybean on top. The one nobody orders twice by accident. | ₱440 |
Order the plain Sho-yu first. It is the cheapest of the five at ₱390 and it is the only one that lets you taste what the kitchen actually does, because black garlic, chili and shrimp all sit on top of the same broth and all three will talk over it.
The Black Paitan is the one to come back for. Black garlic oil in a chicken broth does something it does not do in pork, where it mostly adds weight to something already heavy. Here it gives the soup a bottom it does not otherwise have, for ten pesos.
Put a corn butter next to it. ₱130, a bowl of kernels caught hard in a pan until the edges go brown, and you tip it into the soup a spoon at a time rather than eating it as a side. It is the single best thing on the appetizer list and it is doing a job in a chicken broth that it cannot do in a pork one.
There is a whole second menu behind the paitan
Turn the page and the broth changes completely. The Hamakaze Shoyu at ₱360 is a clear soup made from chicken and pork together, which is the assari style, and it is the cheapest full bowl in the house. Next to it sits a Yuzu Sio at ₱380, a Cheese Ramen at ₱400, and a Spicy Katsugawa Nou Tantan at ₱380.
So the shop is running two ramen kitchens against each other, a clear one and a thick one, which is more range than most places in Cebu attempt. If somebody at your table does not want a heavy bowl, that is the ₱360 answer and it is not a consolation prize.
There is also a cold page: tsukemen where the noodles arrive dry and you dip, a zaru ramen, and a Tokyo abura soba at ₱380 which is ramen with no soup at all. That last one comes with printed instructions on the table telling you to mix hard before the first bite, add vinegar or chili oil halfway, and finish with rice into what is left. Follow them. An abura soba eaten like a normal bowl is a bad meal, and this is the only ramen shop in the city that bothers to warn you.
The ₱249 lunch, which is the real answer
Monday to Thursday, twelve to three, the katsu don and the abura soba both drop to ₱249.
Sit with that for a second against a menu where the standard bowls start at ₱360 and the paitan runs to ₱440. A ₱249 lunch in a proper Japanese-run ramen shop on A.S. Fortuna is a genuinely good deal in 2026, and it is on a promo card rather than the main menu, which is exactly the kind of thing that never makes it into a listicle.
The same card carries a rotating tasting promotion, which on the day these frames were taken had the Fuji Napolitsukemen down from ₱420 to ₱360, the Funabashi Sauce Ramen from ₱380 to ₱320 and the abura soba from ₱380 to ₱300. Those move. Read the card when you sit down rather than assuming this page still applies.
It is on A.S. Fortuna, which means Mandaue
Everyone here says Cebu and everyone here is right, it is one metro and nobody in a jeepney is drawing city lines. It only matters when a form or a delivery app asks you for a city, because A.S. Fortuna runs the boundary out of Banilad and Hamakaze sits on the Mandaue end. The coordinates below come off the frames on this page, so they are where the camera was standing rather than a figure lifted from a directory.
From the road at night it is a lit blue sign, a run of orange light and a noren curtain across the entrance. It is a small room and it fills at lunch.
Going
- Where. A.S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City, at the Mandaue end rather than the Banilad end.
- Coordinates. 10.3413° N, 123.9198° E, read off the EXIF of the frames on this page.
- Order. Paitan Sho-yu ₱390 on a first visit. Black Paitan ₱400 on the second. Corn butter ₱130 either time.
- Cheapest full bowl. Hamakaze Shoyu, the clear one, ₱360.
- Cheapest meal. ₱249 katsu don or abura soba, Monday to Thursday, 12 noon to 3 PM.
- Budget. Around ₱520 a head for a paitan bowl and a corn butter. Under ₱300 at lunch on a weekday.
- If you do not want a heavy bowl. The clear shoyu or the zaru. Do not order paitan and pick at it.
If you are working through the ramen in this city, the rest of it is in where to eat ramen in Cebu.
Questions people actually ask
How much is ramen at Hamakaze?
The clear shoyu is ₱360. The five chicken paitan bowls run ₱390 to ₱440. Toppings are ₱30 to ₱100. Weekday lunch drops the katsu don and the abura soba to ₱249. Photographed off the menu on 5 September 2026.
What is chicken paitan?
A chicken broth boiled hard for hours until the fat and gelatin emulsify into the water and it turns opaque and thick. It is the same technique as tonkotsu, which uses pork bones. Lighter to taste, heavier in the mouth.
Why do people call Hamakaze a collagen soup?
Because the broth is chicken bones boiled hard for hours until the gelatin emulsifies into the water. That is what makes it opaque and thick enough to coat a noodle instead of running off it. The menu puts it plainly, good for the health and wrinkle free skin. Treat the skin part as marketing. The thickness is real and you can see it on the spoon.
What should you order at Hamakaze?
Paitan Sho-yu at ₱390 first, because the other four sit on the same broth with something loud on top. Black Paitan at ₱400 after that. A corn butter at ₱130 on the side either way.
Is Hamakaze in Cebu City or Mandaue?
Both answers work. Mandaue City is what goes on a form, since A.S. Fortuna crosses from Banilad into Mandaue and the shop is on the Mandaue side. In conversation it is Cebu like everywhere else in the metro. Either way it is a ten minute drive from IT Park and not the same trip as Ayala.
Does Hamakaze have a lunch promo?
Yes. Monday to Thursday, 12 noon to 3 PM, the katsu don and the abura soba are ₱249. It is on a separate card at the table, not on the main menu.
How do you eat abura soba?
Mix it hard before the first bite so the tare and oil coat every strand, add vinegar or chili oil about halfway through, and put rice into whatever is left at the bottom. The instructions are printed on the table.
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A late bowl on A.S. Fortuna is a Cebu night like any other.
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Wear the story
Photographed at Hamakaze Ramen, A.S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City, on 8 August 2026 and 5 September 2026. All prices read off the printed menu and the promotions card photographed on 5 September 2026. Coordinates read from the frames.
