YASAKA RAMEN - HAYMARKET, SYDNEY

Yasaka Ramen
126 Liverpool St
Haymarket, Sydney

Sydney and in particular the CBD is home to many Japanese restaurants. Every corner seems to be a display of Iron Chefs, skillfully carving sashimi, nori and other delicious dishes. Japanese food however is more than just raw fish and bento boxes. Noodles and specifically Ramen are equally as famous and for some, the best product of Japanese cuisine. Yasaka Ramen is a modern ramen restaurant in the Sydney CBD, located on Liverpool Street, close to World Square. It might be a modern restaurant, with an industrial bar style fit out downstairs and a more relaxed restaurant style set up upstairs, but when it comes to Ramen, Yasaka is a place full of tradition.

Arriving early for dinner on a weeknight we took our seats upstairs, surprisingly, Count N felt like a beer (it may have been the weather, it was a hot evening). We don't drink beer very often but when we do, Asahi is one of our favourite choices. Japans No 1 beer has a clean, crisp and refreshing taste.




















We haven't met many people that don't like Gyoza ( we love it ) and here at Yasaka, they are made fresh on premises (like everything else). Filled with delicious pork, shallots, these light yet tantalising flavours explode in your mouth as you bite into each piece. This dish didn't last long.

We then moved on to some very special Takoyaki. According to the menu - once you try you will love. These fluffy Octopus balls were slightly crispy on the outside, tender soft in the inside and smothered an in rich sweet sauce that had us coming back for more, ball after ball. They look like they would be heavy to eat but quite the contrary, they are quite light and so addictive.

Whilst we were waiting for our first dish we had the pleasure of meeting Yasaka's head chef, Takeshi Sekigawa.

Full of skill and precision, Takeshi showcased to us how using only whole wheat noodles, he creates authentic ramen so delicious, it has people lining at the door waiting to try it.

Takeshi also gave us a sneak peak of a new menu item, yet to be introduced, a mouth watering pork bun.

This Kakuni bun was a heavenly soft milky bun wrapped around a succulent piece of pork and drizzled with a creamy heavenly sauce.

Just a word of warning with this one, it isn't made to share. If you are in a group, make sure you get on each, as you may end up fighting over it.

It was now time for some Ramen.

The Kakuni ramen with simmered soft pork bone came out first. This spectacular ramen with thick whole wheat noodles and a delicious thick sauce was bursting with flavour. We would expect to see pork belly in a Kakuni ramen but this one had the softest pork falling off the bone that melted in your mouth. It was amazing and we enjoyed it with a hot chilli sauce.


We then tried Yasaka's special Tsukemen ramen. You may be familiar with Tsukemen which is basically a dish of ramen, eaten after dipping your noodle in a separate bowl of soup. It's a great way to enjoy ramen and here at Yasaka they have 5 soups to choose from.  Black garlic, soy miso and spicy just to name a few. The ramen is, as you would expect, delicious and mixed with the soup, a great noodle dish.

There's a trick to eating this dish though. You need to pick up the noodle and dip it into the sauce. Never mix soup and noodle. Although we tried, I don't think we mastered the Tsukemen skill.

The motto at Yasaka is no ramen no life and we can tell you, they mean it. They also have a cool members loyalty program which gets you some cool discounts with all their partnered restaurants.

If you like Japanese food and you love Ramen, then you need to make your way down to Liverpool St.

The Counts, who review for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, dined as guests of Yasaka Ramen.

 

RAMEN O SAN - HAYMARKET, SYDNEY

Ramen O San
Dixon House
B1 Little Hay St
Haymarket, Sydney

Ramen - that hot steaming bowl of rich meat or seafood based soup and packed with noodles and often topped with thin sliced meat - goodness in a bowl.

It's popular for very good reasons. We just love it - it's a meal in a bowl - and usually a big meal.

Ramen O San is well known for - well obviously its ramen. There are a heap of varieties available to cater to all tastes.

Their original tonkotsu ramen is a great full flavoured pork based broth filled with noodles and topped with mushrooms, thinly sliced pork and greenery.

We loved it and eagerly finished the lot even though it took a while!






















Main meal number two was the very appropriately named sumo ramen. When you see the word sumo you think big - and boy was this a big beautiful dish!

Yes, it was again that lovely pork based soup filled with noodles, sprouts and veggies and topped with big chunks of pork belly.

Oh my - this was ramen heaven.

Ramen O San is in a bustling food court in Chinatown and yet it still attracts a good crowd for its food.

This speaks volumes for the quality of the food. Once it's served the quantity is also very obvious. This is a place well worth visiting.

Sir and Countess D dined as guests of Ramen O San. Special thanks to Yuri from Washoku Lovers and SD Marketing Global for inviting us.

 

HAWKER LANE - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Hawker Lane
Westfield Chatswood
Chatswood, Sydney

Hawker Lane is an amazing oasis of restaurants underneath the massive Westfield in Chatswood. You feel like your really in another world here as you pause from your shopping and enter this den of tastes and sounds and delicious smells from the great range of restaurants that are spread across this sprawling area.

The biggest challenge here is what to choose. Our suggestion is to grab a table first - there are plenty of them but they go fast., If you miss out don't fret, they turn over quickly so it won't be long. Then do a lap of honour - to check out whats there. Even if you know what you want, it may well change once you see the great variety here. Of course you can get food from multiple places which works exceptionally well. Maybe a starter or three from some places, a few mains elsewhere and then of course desserts! We were there to try their goodies as part of a media event. Being greeted at the door with beautiful coconuts from Kayter and Co was a delicious start - they certainly knew how to keep foodies happy! With our coconuts piled high with cake, marshmallow, chocolate and biscuits it looked amazing - and so many people kept coming up to us wanting to know where to get them. Hands off - their ours!

Then where to start. We looked around and sampled food from so many places. It was a dance from fried chicken, to skewers, dumplings, Malaysian, ramen burgers, sushi, drinks, sweets, roti wraps etc etc etc. Here's just a few of the names you'll find here - but wait - there's more!

We'll be posting a number of write ups over the next fortnight of different places we visited there and the food we had - so stay tuned.

Of course you can visit and try for yourself - and we highly recommend this.

This is one place worth a long slow visit - or several in fact - to get across the massive range here!

Sir and Mlady visited Hawker Lane as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

ONE TEA LOUNGE & GRILL - SYDNEY CBD

One Tea Lounge & Grill
Upper Ground Floor
73 York St
Sydney CBD

One Tea Lounge & Grill is slightly hidden away up a short flight of stairs so it might be easy to miss this wonderful little gem.

Owner David Yip has opened a great York Street eatery which well and truly caters for the lunch-time city crowd and fortunately also offers dinner most nights too.

Inside, you notice an abundance of circles in the décor, walls, bar, even the bathrooms. This is a key theme of the restaurant.

This, also combined with a lovely daisy theme around the place, illustrates the inspiration of this venue: the circle of life, and the loss of a much loved and very special girl called Daisy. It's a lovely homage to her.

We visited on a Monday for lunch and were surprised at how popular it was.

The menu had some interesting dishes, including the unique and very famous Ramen Burger, which we couldn't help but try!

We started with a Bento Box which had some lovely fresh salmon, crispy soft shelled crab and other fresh tasties. Then we had the Ramen Burger with wagyu beef. The noodle patties (so much nicer than bread) had a great flavour. Crispy on the outside but still soft in the middle. So tasty. The side dish of Popcorn Curry Chicken with Green Tea Lime Mayo was also good.

Next we chose the Noodle Hotpot with Braised Pork Rib.

It was our favourite dish from so many great choices - a delicious broth topped with corn, black fungus, bamboo shoots and spring onions.  It was certainly nothing short of amazing.

We would come back again for this dish.

Then the Matcha Fries (with colourful green tea salt) was a good choice as a side dish.

Then we came to dessert, which was the Tofu White Chocolate Cheesecake with crumbed polenta, lemon curd and assorted berry textures.

It tasted as amazing as it looked. Such an impressive dish!

The other dessert we chose was the Ice Cream Baoger – sweet hot donut flavoured buns with flavoured ice cream in between.

This was creative and delicious. We would also go back for more of this.

Green tea cocktails were something we hadn’t had before. Wow! The Matcha Made in Heaven was cold, served in a small teapot and had an amazing flavour.

We also ordered the So Pre-Tea, which was a beautiful green concoction with a lovely citrus flavour.

Finally, the meal was finished with a selection from the green tea menu – something which should be experienced.

The Gyokuro tea was especially smooth and refreshing and David’s mum Helen gave us an insight into the benefits and types of green teas on offer.

The overall experience at One Tea Lounge was extremely interesting and very worthwhile.
We found so many very tasty things on the menu and we would eagerly come back for more of them - or even the same ones! The staff were friendly and all the patrons seemed to be enjoying themselves. We would recommend a visit to this place, especially to those working in the city.

Those Dames, who are now doing reviews for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, dined as guests of One Tea Lounge & Grill. Special thanks to David Yip for the invitation and his lovely hospitality and charm and also to his mum Helen who is wonderful,

RAMEN ZUNDO - SYDNEY CBD

Ramen Zundo
Shop 1030 World Square
644 George St
Sydney CBD

Ramen Zundo is the hugely popular provider of a variety of tasty and hearty meals inside one of the many laneways that form part of World Square in the CBD.

A lot of places in the area are popular, but this one almost always has a long queue snaking its way out the entrance and into the bustling laneway outside.

Ramen Zundo does serve take away and churns through plenty of meals this way, but they also have inside and outside seating at their restaurant as well. Service is efficient and fast so don't let the queue scare you.

In case you didn't know, Ramen is a hearty, rich noodle soup that is usually made from a meat based broth. Pork is very commonly used and this was the order for today. Whilst it comes in the one bowl for those dining in, you get the base and the broth is separate bowls for take away. You then simply add the broth when you're ready to eat. It's a big meal for a big appetite and perfect for a cold day.

You end up with a big bowl of steaming soup filled with noodles, cabbage and several slices of meat (pork in this case).

It's certainly not something to get unless you're quite hungry as it's big.

Because this place is so popular it's very busy.

If you're planning to go on a weekday at lunch time you are probably best advised to get there either early or late - otherwise join the queue which does move pretty quickly.

It's worth visiting though. The Ramen is delicious and people travel to get it.

ICHI-BAN BOSHI EXPRESS - SYDNEY CBD

Ichi-Ban Boshi Express
Lower Ground Floor
500 George St
Sydney CBD

Ichi-Ban is synonymous with good hearty quick noodles and other food. Ichi-Ban Boshi Express is all this but faster - for eating there in the nearby seating or for taking away to enjoy somewhere else. I was after the latter option for my lunch. Service was pretty quick. You order at the front counter and are given a beeper. Once your meal is ready - which is usually in about 5 minutes - you take the beeper to the counter and exchange it for your meal. Its a simple and effective system that seems to work.

You can also order extras - or toppings as they are described on the menu board. I chose chicken karage basically because it looked so good in the picture. Sometimes this can be risky but this time it turned out to be almost better than the photo.

It seemed that I got more chicken than the pictures showed. It was delicious too. Crispy on the outside and tender inside and only $3.00. Bargain.

The Tokyo ramen also looked good in the pictures there. It came in a large serving with a great base and plenty of full flavour.

I actually thought it was pretty good and as it only cost $9.80 it was reasonably priced as well. It was tasty, hearty and filling.

Ichi-Ban Boshi Express is a decent option for a fast, filling and decent meal.

IPPUDO - SYDNEY CBD

Ippudo

Level 5 Westfield
168 Pitt St
Sydney

We were in the area for some essential shopping (if such a thing exists) and dropped in for lunch.

Even though it meant joining a queue the wait wasn't long and we were seated and our order had soon been taken. Its an interesting place. They pack you in but it doesn't seem like you are on top of each other.


 

I had the Shiromaru Motoaji - a traditional pork ramen which cost $15.00 (but you can get a larger serving for $19.00).

It was described on the menu as Ippudo origianl tonkatsu broth served with thin noodles, pork loin, cabbage, black mushroomss and shallots - a classic Hakata-style ramen.

I ordered a poached egg with it as well - for an extra $2.00.

It was delicious. Such rich and full flavours and great combinations.

Mlady had the Hot Stone Unagi Rice - grilled eel on rice with original Kabayaki sauce. It came garnished with shredded seaweed on top and was only $10.00. Presentation was excellent and it was a tasty option. As Mlady isnt a big pork eater the menu was a bit limited but they advised that they were upgrading in the new year with several vegetarian options.

Good food, pleasant decor, friendly service all make this place a winner.

 



RAMEN-KAN - HAYMARKET

Ramen-Kan
90 Hay St
Haymarket

This place has had mixed feedback from various people over time. I was passing so I thought I'd give it a go myself and get some take-away.

I chose the tonkatsu ramen. It came in two bowls which needed to be mixed together. This allowed the contents to not get soggy and it worked.

The ramen was nice. Probably not the best I've ever tasted but it was still good.

With so much competition in the area its hard, but Ramen-Kan still serves up a pretty decent ramen.