Ramen Ya

Shop 25G Melbourne GPO
350 Bourke St
Melbourne
9654 5838

After reviewing Ajisen Ramen only a month ago, we thought we would branch out and try the much talked about Ramen Ya, located at GPO and right next door to the wonderful Kenzan. Ramen Ya is very much its own restaurant, with the small menu consisting of 4 ramen noodles, a handful of bento boxes and some rice dishes and gyoza.

Since then, we have been there a handful of times now, for both lunch and dinner. Their specialty as the name suggest is Ramen 'yah'... pardon the comedic touch, but you too may find yourself doing this after having their intense pork flavoured tonkotsu soup.

As you wait for your meal, you are invited to partake in the ancient art of origami (paper folding), we managed to create a bunny.

The seafood gyoza were standard size, but very dense though the filling was light. I normally like my gyoza with a crispy base.

But Ramen was what we were there for, at $10 a serve this is a cheap healthy lunch or great dinner alternative to your pasta dish. The charshu (many variables on the spelling) is much thicker then Ajisen Ramen and we felt the fat helped enhance the flavour, you get 3 slices in a standard serve, but like Ajisen we recommend you ask for extra charshu for a few extra dollars. The ramen noodles are thick and tasty, but it's the soup that one comes to Ramen Ya for, the pork bone based soup is authentic and amazing.

Ramen Ya is packed at lunch time, so best to come early. They also have a happy hour for dinner (meal only) which entitles you to a 35% discount on your meal, but best to check with the restaurant on hours.

We heard from the wait staff that they are thinking of converting to a fine dining menu for dinner in the future. Let's hope this does not take off, we don't want to come across mean spirited but we do have Ramen Ya cravings at all times of the day... night and day.

Ajisen Ramen

130 Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000
9662 1100

After suffering Melbourne's hottest night, none of us felt like cooking and with the cool change having just arrived in the CBD it was perfect weather for ramen. We were at Ajisen Ramen only last week but did not have time to blog, so after two visits we feel it's a good time to write about it.

Ajisen not only do ramen, they offer a nice range of bento meals, rice dishes and mains. We thought we would stick with their popular ramens, their self named Ajisen Ramen was chosen as well as Yasai Ramen (basically Ajisen but with extra vegetables). The broth was very tasty and unlike some broths in the city not salty or with added MSG (a good way of telling is whether after the meal you feel thirsty). The dish consisted of Chasyu (3 slices of pork), half an egg, vegetables and lots of ramen. You can order a Chasyu Ramen which is served with extra Chasyu, we highly recommend this as the Chasyu is cut quite thinly. They are, however, very tender and tasty with just a hint of fatty goodness.

Ajisen Ramen

Chasyu Ramen (extra meat)

Some nice side dishes include salmon sashimi, this was great value with 6 thick pieces for $7. The Gyu Tataki ($8) photo on the menu enticed us to order it, sadly this was a disappointment, it was tasteless and a little tough.

We also ordered the Geso Karaage $6.50 (deep fried octopus tentacles with aioli), this was much tastier than the beef and would really go well with beer.

Seafood Yaki Ramen ($12) consisted of a selection of fresh seafood, calamari, fish, prawns and strangely massive mussels stir fried with ramen. The ramen was cooked well, not too sure what sauce they use for this, if anyone knows please let me know?

Ajisen Ramen is a great little place to visit as not many places in the city do any nice japanese noodles (udon, soba or ramen etc.) It's cheap and cheerful and service is quick and efficient. We have been told about Ramen Ya at GPO and it will be on our to do list.

Izakaya Den

Basement
114 Russell Street
Melbourne
96542977

Instead of starting with any of our favourite places, we thought we'd begin with the much-hyped Izakaya Den. This place has been reviewed often and is part of the so-called Izakaya invasion.

Our night started off down a difficult-to-find set of stairs, as dinners at Melbourne restaurants often do. Please keep in mind the Den does not take bookings. The fit-out is industrial basement chic. Seating is at the bar overlooking the kitchen, or benches along the LED-lit wall listing the specials.




























We firstly ordered the tuna tataki ($16). These were lightly seared slices of tuna on wasabi and chilli mayonnaises. It definitely was one of the most frequently ordered dishes. The mayonnaises were exciting and complemented the tuna very well.















The highlight of our night was the kingfish sashimi ($18) with asian style dressing (gotta love the vague menu descriptions in Japanese restaurants!). These finely sliced sashimi pieces were so flavoursome that we seriously contemplated ordering another serving. The sashimi was finished off with sesame and coriander.



The potato croquettes ($6) were a disappointment, we found these to be like Birds Eye potato gems.



We did however really like one of the specials of the night, stir fried peppers with konnyaku and chilli miso ($15). The addition of enoki mushrooms was a great surprise, peppers were still firm and the konnyaku was very tasty while the miso was good with steam rice.



The char grilled pork belly skewers ($16) were colourless and a tad too salty. There was nothing to differentiate this pork from any roast pork you would find in China Town, minus the crispy skin in this case.



Who would have thought deep fried sweet corn ($4) would be a star of the night. The corn was sweet and tasty, they went down really well with our beers. We wanted to take some with us to our movie (forget the popcorn).



Finally it was dessert time, green tea chocolate fondue ($14), accompanied by glutinous balls stuffed with macadamia to dip into the green tea and white chocolate fondue mixture. The green tea was able to balance the sweetness of the white chocolate and was a nice way to finish without being too heavy.



Overall the Den should be applauded for trying new things instead of sticking to the tried and trusted. Staff were friendly and a nice touch was the chefs bringing you the food they had prepared. Sitting at the bar allowed us to see the care that goes into each dish.

We will definitely go back and try some other dishes that looked appealing like the stir fried mushrooms, and the bresaola and daikon noodle salad.