The wait is over! Newtown's favourite
communal workshop and eatery Rising Sun
Workshop is back and opening this Monday, 20 June 2016! Bigger, more
awesome and at a permanent location! After over a year and 8 months ago since
their pop-up closed, Nick Smith (owner
and head chef) and team will re-open at a newly transformed warehouse/garage on
Whateley St.
The new space has a mixture of
Scandanavian and industrial interior. There's communal tables, bar seatings and
a lot of beautiful natural lighting upstairs. Downstairs, there's a few
seatings for two and and a long counter seating where you can watch all the
kitchen action. Along with the bigger shop comes a menu with more choices than
their pop-up. Their menu is Pan Asian based with a majority of
Japanese-inspired dishes. The breakfast selection includes Hokkaido milk bun dishes, a vegan
furikake rice dish, a Bangkok
inspired pork belly & egg dish and a breakfast ramen. Nick's famous ramen offerings are back for lunch
with the addition of a kids bowl ramen
($6 with a choice of 2 toppings) and some side snacks like gyozas. For dinner, they will be
serving up kushiyaki dishes and some
Japanese inspired drinking snacks. There will be a wide range of booze for
dinner too. I was invited to their soft launch to have a sneak peek at their
lunch menu.
Carrot cake |
Their resident baker Dimity Genaus is
behind all their amazing baked goods available for breakfast and lunch. I tried
their carrot cake ($7.50) and was
blown away! It had a divine burnt butter cream cheese icing, it wasn't dry and
had a good amount of walnuts throughout the cake.
Flat white |
Sesame and honey milkshake |
The Light |
First dish I tried was The Light ($17) ramen. It's a shio
(salt) based double soup broth with springy ramen noodles, kurobuta
belly chashu, menma, pickled mushroom, greens (kale in this case), green onion,
and the best ajitama (marinated soft-boiled egg) I've had in Sydney. The
perfect ajitama was super flavoursome and the yolk was runny. The shio tare has
been tweaked and made the broth extra special. So besides the notes of chicken
and fish, you also get hints of smoky and crisped flavours with some umami in
the light broth. It's a good thing the broth is light because the big slab of
chashu is fatty, rich and flavoursome! The light ramen is a perfectly balanced
bowl of ramen. This has gotta be the best shio-based ramen I've had in Sydney
to date.
The Dark |
The
Dark ($17) is also back! It's a shoyu (soy) based
ramen with a chicken and pork broth. Toppings include kurobuta belly chashu,
menma, black fungus, pickled shroom, onsen egg, green onion and nori.
Gyozas |
Gyozas
($6-8) are awesome with ramen! Though I prefer
more ginger in my gyoza fillings, these were still packed with flavour and it
had good caramelised crust. The dipping sauce was on point.
Pork Banh Mi |
Another guest says his Banh Mi was great. It had grilled
kurobuta pork belly, pigs head and lime terrine, patĂȘ, pickles, corriander,
chilli and mayo ($12).
Smoked eggplant omelette |
Their smoked eggplant omelette ($8) dish was sensational! Super smokey
with corriander and pickled chilli. You need to order this!
I can't wait to go back to try their
dinner offerings which includes a range of kushiyaki (dubbed as "sundown sticks") choices like
chicken wings, pork belly, and octopus. Also, word is that there will be some
secret surprises coming up for dinner in the near future.
Ramen Raff was invited by Rising Sun
Workshop as a guest.
Rising Sun Workshop
1C Whateley Street
Newtown NSW
Eatery hours:
Breakfast and Lunch open 7 days from 8am
to 4pm
Dinner Thurs-Sat 6pm to 10pm