Sekka Dining St Leonards

What is up guys?! I apologise for yet again another long hiatus. For those of you that follow me on Instagram, ya’ll know that I have put more attention to my youtube channel recently. Having said that, I really miss expressing in writing my love for good food. Now that dining restrictions in Sydney have mostly been lifted, we can enjoy the food scene once again.

Chef Hide Suzuki

My homie Chef Hide Suzuki (ex Manpuku & Ichibandori) has recently opened a new Japanese restaurant called Sekka Dining at the new St Leonards Square complex. They officially opened on the 16th of June 2020. The shop’s vibe and monochromatic space is very modern. Based on the soft opening menu, Sekka is going for the usual izakaya approach but with a heavy focus on ramen. Hide-san is a ramen master after all, so this is something we would expect out of Sekka. I was lucky enough to be invited to their soft opening by Hide-san himself.

Gyoza

Karaage chicken with yuzukosho mayo

Renkon with mentaiko mayo

There will be a decent range of alcoholic beverages on offer from Asahi on tap, to sake and Japanese whisky. You will also find the usual izakaya fare like karaage chicken, gyoza, edamame, renkon chips (fried lotus root). There will be some specials like smoked salmon wasabi Caesar salad and Mackerel (with rice vinegar, shallots & daikon). I loved the kick from the yuzukosho mayo that comes with the crisped and juicy karaage chicken. The mentaiko mayo that comes with the renkon boasts a very sophisticated umami.

Tonkotsu ramen

Let’s talk about the ramen! So at the moment there will be three types of ramen on offer: Shio ramen, a spicy garlic chives ramen with chintan or light chicken & gyokai blend soup (thanks Taka for the info) and tonkotsu ramen.  Hide makes the most consistently great tasting tonkotsu broths in Sydney. So you can’t go wrong with ordering his thick or paitan tonkotsu ramen where umami packed liquid pork goodness hugs onto every strand of noodles with every slurp.

 

Shio ramen

Hands down, Sekka’s shio ramen is the best shio ramen in Sydney to date in my opinion. It is simple yet refined. Hide-san uses a pork and chicken blend for his chintan broth and a salt based seasoning to flavour the broth. It is clean yet it has complex layers of flavour and umami. The noodles are cooked more soft than usual to match the light broth so don’t be surprised as this is the usual practice even in Japan for light broth ramen. The ajitamago is flavoursome and the chashu is buttery, sweet and packed with umami. It also comes with menma, negi and roasted nori.

It’s not hard to get to as it’s along Pacific Highway and there are bus stops nearby. Sekka is a new and must visit restaurant in Sydney. The ramen alone will have you coming back for more. To Hide-san and the rest of the Sekka Dining team, Omedetou Gozaimasu on your shop opening!

*Ramen Raff was invited by Hide Suzuki as a guest of Sekka Dining.

Sekka Dining

St Leonards Square

480 Pacific Highway

St Leonards, Sydney

www.sekkadining.com.au

Hours:

Mon closed

Tues to Sat 12pm-2:30pm, 5:30pm-10pm

Sun 12pm-3pm, 5:30pm-9pm

Chaco Bar - Darlinghurst, Sydney

Chaco Bar is Sydney’s pride when it comes to ramen and yakitori. Keita Abe (owner and executive chef) and the rest of team Chaco has impressed Sydney-siders since opening in 2014 with their Fukuoka-style yakitori and modern take on ramen. They have recently announced that the yakitori side of Chaco will be moved at a new location on Victoria Street in Potts Point sometime in October 2019. 

The current Chaco site will still be around but will be become Chaco Ramen where they will be serving ramen for most likely 6 days a week (good news for ramen geeks like me).

Fat soy ramen (available during ramen service hours)

Here’s what we recently had at our last visit to Chaco:

Sashimi is normally available and we had some beautiful Kingfish. The fish had a clean taste, firm texture and accompanied by a ponzu-like sauce.

The gyozas ($18 for 6 pieces) here are plump and the pork filling is so damn flavoursome. It also has that perfect crisped caramelised bottoms.

There’s a good range of yakitori dishes on the menu (ranging from $3-$7 each). This includes spicy lamb, chicken thigh, chicken tail, gristle, chicken gizzard and even pork belly. All skewered meats are laced and grilled with umami rich tare (seasoning marinade). You’ll find nothing but smoky and deep flavoured meats with an array of flavours. I particularly love the fatty chicken tail and crunchy gristle.

Chaco Bar does Fukuoka style yakitori, which means they offer more than just skewered meats. They also have sharing plates and I recommend looking at their “specials” board. We tried 3 dishes from the Special menu:

The uni wagyu ($29) had thinly buttery slices of +9 grade Wagyu. There were also bursts of umami from the creamy uni (sea urchin gonads), parmesan cheese and lovely WA truffles. The serving of egg yolk added a nice extra texture to the whole dish.

The baby corn dish ($13) with Chaco butter was also amazing! The corn was so smoky and the butter sauce with squid ink added extra umami and sweetness.

The highlight for me was the M9 Wagyu steak with shiitake mushroom, housemade mustard and bone marrow ($32). The beautiful marbled Wagyu steak slices was amazingly tender, nicely seasoned and accompanied with a beautiful tare. I also loved the buttery marrow.

Chaco bar never ceases to amaze me with every visit. It is everything from the moody Japanese style tavern interior, the excellent service and the amazing food on offer. It’s an authentic piece of Japan in the heart of Sydney.

  

Chaco Bar

238 Crown Street 

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

(02) 9007 8352

Hours:

Yakitori

Tue-Sat 5:30-10:00pm

Ramen

Mon 5:30-9:00pm

Wed-Sat 11:30-2:30pm

Sun 11:30-2:30pm 5:00-8:30pm

Jazushi Ramen Lunch - Surry Hills, Sydney

What’s up fam?! Sorry for the long blog break. As y’all know, I was in the land of the rising sun for a while (posts of my Japan eats are coming on the blog soon). It’s only been over two weeks since we came back and I’m missing ramen already. Luckily, Sydney is not short in amazing ramen options.

Some of you may remember chef Shota Sato from Tokyo Bird and Osaka Trading & Co (also ex-head chef at Bar H). Since moving to Jazushi a few months ago to team up with his long time friend Yuki Ishikawa (owner of Jazushi), they have started doing ramen lunch sessions from Thursday to Saturday.  There’s shoyu ramen and tantanmen available on the menu along with some snacks like chashu nigiri and karaage chicken.

mmmmm se-abura

Shota’s shoyu ramen ($17) is pure comfort with a good dosage of umami. The broth is mainly chicken based with a blend of pork bones. The soy tare gives it complexity with a subtle depth and hints of sweetness. It also has the right amount of se-abura (pork back fat) for that extra layer of texture and flavour. The flat-ish noodles were cooked just right and the aburi chashu was smoky with sweet notes. It also came with negi, bean sprouts and a perfect ajitamago.

Their take on tantanmen ($17) is currently my favourite. Most tantanmen tend to be either too oily, too salty or so much heavy on the spices. Shota’s version at Jazushi is the most well-balanced and most premium tasting I have come across. The miso based broth though tends to lean slightly on the sweet side with nutty notes which is how I like it. It was also topped with flavoured pork mince and shiraga negi (or white hair leek as it resembles white hair).

Their aburi or grilled chashu nigiri here was amazing! Serving it in the form of a nigiri (3 pieces for $7.50) is genius.

The karaage chicken ($7) is one of the best that I’ve had. The coating was crisped and flavoursome whilst the meat was juicy.

*Ramen Raff was invited as a guest of Jazushi via Doq.

Jazushi

145 Devonshire St Surry Hills 2010 Sydney

02 9699 8977

jazushi@gmail.com

Ramen Lunch: 12pm to 2:30pm Thu - Sat

Crescent Bar Ramen, Sydney (Aka Mikazuki Ramen)

I love the ramen community in Sydney! Everyone is very supportive of each other specially towards the ramen shops. A new shop in Sydney CBD has been brought to my attention early this week by Chef Tomoyuki and my homie Frankie of Mr & Mrs Chopsticks.

(Note: They are now known as Crescent Bar Ramen)
Mikazuki Ramen (not to be confused with Mikazuki Restaurant in Parramatta & Strathfield) is a hidden ramen pop-up shop located on George Street in Sydney CBD. Chef Tsuyoshi and his team will take over Club Crescent for the next 3 months Monday to Friday lunch only. Club Crescent is a hidden underground bar near Flight Centre and Hilton Hotel. The space itself has a very vintage Tokyo bar & lounge vibe. I recently visited Mikazuki with my Hopeless Ramentic Squad. Vivian, Priscilla and I actually felt like we were back in Tokyo because the rest of the customers were Japanese.

There are 4 ramen choices on offer: Chicken & pork (with a choice of soy, miso or salt bonito tare), salt lime corriander, salt shrimp and niboshi. Each ramen already has toppings and the “Toppings” section on the menu means extras. There’s also donburi’s available like pork chashu, pork mince ginger and pork garlic, which comes in large or mini size.

The Anchovy (niboshi) ramen ($15) was insane! If you’re a big fan of that strong umami flavours then this ramen is for you. The broth reminded me of Shichisai at Hatchobori’s soup which is Kitakata-style. Heavy on the niboshi in a meat soup base I’m guessing. The consistency was light but heavy and complex in flavour. The noodles are cooked medium and quite similar to some ramen shops in Sydney. It was topped with 1 whole ajitsuke tamago (ajitama), a big chunk of super tender & tasty chashu, chopped onions, kikugare and a massive shredded nori moulded together. The onion was perfect for cutting through all that fishy umami in the broth. The ajitama was nicely seasoned with hints of sweetness and a slightly runny yolk.

The soy chicken and pork ramen ($15) is pretty much a Kyoto-style kotteri ramen. Super thick almost gravy-like broth had a good balance of chicken and pork flavours with sweet notes. Umami factor was around medium level. Toppings included are chashu, green onion, 1 whole ajitama, and kikurage.

The salt shrimp ramen ($15) was very unique and reminded me of the prawn ramen shops in Osaka. The broth was mildly cloudy and had a suprisingly balanced amount of prawn umami and the salt factor was just there to bring out the goodness of the prawns. The toppings included were chashu, ajitama, onion, nori and kikurage. Again, I really appreciate the use of onion as a component to cut through the umami and saltiness in the broth.

I would definitely come back here a few more times as much as I can before the pop-up ends. Service is friendly and fast. The concept here is pretty much in line with what’s trending in Japan right now. Hit them up ASAP guys!

Mikazuki Ramen
Basement,
468-472 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Monday to Friday lunch only
11:30am to 2:30pm
last order 2:00pm