Hakata-maru Darling Square, Haymarket

My favourite Sydney Hakata ramen shop is back in Haymarket with their range of Fukuoka inspired ramen! I was saddened when Hakata-maru closed their Market City shop a while back. Thankfully, they scored a spot across from The Exchange (on Nicole Walk) at Darling Square. 

I’ve always liked their no-nonsense approach to their ramen and the price point is probably one of the best in Sydney. The space is like a contemporary tavern. They have communal tables,
two areas of window counter seating near the kitchen and lots of outdoor tables for two.

The usual Hakata-maru ramen choices are available on the menu including the white tonkotsu ($12.50). This is a classic Hakata-style ramen that uses a shio (salt) based tare to season the pork bone (tonkotsu) broth and because of that, the broth retains its milky colour and consistency. The shio tare brings out more of the porky flavour and umami. It also has that classic thin noodles cooked katame (or al dente) and topped with chashu, kikugare, negi and nori.

From all the Hakatamaru dishes that I’ve had in the past and present, my personal favourite is the bonito shoyu tonkotsu ramen ($16.50).The noodles used are the standard curly type used by most ramen shops but cooked katame. The broth is soy based with a double soup of katsuobushi (bonito) broth and tonkotsu broth. The broth had a lot of umami and depth with some smoky notes from the bonito broth. Topping includes chashu, bean sprouts, negi, nori and half ajitamago (flavour egg).

If you want your tonkotsu ramen with depth minus the smoky fishy flavour, try their shoyu tonkotsu ramen ($16.50). It pretty much has the same toppings as the shoyu niboshi ramen but the difference is in the seasoning. As the name states, the broth is seasoned with soy tare that gives depth and complexity to the pork bone broth and with added sweet notes.

The Darling Square shop offers more than just ramen. They currently also have curry rice dishes and sides like karaage chicken and gyozas. Soon they will also have Japanese inspired gua baos like kakuni bao and karaage bao at $5.50 each.

Hakatamaru Darling Square
Nicole Walk

35 Tumbalong Boulevard

Sydney NSW 2000
Soft opening hours:
7 days 11:30 pm to 2:30pm, 5:30pm to 8:30pm

RaRa Ramen, Redfern

There’s a new ramen joint in town! Redfern is a growing culinary hub in Sydney and is the perfect gallery where the new RaRa ramen shop can showcase their art of ramen.

  

Scott Gault

Scott Gault is the man behind RaRa Redfern and a fellow ramen crusher like myself. Scott travelled different prefectures in Japan to train and get consultation to create the best possible noodles, tare, toppings and broth for Rara’s ramen. The space looks like a high end izakaya and I’m digging the ramen neon sign. The noodles they use is Hakata-style, which means it’s low hydration, thin and quick to whip up. All noodles are made in-house daily. You get a choice of three types of ramen: Tonkotsu ramen, pork shoyu and vegetarian ramen. We tried the tonkotsu and shoyu ramen.

First of all, I need to give a huge shout out to Scott for his insanely good Hakata-style noodles. Scott cooks the noodles legit katame (usual way Hakata noodles is cooked), which is a tad more firm than al dente. The noodles cooked further within the broth. The tonkotsu ramen’s ($16.90) pork bone broth is white in colour and creamy in consistency. Scott uses shio tare (salt) seasoning just to bring out the pork flavour goodness rather than giving it complexity. The umami factor is around medium level. Again, this is a typical Hakata-style practice to season the broth. Toppings include  kikurage, negi, menma, 1/2 hanjuku tamago and an insanely delicious aburi chashu. Although the menu says Ajitsuke egg, the tamago we got were not flavoured. Having said that, the eggs were perfectly cooked with a slightly runny yolk.

We also tried his pork shoyu ramen ($16.90). The pork soy broth had more umami than the tonkotsu and it also had peppery notes. It was topped with aburi chashu, bean sprouts, negi and 1/2 hanjuku tamago. It's definitely a refined bowl of ramen and also my favourite.

I’m glad to see a ramen joint that puts more emphasis on the noodles that they use. It is afterall a big part of ramen. Service is also quite fast. Go check them out guys!

Rara Redfern
60b Regent St
Redfern NSW

Hours:
Tuesday to Wednesday 12pm-2:30pm, 5pm-9:30pm

Thursday to Saturday
12pm-2:30pm, 5pm-10pm

Sunday 12pm-2:30pm, 5pm-8:30pm

Closed on Monday

Gogyo Ramen Sydney, Surry Hills

I had many memorable bowls of ramen in Japan. The first to make an impact on my palate has gotta be Gogyo’s Kyoto ramen shop. I heard the same statement from many other Aussies that’s visited that shop in the last few years. Their signature Kogashi (burnt) shoyu and miso ramen has so much umami and smokiness that you are sure to leave their shop amazed.

Then December 2017 came and the Ippudo group has graced Sydney with Gogyo Ramen’s presence in our great city. The ex-Salaryman spot was taken over by Gogyo. Some of the fittings were kept but the shop was transformed to a moody chic Scandanavian fused with a posh modern Japanese wine house looking space. If you sit by the counter, you can watch the chefs char, caramelised or burn (whatever you want to call it) the miso or soy tare that’s used in their Kogashi ramen.

The gyozas ($14) here would pair nicely with your ramen. It had nice caramelised crusts and the filling was flavoursome.

You can also get a sweet and umami packed nasu dengaku ($12.50). The chunks of eggplant were crisped to caramelised perfection on the outside and super tender on the inside.

Kogashi sorcery

The Kogashi miso ramen ($18) is my favourite at the Kyoto shop and is also my favourite here. I feel like the miso carries the sweet smoky profile better and bursts with more intense umami in the chicken broth. My only criticism is that the broth could be heavier and more dense just like the Kyoto shop’s version and the egg yolk in the half umami egg (or ajitama) could be a tad more runny. Having said that, the broth still has amazing flavours and the chashu is still delicious and tender. The thin katame low hydration noodles here handles the heavy broth extremely well. Love the bite on their katame noodles. You also get toppings like nori, cabbage and naruto (fish cake).

The Kogashi shoyu ramen ($18) on the other hand is a little more light on the palate with nutty notes in the broth but still packs umami. Thin katame (al dente) noodles is also used and topped with half umami egg, cabbage, naruto and nori.

I didn’t know what to expect with their tonkotsu ramen ($17) as it’s normally not a Gogyo specialty. But damn I was caught by surprise as it was damn good! The pork broth was not too heavy but was flavoursome enough with a good balance of fat in the form of pulps of seabura (pork back fat) that slowly disintegrated on the broth. To be honest, I prefer this over their parent company’s (Ippudo) tonkotsu ramen. It had thin katame noodles, a super buttery and tasty chashu, menma, naruto, cabbage and negi. I especially loved the caramelised edges of the chashu.

I’m just glad that we have a piece of Japan in Sydney like no other. This is a must try when you’re in the area.

Gogyo Surry Hills
52-54 Albion Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Opening Hours:
7 Days
11:30am to 2:30pm, 5:30pm to 9:00pm

Slurpfest by Rising Sun Workshop: Haru Inukai Night

I miss Japan! Especially the food and shopping. But you know what else I miss? Haru Inukai's ramen! Ramen Ikkyu was loved by many and probably the most innovative ramen shop in Sydney back then. Luckily for some of us, we got to try another one of Haru-san's creations at his collab with Rising Sun Workshop for Slurpfest! 

150 hungry ramen loving humans came for the night. It was the busiest slurpfest night to date but team Rising Sun and Haru handled it like it was a piece of cake. Heaps of karaage chicken, kingfish tostadas and radish sesame salads were making its way to tables along with beers and cocktails. 

Then there's Haru-san's truffle ramen:

I've had a version of his amazing tonkotsu truffle ramen before and everyone is glad that it made an appearance at Slurpfest! The springy housemade noodles were cooked futsu and it included toppings like a perfect tender juicy thick slices of sous vide chicken chashu, rockets,menma and ajitsuke tamago. The soup was a smooth and thick tonkotsu broth with potato, truffle and shoyu tare. The amount of truffle was just right and added sweetness and light nutty earthy notes to the broth. The starch from the potato gave it extra body and density. It could do with less rockets but nevertheless, it was an amazing bowl and I crushed it!

Chef Haru and Chef O-san (His turn next Sunday!)

RSW Head Chef Nick Smith and Chef Haru

Haru-san still has the magic ramen touch and his innovative prowess still shines. It was indeed an amazing Rising Sun Workshop x Haru Inukai Slurpfest night!

Click here for my behind the scenes video of the on Youtube

Ramen Raff attended Slurpfest as a collaborator of Rising Sun Workshop.