Yasaka Ramen

Last year when I would occasionally get a lift from uni to Town Hall, I would drive past this ramen place. I didn't even know it was a popular ramen joint in Sydney (I'm still 'under-educated' about Asian food in my home city). Got there on a Tuesday night at around 7pm and there was a line, but only about a 15-20min wait so not too long. I thought they only had downstairs bar seating, but turns out they have tables up stairs.

 

food spread

Yasaka ramen w/ tonkotsu shio base-$14.80

I normally go for the shio base as a baseline comparison for other ramen places. The broth is one of the thickest I've ever had. The first few sips are good, but if you try to drink it, it's way to thick, heavy and salty. 

Grilled kakuni ramen w/ tonkatsu miso base (signature ramen): delicious slow cooked soft pork bone flame grilled to give it a crispy texture on the outside while still soft and juicy in the inside-$19.80

Two large chunks of meat here which were so flavourful. The miso base was also tastier but more salty. I liked the bits of corn to give it some sweetness and relief from all the sodium.

ramen lift

The noodles are a bit harder and have more bite to them. I think I prefer a slightly less dense noodle, but really depends on personal preference. My favourite is still the Micheline star Tsuta from Tokyo. It's a lighter base and noodles were perfect for me. I guess different regions in Japan do slightly different ramen, so if you like thick broths, this is the place to go. 

Gogyo

I've been to Japan twice, but have only visited Tokyo, not Kyoto where this ramen store originates from, so when a friend suggested we go after an afternoon clinic, I was definitely keen to try. I've also been to Hong Kong multiple times, but there is so much food there that I also never tried this ramen there either. 

I wasn't expecting much, but was pretty surprised at the decor inside. It gives off that 'expensive restaurant' feel, even though you're only eating ramen. Yes, this ramen costs more than your cheap Chinatown ramen (don't get me wrong, those Sydney favourites still on my list to eat just haven't had time). Made a booking for Monday night, and it was quite busy after 6pm, with all the bar tables and high tables with stools full. They give you bibs to wear which I thought was quite cute. Normally you have bibs if you eat ribs. It's nice to protect your work clothes if the noodles does splash in the broth.

Kogashi Miso: charred miso base, original chicken broth, half umami egg, pork belly chasu. Noodles: #16F medium-thin (low hydrolysis)-$18

ramen lift

This is definitely worth trying at least once. It's a very unique sort of broth as you get that burnt after taste. The broth was more oily and because of that burnt aftertaste, it's hard to drink the broth after you finish it. Normally I don't drink it because it's too salty, but here the burnt miso aftertaste rather than being salty is only nice with the noodles. The only time I've ever fully drank ramen broth was in a Michelin ramen restaurant in Tokyo. The noodles held together well and had an al dente texture, since there's less water and more flour. Was hoping for a larger slice of pork, but it was super soft. There isn't a lot of noodles in the bowl compared to other ramen places, but I guess that allows you stomach space to try the side dishes.

Chilli Shoyu-$17

Tried a tiny spoonful of this, and it was enough to make meet my spicy tolerance. Apparently this ramen tasted really fresh because of the coriander and tomatoes in it.

Karaage chicken-$16

I normally don't order fried chicken unless other people want it. This was crispy on the outside, and super juicy and moist on the inside. Worth trying this Jap style fried chicken. You get 6 pieces which is sort of an odd number to share.

Gogyo Original Gyoza-$14

inside

Asked the waitress for popular side dishes and she recommended this, and also said it was larger than your average gyoza. Well, tbh, it's smaller than your average gyoza, and it's not cheap for 5 pieces. It could have also been crispier. The meat inside was seasoned well without being too salty, and the skin was really thin, so I guess you're paying for the freshness and I'm assuming it's handmade by the chefs here. They have heaps of other sides to try compared to other ramen places.

Open kitchen

They have 8 chefs which is a lot for ramen, then again there is more seating here. Although in Japan, the award winning ones only have 3 chefs serving 10-15 people at a time, but they constantly work the whole day. The service was quite attentive at the beginning and they kept refilling water, but once it got busy, it was hard to get more water and waited a bit to pay the bill.

bar

I don't drink alcohol much at restaurants, but here they don't allow you to try the glass before you purchase the bottle. Even though a friend did get a glass, they didn't pour it in front of the table, which apparently is what happens at other restaurants. Not sure if this is a Japanese thing of not pouring the bottle in front of the customers?

Menu

Entrance

First Escape Room

Thanks for coming guys! Birthdays are really just an excuse for catchups. Can finally say I've done an escape room. Yes we just escaped! So lucky to have smart friends since all I did was really wing it lol. It was more frustrating than fun tbh, mainly cause it just started all dark and really just had to feel everything. I found something and it said this escape room was the middle level of difficulty compared to the other ones there at King Street Wharf. So many props/bits and pieces inside which were useless in the end...I'm pretty sure all our hands were covered in dust trying to feel around the whole room in the dark whilst utilising the tiny iPad light. It was so dark we couldn't even scan the QR codes to get a clue. Thank goodness they picked up the phone at reception so we called for help...Safe to say I cannot do mental arithmetics and the music didn't help lol. It was still great fun spending on Monday night and just seeing more than half the group (: The one at the Rocks sound really fun.

Matcha Ramen w/ bulgogi beef-$17

Decided to go here since Dandelion said she drank all the soup here. Normally I don't drink the soup since it's way too salty, except for the Michelin ramen restaurant in Tokyo which used truffle in the broth. It's a really interesting concept using matcha in soya milk, and creating a vegetarian broth (since almost all good ramen use meat in the broth). I liked the vegetarian better since you could taste the flavour of the broth more, whereas the marinated beef flavour over powered the broth. Would have liked more matcha in it since it was super subtle. The noodles were alright, but some were in chunks. 

Ed it's been a while: lemon, coffee and olive oil mousse cake finished w/ a coffee glaze and yellow chocolate pieces

inside

Thanks Dandelion for organising! Wasn't expecting a cake haha. Loved the flavours of this one since it's not too sweet. Coffee could've been more bitter, and olive oil flavour a bit stronger, but loved the acidity in the base.

Also, found out tonight that when you're taking photos on iPhone, you can hold on the brightness and adjust it up and down. Learn something new every day.

Dessert Kitchen

This dessert cafe is actually based in HK. Even though I've been to HK multiple times, I actually haven't been to or heard of this cafe. Thanks to a friend for recommending this place for dessert, it was pretty obvious from photos that I would want to come here.

The menu is quite extensive and there a lot of staff making the desserts. They have parfaits, sundaes, shaved ice and heaps of asian style drinks. Decided to go with their most popular options. I would have liked to try more, but our stomachs wouldn't have been able to fit more in.

 

Blue ramen-$10.80

Look at that vibrant (artificial) colour! It's essentially flavourless gelatine, with some melon scoops and asian sweet potato balls with some milky shaved ice. The ice melted very quickly and wasn't milky enough. There peach syrup on the side, and you can add to taste. It's kind of messy to eat, and probably not worth the price for some ice and jelly, but it's a fun concept and kind of cool to eat artificially coloured food in a different sort of ramen.

 

kitchen

Wouldn't mind coming back to Chinatown to try their other desserts. I hardly ever go to this side of town...

 

first time having Emperor puff's

Manpuku

Ramen near uni is always good, especially if you have ramen cravings.

Gara Shoyu: soy based chicken soup, pork belly, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, shallots, seaweed sheet, homemade Manpuku original noodles-$13.50

Uni students also get extra noodles as well, but it didn't feel like this did have extra noodles, just felt like a normal bowl of ramen in terms of quantity. Also was hoping for bigger pieces of pork belly, and more toppings. Flavour wise it was good, could see the oil in the broth but it was clear. I think I prefer the original pork broth, since the chicken with soy sauce was a bit salty after a while. Ramen was a bit more on the al dente side. I think for ramen, I prefer it a bit softer. People there were really friendly, but this ramen is more towards the average side and not mind-blowing.

First exam done today, and now 12 days until the next one (minus 3 days of work in between), which leaves me 9 days to study 2 subjects, and one of the subjects the stuff you learn/study won't even be tested...so no idea what to expect...well the lecturer/doctor said if you didn't study you can still scrape a pass, but it's just a lot of management/work up/logic i guess...

Managed to recover so not sick during the exam. I wasn't actually that sick, but i hardly get sick, so any runny nose annoys me. 

today's exam was only an hour, which isn't good since there isn't enough time. i had so much more to write, just spent too much time thinking initially and didn't write fast enough. maybe i should've used my good pen...no time to even check calculations as well. the test itself wasn't super hard, it was just hard to get everything down within the time limit, and doesn't help that the professor marks hard...

now to study therapeutics...

my stuvac has consisted on having 3 cups a tea per day, while sleeping until 10am (sleep before 12am as well...). having avo on toast with ham, cheese on egg makes me happy, or even in a wrap. lunch at home isn't so bad, just can't plate it up nicely like cafes (or more like not bothered to try/no times). also, don't ever re brew lipton tea since it tastes worse than water. re brewing t2 is still ok

chanoma: azuki and matcha-$3.90

red bean was a bit on the sweeter side, and matcha not as strong as i remembered (or maybe i've just had too much bitter matcha that i'm used to it). soft serve more icy as well, but 10c cheaper than Aqua S across from it lol. they also have red cones as well, think that would look nicer but i didn't even notice until my friend asked for one. also went for lunch after to relax (need good food to study), but food was average (post about this place probably in a month's time at this rate). checked out the T2 DIY chai which is $40, calculated you save $6, so not sure if worth...but the tin is so pretty and the concept is pretty fun. although i can technically mix my tea's together and have my own homemade-DIY chai. only during exams/saturdays i have time to make tea/coffee/chai/matcha etc. normally on a uni day or when i work there isn't enough time.

and just for blogging purpose/keeping track of all the fat i've consumed... (already review these on Zomato)

Burgers Anonymous: Heisenburger-$7.50

They had a pop up in the city so half price, normally $15, but on the website they have it as $18...took over 15mins to get this, and missed my bus..not worth it. couldn't taste anything special in the bacon (apparently it's been double smoked, triple glazed), but there wasn't much either so couldn't taste it. the sauce was kind of a 1000 island dressing but sweeter and a bit mustardy...

Ichiban Boshi: Miso Ramen-$9.90

Missed my bus so got this (and missed it again). Ended up waiting 15min for a table, (arrived at 2), then another 15mmin for it to come. I thought this was mainly pre cooked, and they just use their super fast pots to cook the noodles...It was decent, not overly salty until the end, and noodles had a firm texture. pork was really good as well, but too cheap to pay for extra.

okay, enough procrastinating, back to study

Tokyo Ramen

Decided to finally try something at the food court for lunch break at work. Understand why lunch breaks are half an hour, by the time you decide on something, line up, wait for it to cook, then try to enjoy eating it, half and hour easily goes by.

Kitchen is open with three tables inside the shop


menu

Negi-Shoyu Ramen: stir fried roast pork and shallots (without chilli)-$12

Technically it's not really a cheap eat, but you can definitely tell between good and bad quality by looking at it without tasting it. All that oil kind of put me off, and when you ate it, just the gross oily feel lingers on your lips. Bits of pork and quite a lots of the shallots were burnt. Probably msg seasoned, but I guess that's what you expect for food court style here (unlike Chinatown food court with more authentic broths and ramen). Opted to have no chilli in this. The popular options were more Chinese than Japanese dishes. They have quite a lot of typical Chinese food here as well. This ramen was just too salty, oily.  I guess it was a big portion with quite a lot of meat, but still quality isn't good.

One Tea Lounge and Grill

Have been wanting to try out this place for well a long time now, and finally tried the new menu for freeee, thanks to YO Xmas party (and sponsored by CooperVision). How ironic, haven't had time to attend external event except for the last one of the year...Many photos to come, didn't bring my dslr, so lighting from phone not as great...

Matcha Fries with Sambal Miso Sauce

Nice way to start the night with some shareable snacks. You can see the matcha, but couldn't really taste it. The not spicy sambal style sauce really gave the fries flavour, even dipped my fork in it to have more of the sauce.

open-ish kitchen

I love when chefs open up their kitchen, shows their confidence in their cooking, with nothing to hide, and free entertainment. Although you can't see it whilst sitting, it's still interesting to see when you're standing/walking around

menu

The food was to be shared in pairs, but our table had 3 people, since I think there was an odd number of people who attended. For most meals, we had 2 sets to share between us.

seafood ceviche and octopus salad

love this liquid nitrogen for theatre

The octopus in the scallop shell (which made it confusing since the scallop was the middle one) was definitely the favourite.  The tropical fruit and yuzu dressing complemented the scallop and John Dory nicely, without being too overpowering. Love fresh (slightly raw) seafood.

Matcha Scampi Tiger Prawn Martini

Interesting little diy, and letting us play with our food. The seafood is so fresh, with juicy prawns. The soy sauce didn't look like it had wasabi since it was so clear, and you could only taste the wasabi when you dipped a spoon into it. Apart from that, it was a perfect balance of soy sauce and wasabi for a sushi roll. Couldn't really taste the matcha (although it was visible) on the scampi, but it was so juicy and fresh I don't think it mattered if it did have the matcha or not.

action shot

Miso Pipi Udon Pot

Whole table agreed this was probably the best seafood soup base ever-scampi flavoured so prominent, right balance of the sweetness and seasoning using fresh ingredients. You could taste the effort and love put into it. Not oily either, so we ended up drinking the rest of the soup. It was amazing. There was also over 8 pipis in each pot cooked perfectly. Udon was a bit tricky to get out of the pot without splashing it a bit...We were super satisfied with this (especially waiting over an hour from the previous course)

Ramen Beef Slider

The infamous ramen burger which I tried at the 2013 Night Noodle Markets. The wagyu beef was so juicy, and cooked perfectly as it was still slightly pink in ht emiddle. The ramen itself is a bit burnt, but you expect it to be since it's been fried in heaps of oil. It is super oily, almost impossible to cut in half (as we had an extra one to share between 3 people), and not #cleaneating. Fingers are covered in oil, but it's worth it for the crunchy ramen 'bread'. Wish there were more veggies to balance out all that oil

The chef: David Yip ft 'Flaming Christmas Tree' Demo

fireee

This involved stacking a few glasses and wine bottle on top of two cocktails: sour apple flavoured and strawberry. One day I'll come back for cocktails and drinks. Really wanted to get a drink, but I knew I would be get super full from the food. David pours alcohol with lights up once the fire contacts it, and the drink at the bottom gets some of the alcohol as well.

Flaming Wagyu Volcano

Fire lit by the chef (:

Love flaming fire on food! The onion in the middle gives height to the flame, where the poured some sauce on it then lit it with a lighter. Loved the sauce teriyaki sauce with a hint of wasabi. Wagyu beef so soft, and definitely top notch stuff. 

Lava Stone Grill 9+ Wagyu Beef 120gm

This one was more diy, and it's quite hard to tell which pieces are rare/medium, some smaller pieces were properly well done or even over cooked, as it was a small grill and hard to fit everything on/control the cooking. It was still fun though, and it came with three dipping sauces. We all liked the yakiniku (grilled meat) sauce the best, super flavoursome without actually being salty/artificially seasoned. The matcha salt only had a hint of match, and the hollandaise also had a hint of green tea, so would have liked more tea flavour in it, but was still delicious with the good quality meat.

leaning tower of glasses

People from the public also came in for cocktail drinks, with this special demo costing around $60ish (I think). The stack above ended up falling, breaking at least 3 glasses. Expensive cocktails, but it comes with a show and broken glass. One day when I have the money/time, I'll come back for drinks, hopefully. So interesting mixing tea, alcohol, and liquid nitrogen together...

Yuzu Duck with Matcha Peach

Duckkk, one of ym favourite proteins. So delicious with a unique pairing of yuzu flavour and still pink in the middle. Again, would have preferred more matcha on the peach. We only got one dish to share between 3 people, would have liked another one since it's duck.

Infamous Ice Cream Baoger

Finally tried one of these! The normal flavours of green tea, black sesame, and lychee(?), but the new ones on the menu are Ferrero Rocher which chocolate ice cream and miso caramel. Personally I would prefer green tea since I'm not a big chocolate fan, but this was so damn good. White chocolate no too sweet, topped with a smasher chocolate, and drizzled with the miso caramel. The sauce is similar to salted caramel, but the saltiness isn't that noticeable unless you just taste it by itself (or maybe my slider just didn't have enough sauce). The deep fried baos was just deep fried oily goodness. Messy but fun to eat. 

We left early before the last dish (not on the menu)-Watermelon Christmas Tree. We saw David carefully walk to another table open to public, with carefully stacked watermelons forming a xmas tree, which was slightly slanted, but I'm sure it made it to the table fine. Overall, definitely top quality food and service. Changed the plates and cutlery almost after every dish. Was so full after that night. Hope to be back to try more things on the menu and definitely the drinks (: