Mon - Tue 11am-5pm, Wed - Sat 11am-9pm, Sun 12-4pm
Because of my love for Kenzan at GPO, I often overlook Ramen Ya, which sits right beside Kenzan in that little laneway between the GPO and the new Myer Building. I also used to giggle at their sign which claims they are "Melbourne's Best Noodle Restaurant" (still on the header of their homepage!) and boasts of "Melbourne's Best Ramen" . Surely with a claim like that you're looking to have someone shoot you down, as those are certainly big boots to fill!
Having sampled their ramen a few times, (and now that they seem to have taken down the "Best Ramen" sign), I have to say that, much like Momotaro Rahmen , Ramen Ya may not serve THE best bowl of ramen you've ever had, but they can certainly do a decent enough one at a price that won't break the bank!
Bowls of Ramen and Bento boxes are all $10 at Ramen Ya, which is pretty average for a bowl of noodles in Melbourne these days. Their "specialty" is a charshu ramen. There are 3 soup bases to choose from : tonkotsu, miso and shoyu. The kids shared a charshu ramen in tonkotsu soup (which of course I tried!). The was a good size bowl of noodle with a pleasant and smooth tasting soup base. The charshu was thinly sliced and ticks all the boxes.
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| Charshu Ramen with Tonkatsu Soup |
Their Gyoza Ramen came with steamed gyozas. They were quite nice but the pan fried ones were far superior - fortunately we had also ordered a side of those. The dipping sauce was a perfect balance of salty and sour, which lots of places don't get right in their gyoza sauce.
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| Gyoza Ramen with Tonkotsu Soup |
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| Side serve of six gyozas with plenty of dipping sauce |
I felt like rice on the day so I went for one of the bento boxes. The Katsu Curry Bento Box is not spectacular but the curry was a very pleasant Japanese curry that even my kids liked. The side of 3 gyoza were above average. The "vegetable" was some marinated seaweed, and although my kids love this and stole the side dish from me, it would have been more fitting to have a side salad to offset the curry.
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| Katsu Curry Bento Box |
There are plenty of tables and the set up is much like that of Kenzan. You can just pull the pram right up to the tables. Again their main patrons are business lunchers, and we've only ever been on the weekend, but the staff were happy enough to get us spare cutlery and crockery, and the other patrons were quite tolerant of the kids being around.
Eat. Play. Shop. Recommends : The Charshu Ramen and the Bento Box we sampled were both very nice. You can "upsize" for an extra $4 for a side of 3 gyozas or salad, and a green tea.
Give it a Miss : if you want anything else but ramen or bento box. As you can see there really isn't much else here!
Toilets : Around the corner, down the lift to basement toilets, with change facilities
Highchair : Nope, but they have these great disposable bibs, the ones they give you at rib houses. Great for kids learning to eat noodles....!!!
Very nice review! Just a couple of things to note... First of all, the soup base is tonkotsu. Tonkatsu is breaded pork cutlet. Also, the marinated seaweed is a traditional Japanese side called "wakame". :)
ReplyDeleteThanx for the tip Chocopaws! Typo fixed and updated in the blog! Looove tonkAtsu so I think my fingers just automatically type the word......
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