No Ramen No Life. With a motto like that printed on their napkins and on the back of the staff’s shirts, you better believe that Yasaka Ramen takes ramen seriously.
2017
To start, we have drinks. On the left is the Guava Calpis ($4.50) and on the right is Mango Calpis ($4.50). Both taste like the flavour of Golden Circle’s Guava Nectar and Mango Nectar, but the signature sweet yoghurt flavour of Calpis is near undetectable. Not pictured is T’s Lemon Tea ($2.00, with a ramen order), which is lightly sweet with a mellow lemon flavour.
I indulge my soft spot for soft-boiled eggs and decide on the Egg Ramen ($14.80) with Yasaka original tonkotsu soup seasoned with soy sauce paste and topped with chashu, spring onion and bamboo shoots.
The tonkotsu soup at Yasaka Ramen is suitably thick, with the head chef having worked at Gumshara Ramen, the food court restaurant famous for its thick soup. The thickness – the kind that congeals – opacks a depth of flavour that you don’t find in thinner soups. The noodles are made out front behind a glass window and also of the thicker kind with a moreish chewy texture, while the chashu is tender and the soft boiled egg is perfectly gooey, soaking up the flavour from the soup.
T decides on their Kakuni Ramen ($16.80) that swaps the chashu out for simmered pork soft bone. The pork is deliciously melt-in-your-mouth.
As an entree (that arrived well and truly after we’d received out ramen), we try their Karaage ($8.50 for 6 pieces) with ponzu mayo.
We’d initially wanted to their the ikayaki (a squid pancake famous to Ōsaka), but were told that it was no longer sold even though it was advertised on their menu downstairs. Anyway!
The pieces of chicken arrived barely cooked, many still pink in the middle. The pieces were small at about 3cm, and it looks as if bulked up the dish with an overly generous spring onion salad with very few actual salad leaves. That aside the batter was crispy, although the pieces of chicken thigh weren’t as juicy as we’d liked.
And finally, dessert with Green Tea Ice Cream ($5.00). We’d ordered the roasted green tea ice cream, but the Japanese waitress had such poor command of the English language, that we ended up receiving green tea instead. We’d waited some time for them to arrive that we couldn’t be bothered kicking up a fuss.
The ice cream was icy with a slight sweetness and mellow green tea flavour. Pleasantly, there wasn’t a strong dairy flavour, but the sweetness and strong chocolate flavour from the wafer stick overwhelmed the subtle green tea notes when eaten together.
Yasaka Ramen does indeed take ramen seriously and it shows. Come here for the ramen, but I’d pass on the entrees. Groups of three or more can expect a wait during around midday, as they only accommodate groups in their upstairs seating area.
2018
With our favourite ramen restaurant in the city, Ramen Bar Goku closed on Mondays, N and I celebrated my birthday by revisiting Yasaka Ramen. Yasaka Ramen is the restaurant with the tagline, ‘No Ramen No Life’.
In the mood for something different, I try the Tsukemen ($15.00) with miso dipping sauce.
The noodles are made from whole grain wheat, which is different from the noodles they use for their other ramen and evident in the speckled appearance of the noodles. The noodles have a delectably chewy texture.
The dipping sauce has a healthy miso flavour, with just the right consistency – neither too thin nor thick – for sticking to the noodles. Overall though, as expected from miso, the sauce is very salty and becomes too much mid-way through the noodles. It’s an interesting dish, but not likely something I’d order again.
As for N, she tires their Black Garlic Ramen ($16.00), a Yasaka original made from a mix of squid ink and their signature pork bone broth and added garlic for a ‘tangy flavoured black coloured soup’.
N liked the flavourful soup and the generous amount of wood ear, bean sprouts and bamboo, although she’d have enjoyed the addition of an egg over the pork, which was less tender than she remembers from previous visits. As for the squid ink, it created a dramatic appearance to the soup, but did not do much in terms of flavour.
For dessert, we can’t go past the Karinto Manjyu ($6.00), which is a creative ‘manjyu’ take on karinto, a traditional Japanese snack food that’s sweet and deep-fried, made primarily of flour, yeast, and brown sugar.
These manjyu are a sure reminder of their source of inspiration, with a deep-fried, crispy outside with a deliciously caramelised flavour that hides a smooth red bean paste within. They’re a touch oily, but they’re very satisfying to eat.
And finally, N revisits her quest for Hōjicha Ice Cream ($5.00). The hōjicha has a deeply roasted green tea flavour, although it’s more icy than creamy for an ice cream.
Yasaka Ramen is at 126 Liverpool St, Sydney NSW 2000.